Rationale
Nowadays, English is an international language and it has been widely used in many countries in the world It is also an international language in diplomacy, business, science, technology, banking, computing, medicine, aviation, armed forces, engineering, tourism, and so on Most countries in the world teach English as compulsory subject in their schools In Vietnam, English is also considered the most important foreign language and taught as a compulsory subject in many schools through out the country Especially, Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training has issued the Decision No 1400- QD- TTg dated on September 30 th
2008 which targets to totally changing English teaching and learning in the national education system, carrying out teaching and learning English in all levels from elementary schools to colleges To aim these objectives, it is very necessary for our educational system to teach English from elementary school, especially right from 1 st grade In Hadong where I live, English is chosen as an optional subject to teach for 1 st grade students in the whole district As a result, this emerges a big challenge because most of the teachers in our country in general and in Hadong in particular are not trained to teach English for young learners as such
For all these reasons, it is necessary to find out difficulties in teaching English for grade one children in Hadong district and suggest some possible solutions to this problems
This urges the author to carry on a study named ―Difficulties in teaching English for 1 st grade primary school students in Hadong district, Hanoi city.‖ Once difficulties are identified, some solutions to cope with them will be suggested.
The aims of the study
- Investigating the areas of difficulty that the teachers in Hadong primary schools are coping with in their daily teaching to grade one students
- Suggesting some solutions to help teachers overcome these difficulties
It is hoped that the findings from the study will bring some benefits to teachers of 1st grade at Hadong primary schools.
The scope of the study
- The 1 st grade children in Hadong district
- The teachers of English of grade one in primary schools in Hadong district
- English for grade one children
The methods of the study
With the aims of finding out the difficulties in teaching English for grade one at primary schools in Hadong district, this study adopts quantitative and qualitative methods To achieve the above aims, the study has been carried out with the data collected from questionnaires for teachers of grade one and observations to investigate their current difficulties that they meet in everyday teaching classes for 1 st grade students.
The design of the thesis
The study is organized into six chapters:
Chapter one: Introduction This chapter includes rationale, aims, methods, scope of the study, and design of the thesis
Chapter two: Literaturer review This chapter consists of theoretical background which is relevant to the purpose of the study
Chapter three: Reseach methodology This chapter presents an introduction on the context of the primary schools in Hadong district, the subjects of the study, the instruments, the procedure for collecting data and also the methods of data analysis
Chapter four: Presentation and analysis of data This chapter presents and analyze the data which have been collected and concluded the findings of the study
Chapter five: Suggested solutions This chapter deals with some suggested solutions to the problems in the findings
Chapter six: Conclusions Summary, limitations as well as suggestions for further studies and reference of the study are included in this chapter
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides relevant literature which is needed to form the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study First, an overview on children’s characteristics, stages of development and learning styles is mentioned because it is very important for teachers and the educators to make better teaching and learning if they have a comprehensive look on children
Second, English teaching methods on listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and pronunciation review are revealed Next, a variety of elements related to the classroom management is identified such as, organizing the classroom and planning the lesson, preventive approaches to classroom behaviors problems, keeping proper and flexible moving space of lessons, other basic recommendations, solutions to inappropriate behaviors in classroom, teacher- learner references, proper punishment, and the factors outside the classrooms which influence the classroom management.
Children’s characteristics
In a very well known book named ―Teaching English to Children‖, the authors highlight some of the splendid characteristics of children such as they are always willing to express their feelings about what they are doing, what they have done or heard, they can argue for something and tell you why they think what they think Moreover, they can use logical reasoning and vivid imaginations Especially, they can use the wide range of intonation patterns not only in their mother tongue but also in second language They have very short attention and concentrations span, their own understanding comes through hands, eyes and ears (Scott and Ytreberg, 1991)
Young children sometimes have difficulty in working out what is fact and what is fiction The dividing line between the real world and the imaginary world is not clear to them
The young children love to play and learn best when they are enjoying themselves But they also take themselves seriously and like to think that what they are doing is ―real‖ work (Sharon & Woolley, 2004) It is often said that children are very self- centered up to the age of six or seven and they can not see things from someone else’s point of view This may well be true, but sometimes pupils do not want to work together because they do not see the point
They do not always understand what others want them to do But they will seldom admit that they do not know something either
Young children are enthusiastic and positive about learning We all thrive on doing well and being praised for what we do and this is especial true for young children It is important to praise them if they are to keep their enthusiasm and feel successful from the beginning ―If we label children failures, then they believe us‖ (Pyles and Algae, 1970:56).
