Volume 3 (2012) Issue 1
pp. 193-198
Hewitt, E. (2011). The Use of Psychomotor Activities in Teaching Children English as a Foreign Language: Empirical research into the PEPA method of language instruction. New York
As the title of this book suggests, the research specified here is completely empirical and focuses on the investigation into a new method for teaching English as a foreign language (FL). It is a new exploration into psychomotor activities resulting in a new method, the PEPA (Programme of English with Psychomotor Activities). The method comprises 62 psychomotor activities and was systematically designed by the author of the monograph, a highly experienced researcher in applied linguistics.
The research consists of a comparative study with pupils of primary school age, and examines the effect of the above mentioned methodology with psychomotor activities (in the experimental group) against a more traditional methodology (in the control group). Before taking part in the main phase of the experiment, the participants took an intelligence test, a personality test and a test of English. These were complemented by various tests before and after the experiment to measure their psychomotor development. Through this empirical study, different strategies are shown which can be converted into fundamental tools so as to help teachers to consequently support their students.
The book is arranged in five parts, with a total of twenty-five chapters. Part One (pp. 8–135) is a Review of the Literature and describes related publications in this field. Part Two (pp. 136-271) begins with the empirical study of research into the PEPA Method of Language Instruction, Part Three (pp. 272-299) describes the Results of this experiment and Part Four (pp. 300-312) offers the Discussion and Conclusions of these results and the teaching method
Going further into the hypothesis and its development, the book offers a well documented theoretical framework. Throughout the review of the literature, the conscientious research process and reflection are palpable. Part One is based on a wide range of reading including more than 2,000 texts of primarily empirical and theoretical publications, providing a comprehensive bibliography. So, in the first part of this book, Chapter One (pp. 8-16) starts with the introduction of the general aspects, as well as the methods of and approaches to foreign language teaching and in Chapter Seven (pp. 105-130), finishes with a detailed review of the role that psychomotricity plays in learning.
The Review of the Literature consists only of empirical studies and is therefore interesting in its own right. These publications have been described and selected thoughtfully by the author and include illustrative descriptions of psychomotricity in the fields of learning English, psychology, exercise psychology as well as games in learning. They are preceded in Chapter One by a comprehensive glossary of terminological considerations. The second part of the book includes a chapter dedicated to a detailed description of the activities comprising the PEPA programme (pp. 184-245).
The review of the literature serves a dual purpose. In addition to guiding the reader through the description of the experiment described in the following chapters, it extensively reports on the most recent findings regarding the theory of second-language and mother-tongue acquisition
Throughout the document, reference is made to the existing and current educational literature. The author intends to make the line of reasoning accessible for the reader to understand that the PEPA method for teaching English has been scientificlly proven to promote psychomotor abilities via the learning of English as a second language. The author explains her methodology in great detail and carries it out thoroughly. Additionally, in the first part of her book, she cites a considerable number of empirical studies, which enables the reader to evaluate the experiment in the second part by comparing and contrasting it with the traditions of educational research.
The second part of the book – its empirical section - is entirely dedicated to this unique experiment carried out on the basis of the PEPA teaching method. The second part gives an insight into the study carried out over one school year with primary school children. The author empirically analyzes two methodologies (one for the control group and the other for the experimental group) and the relationship between these methodologies and the subsequent learning, including their effects on the group of participants. The researcher develops a theory which is centred on the hypothesis that an English syllabus carried out through psychomotor activities with children, provides more positive results than a syllabus taught through a comparable – but more traditional - methodology.
The results are substantial and intriguing. The author explores how – with the use of psychomotor activities – pupils of the experimental group result in a higher academic achievement than those of the control group.
Additionally, in Chapter Ten, the book offers a wide and detailed explanation of the programmes and explains their objectives with regard to English, psychomotor improvement, the materials required and the instructions to be followed during the experiment as well as subsequent observations (pp. 136-137).. Chapter Eleven offers the operational definitions and describes the technical concepts in clear layman terms to provide an easy understanding of the experiment.
In Chapter Twelve, a detailed and exhaustive description of the participants and their background is given (pp. 142-145). In Chapter Thirteen, the wide range of instruments which were used for the study are outlined (pp- 146-175). In this chapter, we also find a description of each test and questionnaire, and a description of their realization – including their organization and final application.
