Effect of Total Physical Response Method On Students Vocabulary in Secondary School

ABSTRACT This study focused on the Effect of Total Physical Response Method on Student’s Achievement in English Vocabulary in Junior Secondary Schools in Akoko South Education Zone of Ondo State. Three research questions were posed and three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study engaged quasi-experimental research design, otherwise known as pretest – posttest non-equivalent control group design involving two intact classes from each of the randomly selected schools. Purposive random sampling was used to select two schools for the study. The two intact classes randomly selected were assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group comprised 83 male and female students from schools located in rural and urban areas. The control group comprised 77 male and female students from rural and urban areas. The experimental group was taught English vocabulary using Total Physical Response method while the control group was taught English Vocabulary using GrammarTranslation method. The instrument which was validated by experts’ and used for data collection was English Vocabulary Achievement Test (EVAT). Four different lesson plans for the two groups with the same instructional objectives and questions but different teaching strategies were developed. EVAT was administered to 20 students before the treatment for the purpose of estimating the reliability of the instrument. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined using Kuder-Richardson’s formula (K - 20) and it yielded a reliability index of 0.75. Data collected were calculated using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study were: Total Physical Response method had a significant effect on students’ achievement in English vocabulary. Student taught English vocabulary with TPR method achieved significantly higher than their counterparts taught with grammar translation method. School location had a significant effect on students’ achievement in English vocabulary. Also, gender had significant effect on students’ achievement in English vocabulary. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the study provided empirical evidence of the efficiency of TPR method in enhancing students’ achievement in English Language Vocabulary. It was recommended that the serving teachers should be encouraged to adopt this method as alternative to conventional method of teaching English language vocabulary. Also, students should be encouraged to engage in extensive vocabulary activities with the aid of total physical response method.