Children’s stages of development
Socio-emotional Development
Nunan (1988) noticed that children develop socially and emotionally during the child years At the beginning of the year, some children may be shy and appear to lack initiative
However, as they come to know the situation, the teachers and peers, they usually gain confidence and begin to establish friendships and become an active part of the class Other children may be too assertive prior to learning from experience more appropriate ways of relating to peers It is a time of testing and exploring social relationships.
Physical Development
Physical activity is one common characteristic of children, although children vary a great deal in the development of physical skills and abilities Some children are slow and cautious about trying new things; others seem to accept any challenge that is presented
Most young children are full of energy, ready to run, swing, climb and jump, and are eager to try their strength by moving big blocks or boxes They are developing a sense of rhythm, and enjoy such activities as marching, jumping or clapping to music These group activities need to be short and allow for more participation than standing Required stillness is more exhausting and stressful for most children than movement
Sensory development is uneven The coordination of the eyes and other senses are still developing Physical growth has slowed down It is a time of consolidating gains and developing fine motor control However, over-emphasis on fine motor activities such as writing, cutting and making discrete visual discriminations may result in tension and frustration (Pinter, 1997).
Intellectual Development
Wood (1981) stated that children love to talk Their intellectual development is reflected in the rapid growth of vocabulary and the power to express ideas They are developing visual and auditory memory and the ability to listen to others Their ears are keen but they still need help in distinguishing sounds, although they can pick up another language and accurately imitate other people's intonations and inflections They are especially keen to acquiring new words (the names of dinosaurs, for example) and to use such words as "infinity" (the idea of something that has no end) and "trillion" They welcome opportunities to be inventive with language, to play with rhyming, to joke, to explain things to each other and even to argue.
Individual Differences
Descriptions of general characteristics are helpful in understanding children However, such normative statements do not provide the information teachers need about particular children because each one differs from one another As a result, the teacher's systematic observations of children provide the information needed for appropriate planning (Pinter,
Children’s learning styles ……………………………… ….…… … ………… 1 Spatial visual style ………………………………… … … .……… 5 5 2 Kinetic style
Language- oriented style
Children think in words, verbalize concepts, spin tales and jokes; especially they spell words accurately and easily They can be good readers or prefer the spoken word more These kinds of children have excellent memory for names, dates and trivia They like word games, enjoy using tape recorders and often musically talented There for the motivating tips are encouraging own word problems, having child dictate a story to others, reading aloud together and tape session for later playback.
Logical style
Children think conceptually, like to explore patterns and relationships They enjoy puzzles and seeing how things work; constantly question and wonder They are capable of highly abstract forms of logical thinking at early age; math problems are computed quickly in their head Strategy games, computers and experiments with purposes, creating own designs to build with blocks/logos are all of these kinds of children’s favors.
An overview of English teaching methods for young learners …
Listening skill
Listening is the language skill which learners usually find the most difficult This often is because they feel under unnecessary pressure to understand every word To achieve the aims related to this skill, the teacher plays an important role that is defined in the following steps by Vale and Feunteun (1995):
―It is important to help pupils prepare for the listening task well before they hear the text itself First of all the teacher must ensure that the pupils understand the language they need to complete the task and are fully aware of exactly what is expected of them Reassure the pupils that they do not need to understand every word they hear
The next important step is to encourage pupils to anticipate what they are going to hear
In everyday life, the situation, the speaker, and visual clues all help us to decode oral messages
A way to make things a bit easier to the pupils is to present the listening activity within the context of the topic of a teaching unit This in itself will help pupils to predict what the answers might be The teacher can help them further by asking questions and using the illustrations to encourage pupils to guess the answers even before they hear the text
During the listening, the pupils should be able to concentrate on understanding the message so make sure they are not trying to read, draw, and write at the same time Always give a second chance to listen to the text to provide a new opportunity to those who were not able to do the task
Finally, when pupils have completed the activity, invite answers from the whole class
Try not to put individual pupils under undue pressure Rather than confirming whether an answer is correct or not, play the cassette again and allow pupils to listen again for confirmation You may be given a variety of answers, in which case list them all on the board and play the text again, so that the class can listen and choose the correct one Even if the pupils all appear to have completed the task successfully, always encourage them to listen to the text once more and check their answers for themselves.‖ (Monica & Roger, 1983: 45).
