Teaching Young EFL Learners New Vocabulary: A Comparison of the Efficiency of Traditional and Personalized TPR Strategies.

This paper proposes a personalized teaching strategy based on Total Physical Response (TPR) to acquire new words. TPR combines target language items with semantically corresponding gestures conducive to learners understanding and memorizing them by repeatedly executing commands from their teachers. One limitation of TPR is that it does not allow students any freedom to creatively execute an order in ways that seem to be more interesting and meaningful to them. To address these disadvantages, we have integrated the TPR teaching strategy with a personalized teaching strategy. The participants of the experimental group (EG) performed their movements creatively; they integrated the movements with the target words to produce video productions. The participants in the control group (CG) followed the dance video supplied with the textbook. The results of the study demonstrated that the personalized TPR teaching strategy is effective and helpful for recalling the meaning of English vocabulary for higher-level students. The results of this study can benefit K-12 teachers to determine and incorporate best TPR practices for students of different levels. Plain language summary: The purpose of this paper is to propose a personalized teaching strategy that combines Total Physical Response (TPR) with creative movements to acquire new words. The aim is to improve vocabulary learning and recall for higher-level students. The study integrates TPR with personalized teaching strategies. In the experimental group (EG), participants performed creative movements and produced video productions that integrated the movements with target words. In the control group (CG), participants followed a dance video provided with the textbook. The study compared the effectiveness of the personalized TPR strategy with the traditional approach. The results of the study demonstrate that the personalized TPR teaching strategy is effective and helpful for recalling the meaning of English vocabulary for higher-level students. The integration of creative movements and personalized video productions enhanced vocabulary development. The findings of this study have broader implications for language educational techniques. Incorporating personalized TPR practices can enhance vocabulary development and improve student performance. K-12 teachers can benefit from these results to determine and incorporate the best TPR practices for students of different levels. One limitation of TPR mentioned in the paper is that it restricts students' freedom to creatively execute orders in more interesting and meaningful ways. Additionally, the study selected a limited number of target words due to availability and time constraints, which suggests the need for larger database studies to ensure the validity of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]