The tests used by the author to measure the level of English have been on the one hand those which measured students’ listening comprehension and on the other hand those which measured their level of FL reading and writing, grammar, and vocabulary. Regarding the organization of and the instructions for each test, the tests to measure the level of FL reading and writing, grammar and vocabulary were taken into consideration and explained in great detail: each group was given the same instructions and the conditions in both groups were the same - except for the main variable, namely the teaching method. In addition, a psychomotor examination was given to all the participating children as well as an intelligence and a personality test, and the three questionnaires which are outlined in detail in Chapter Thirteen.
Chapter Fourteen describes the organization of the study (pp. 176-178), and Chapter Fifteen outlines in detail the methods used by the author (pp. 179-183). The two programmes employed include the English programme with psychomotor activity (the PEPA). This programme was researched upon and designed by the author herself and is outlined in detail - activity by activity - in Chapter Sixteen (pp. 184-259). The other programme, a description of which includes the additional material and suplementary work - was used for the control group. For the English programme with psychomotor activity (the PEPA) 62 games were designed according to the general motor objective to be reached. These fall within one out of nine motor subcategories. This psychomotor programme was carried out over 24 sessions, with three or four of the games per session. These were carried out during the children’s school time and their regular English lessons held in the pupils’ usual classroom environment. Furthermore, for each one of the games, the following data can be found: the psychomotor objective, the English objective, the name of the game, the materials necessary for carrying it out, instructions and rules of application as well as other useful observations.
One example of the psychomotor activities which gives evidence of the quality with which the author carried out her investigation is called “Clapping Word-Stress on Shapes” and was created by herself (p. 216). The psychomotor objective of this activity consists in spatial-temporal organisation, which is the development of rhythmic sense through gestures. The English objectives are the presentation and pronunciation of the vocabulary of shapes: square, circle, triangle, rectangle, and star. This activity also serves to introduce the concept of word stress to children learning English. Additionally, with this activity game, other targets may be reached such as pupils’ further sensitisation to word stress in English, the review of colours and the introduction of the concept of word order (adjectives figuring before nouns) in English which does not correspond to the word order in Spanish, which is the mother tongue of the pupils taking part in this study.
In her book, the author describes each of the 62 games applied in her experiment with great commitment to detail so that the reader can easily access the study, and so has an overview of what happened before, during and after the experiment, and also of the statistical analysis of the study’s results. Additionally, due to the comprehensive explanations, language teachers may use the activities during their lessons.
The most original part of her book consists in the meticulously description of the design of her experiment and the statistical analyses of the results. These are given in Chapters Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen (pp. 260-271).
Essentially, the results derived from the PEPA method are positive and indicate additional benefits from learning English, as they seem to support time the psychomotor development of children at the same. The results are portrayed in part three of the work. Gradually, segmental control of the body and the reduction of children’s anxiety have come to determining each other and therefore have a positive influence on the children’s improvements in writing and academic achievement. As a result, it is proposed that the PEPA methodology offers, among other things, indirect hand and finger exercise that influence academic achievement as well as the results of the writing tests. Furthermore, the results elaborated for segmental control could mean that the subsequent sensomotoric development may be a principal factor in foreign language learning at this developmental stage of children. If the variable of relaxation is similar to that of segmental control, we can see that progress specifically in this ability would provide many advantages and help to reduce anxiety.
The results are illustrated by descriptive and inferential statistics, in addition to graphs. These are all depicted in Chapters Twenty and Twenty-One (pp. 272-296). The results obtained from the great number of variables analyzed in this study confirm the hypotheses established by the author. They reveal the PEPA method to be beneficial not only for children’s psychomotor improvement and development, but also for the children’s stimulation which encourages their learning motivation.
Part Four of the work describes the discussion and conclusions (pp. 300-312). The additional implications of this monoraph include the need for more empirical studies in the field of teaching and learning English. There is the need for researching and experimenting with psychomotricity in various fields of primary education. Constant progress in related empirical studies would provide teachers and educational staff with reliable and substantial data. This is an essential aspect of improving the quality of foreign language teaching.
Without any doubt, this in-depth and well-documented study represents a book which can be recommended. It is of reference for all those teachers and researchers who are interested in applied linguistics and the psychological aspects which are of relevance in this context. The monograph represents one of the few empirical studies in this field which is systematic as well as experimental.
Author:
Marta Gómez Moreno
English Language Teacher
18001 Granada
E-mail: martaggomezmoreno@gmail.com