Speaking skill
In the book ―Beginning English with young children‖ the authors express that we must take into account that the level of language input (listening) must be higher than the level of language production expected of the pupils So we have many speaking activities used in the first levels that enable pupils to participate with a minimal verbal response However, in the last levels, pupils are encouraged to begin to manipulate language and express themselves in a much more personal way (Monica and Roger, 1983)
In primary schools, two main types of speaking activities are used The first type encourages pupils to mimic the model such as, songs, chants, and poems, they hear on the cassette This helps pupils to master the sounds, rhythms, and intonation of the English language through simple reproduction The games and pair work activities on the other hand, although always based on a given model, encourage the pupils to begin to manipulate the language by presenting them with a certain amount of choice, albeit within a fairly controlled situation
Once the activity begins, the teacher tries to help the children speak as much English as possible without interfering to correct the mistakes that they will probably make Try to treat errors casually by praising the utterance and simply repeating it correctly without necessarily highlighting the errors And finally, always offer praise for effort regardless of the accuracy of the English produced (Vale and Feunteun, 1995).
Reading skill
―When choosing texts we should consider not only their difficulty level, but also their interest or their humor so that children will want to read for the same reasons they read in their own language: to be entertained or to find out something they do not already know‖
It is important to spend time preparing for the task by using the illustrations (a usual feature in reading activities for children), pupils' own knowledge about the subject matter, and key vocabulary to help the pupils to predict the general content of the text Discuss the subject and ask questions to elicit language and to stimulate the pupils' interest in the text before they begin reading Also make sure that the pupils understand the essential vocabulary they need to complete the task before they begin to read.
Writing skill
In primary schools, EFL pupils progress from writing isolated words and phrases, to short paragraphs about themselves or about very familiar topics (family, home, hobbies, friends, food, etc.)
Since many pupils at this level are not yet capable either linguistically or intellectually of creating a piece of written text from scratch, it is important that time is spent building up the language they will need and providing a model on which they can then base their own efforts The writing activities should therefore be based on a parallel text and guide the pupils, using simple cues These writing activities generally appear towards the end of a unit so that pupils have had plenty of exposure to the language and practice of the main structures and vocabulary they need
At this stage, the pupils' work will invariably contain mistakes The teacher should try to be sensitive in his/her correction and not necessarily insist on every error being highlighted
A piece of written work covered in red pen is demoralizing and generally counter-productive
Where possible, encourage pupils to correct their own mistakes as they work If there is time, encourage pupils to decorate their written work and where feasible display their efforts in the classroom (Monica and Roger, 1983).
Teaching pronunciation
Juel (2003) shows that teaching English pronunciation is an area of language teaching that many English teachers avoid While there are many textbooks and instruction manuals available, as well as books on the theories and methodologies of language teaching there is comparatively little on learning pronunciation
Certainly, we need to teach pronunciation When teaching any language as a foreign or second language, our first goal for our students is basic communication, and that cannot happen if no one can understand what they are saying
Elley (1989) stated that when teachers decide to focus on pronunciation practice many of them make the mistake of trying to teach pronunciation along with introducing vocabulary
This can work with students who have "good ears," or who perhaps speak a related language
However, it can be hit and miss with students whose mother tongue has no relation to the target language.
Teaching vocabulary
Templeton (2004) strongly shows that because vocabulary knowledge is critical to reading comprehension, it is important that those working with young readers help foster their development of a large ―word bank‖ and effective vocabulary learning strategies There are several effective explicit (intentional, planned instruction) and implicit (spontaneous instruction as a child comes to new words in a text) strategies that adults can employ with readers of any age.
Classroom management
Organizing the classroom and planning the lesson
Teachers have many roles in the classroom; two of the most important are planning the lesson and organizing the classroom in the way that facilitates learning The following steps are offered for teachers who are trying to get a successful classroom management
Try and achieve a warm, friendly, relaxed atmosphere in which young learners feel comfortable, competent and most important secure
The physical organization of the classroom is quite important In an ideal world, the classroom would have an area of easily removable desks and chairs, an open space for actions songs and games, a quiet corner for reading or self – study Such ideal conditions are rarely found in the real world, but if all possible arrange the tables and chairs so that the young learners can work in pairs or groups, and there should be a space for them to come out to the board and to move around the classroom Often the five or ten minutes spent on reorganizing tables and chairs are well worth it to help an activity work well It is a good way to display the learners’ work and relevant posters on the wall and try to keep the display up to date
Create a stress free English learning environment for the young learners Neither teachers nor parents should push the young learners too hard The young learners’ English teachers should encourage them and their attempts to speak English words or sentences When they are hesitant, you need to be patient and show great interest Do not blame them if they make a mistake Crucially, if they perform well, give them praise or a certain reward If the teacher responds with interest, they will try again because ―reward behavior is usually repeated and become a habit‖ (Machado, 1985: 101).
Preventive approaches to classroom behavior problems
Setting rules to keep discipline: effective management requires teachers to define their expectations for their students at the beginning of the school year Discipline is the main preoccupation of the teacher and the young learners (1) Establish the list during the first few class meeting (2) Keep the list short and clear (3) Focus on learners behaviors needed to achieve lesson goal (4) State the consequences for breaking the rules and rewards for following them (Kounin, 1970)
Keeping proper and flexible moving space of lessons
Kounin (1970) also found that the best classroom managers were careful to keep the lesson moving at a brisk pace Inappropriate learner behaviors increase when the lesson becomes boring, so try to use topics and activities that you think will be interesting and enjoyable
He also suggests some other basic suggestions to have better classroom management as follow:
Keep and eyes on different groups at the same time
Be able to be aware of events’ occurring based on observation
Use both verbal and nonverbal skills such as voice control and eye contact
Plan lesson and include varied activities and interactions that keep the learners busy
Motivate the learners by focusing on what they do satisfactorily or well more than what they do badly
Try to create a sense of community in the group
Be fair to all learners, never favoring some over others (Kounin, 1970)
2.5.4 Solutions to student's inappropriate behaviors in classroom
Using silence Most teachers talk too much because of the responsibility for maintaining and guiding class interaction But silence can be effective to discipline the learners Think of a lesson in which the teachers are always talking, learners’ attentions decrease and they begin to talk with each other; when the teachers are suddenly stop speaking to start to speak softly with a low voice, learners’ attention will be raised to the teachers and the lesson because they want to know what is happening (Archer & Smith, 1999)
Proximity control During the lesson, if the teacher moves closer to a certain learner, it will have different meaning First, it means, ―I am standing close to you‖, second ―I don’t like your company‖, and the last, ―we have something in common‖ With this approach, the teacher can control the learners with inappropriate behaviors because the distance between the teacher and the learners is very short (Scott (1970)
The learner who does not change his or her inappropriate behaviors in class may have reasons In order to solve the problem, a teacher- learner reference after class is a good way (Smith, 1995) The success of the reference depends on the manner in which it is conducted
The teacher should be positive and calm instead of showing authority so that good communication with the learner can be made, which helps the learner make behavioral progress
According to Loannou and Pavlou (2000), sometimes teacher may need to use some kind of punishment for a trouble maker in the classroom But never give a punishment that is humiliating or unreasonable and always reintegrate learners into the group after they have received a reprimand or punishment This is important not just for the learner involved, but also for the teacher’s standing with the group The following two kinds of punishment may be effective
Temporary isolation: It means that the misbehaving learner is removed for a short time from the class activities The place used for the isolation should be dull and simple But the time should not be long, often five or ten minutes will be enough Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the isolation should not be used to frighten the learner
Response cost: It means the removal of the quantity of reinforces related to a response
For example, a teacher can take a learner’s water paints away from his desk because he was painting his desk mate’s hands Within the classroom environment, typical response cost may be loss of tokens or privileges as part of a classroom management system Many young learners’ teachers agree that the response cost is a very effective way to reduce inappropriate behaviors
―It is also useful to develop your sense of humor, which is usually appreciated by others and can help you face small and sometimes large problems.‖ (Hill, 1985:332)
2.5.7 The factors outside the classroom, which influence the classroom management
The graduation paper by Do, Thi Mai Chi (2008) mentioning factors outside the classroom which influence the classroom management as follow:
Peer relations: Peers play an important role in a young learner’s schooling Peers serve as reinforce be giving or drawing attention and approval They also serve as models and basis for social comparisons Peer relations contribute to the young learner’s perception of their success Positive peer relations can reduce social isolation and improve social academic abilities Poor peer relations can result in isolation and even psychological problems The young learners who are accepted by their peers are willing to take part in classroom activities
Those who are rejected by their peers often feel anxious and have less confidence In addition, peer prejudice is often a catalyst for misbehavior Teachers should help them build positive relationships by enhancing classroom interaction, cooperation and conversation
Teacher’s attention: Educationists emphasize the relationship between teachers and students because the relation socializes attitudes, values, and abilities of the students
Teacher’s positive comments on and attention to the young learners can promote their performance in the classroom
Parents’ care and encouragement: Parents’ attitudes towards young learners’ performance play a quite important role in their classroom management So regular teacher- parents conference often take place in most primary schools to serve the purpose.
Teacher- learner reference
The learner who does not change his or her inappropriate behaviors in class may have reasons In order to solve the problem, a teacher- learner reference after class is a good way (Smith, 1995) The success of the reference depends on the manner in which it is conducted
The teacher should be positive and calm instead of showing authority so that good communication with the learner can be made, which helps the learner make behavioral progress.
Proper punishment
According to Loannou and Pavlou (2000), sometimes teacher may need to use some kind of punishment for a trouble maker in the classroom But never give a punishment that is humiliating or unreasonable and always reintegrate learners into the group after they have received a reprimand or punishment This is important not just for the learner involved, but also for the teacher’s standing with the group The following two kinds of punishment may be effective
Temporary isolation: It means that the misbehaving learner is removed for a short time from the class activities The place used for the isolation should be dull and simple But the time should not be long, often five or ten minutes will be enough Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the isolation should not be used to frighten the learner
Response cost: It means the removal of the quantity of reinforces related to a response
For example, a teacher can take a learner’s water paints away from his desk because he was painting his desk mate’s hands Within the classroom environment, typical response cost may be loss of tokens or privileges as part of a classroom management system Many young learners’ teachers agree that the response cost is a very effective way to reduce inappropriate behaviors
―It is also useful to develop your sense of humor, which is usually appreciated by others and can help you face small and sometimes large problems.‖ (Hill, 1985:332).
The factors outside the classroom, which influence the classroom
The graduation paper by Do, Thi Mai Chi (2008) mentioning factors outside the classroom which influence the classroom management as follow:
Peer relations: Peers play an important role in a young learner’s schooling Peers serve as reinforce be giving or drawing attention and approval They also serve as models and basis for social comparisons Peer relations contribute to the young learner’s perception of their success Positive peer relations can reduce social isolation and improve social academic abilities Poor peer relations can result in isolation and even psychological problems The young learners who are accepted by their peers are willing to take part in classroom activities
Those who are rejected by their peers often feel anxious and have less confidence In addition, peer prejudice is often a catalyst for misbehavior Teachers should help them build positive relationships by enhancing classroom interaction, cooperation and conversation
Teacher’s attention: Educationists emphasize the relationship between teachers and students because the relation socializes attitudes, values, and abilities of the students
Teacher’s positive comments on and attention to the young learners can promote their performance in the classroom
Parents’ care and encouragement: Parents’ attitudes towards young learners’ performance play a quite important role in their classroom management So regular teacher- parents conference often take place in most primary schools to serve the purpose.
Summary
Having a look at related literature urges the author to investigate the difficulties in teaching English for children in Hadong district since there has never been any investigation into this topic Also, it is very important for teachers and educators to make better teaching and learning if they have a comprehensive look on children It is considered the collation for the next chapters
This chapter presents the setting of this study, that is twenty primary schools in Hadong, the real situation of English teaching for children, the different types of text books, available aids for teaching, the teachers and the school students in Hadong It also reveals the instruments for collecting data and data collecting procedure which are the basements for the following chapters.
The setting of the study ………………… … ………………… ……………… 15 1 Teaching materials
Teaching facilities
Teaching facilities also play an important role in teaching English and may affect the teaching process positively or negatively In Hadong in particular and Hanoi in general, the issue of teaching facilities has been a hot topic for a long time and the answer is still pending
According to Mr Pham Xuan Tien (2010), Head of Primary Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training, the basic facilities needed are laboratory, CD player, cassettes, teaching aids and so on However, many English classes at many primary schools including state and private schools are short of teaching facilities.
Subjects
Teachers
Most of the teachers (25) graduated from universities, the other fifteen teachers graduated from colleges and in – service study where English for children are not their major
In each school, there are at least five 1 st grade classes , so we can see that each teacher has to teach many classes everyday In addition to grade one, they also have to teach grade two, three, four or five
In addition, English for 1 st grade is still new for them because they have been teaching English for grade three to five, and English has been taught to grade one and two for two years up to now However the teachers have not been trained to teach young learners as such This may be one of the reasons teachers find it very difficult to teach English for grade one
The thing is that most of the teachers in Hadong has pronunciation problems Their pronunciation is not good and standard There are about fifty out of seventy teachers have trouble with pronouncing the words in a correct way.
The school students
All 1 st grade school students in Hadong are six years old and the English is very new for them In fact, this is the first time they start study a foreign language As the result, they are very interested in studying English; this may be a favorable condition for teachers after a lot of difficulties They are from all classes of society However, no matter where the children are from, teachers always put the children’s study into a focus.
Instruments for collecting data ….…
In this study, questionnaires and classroom observation are chosen as main tools for collecting information because of some advantages Firstly, these methods give the needed data in quantitative form Secondly, all informants have chance of expressing their attitudes
As a result, the study will be more objective with accurate data
The set of questionnaires was administered to get information concerning these following aspects:
Teachers’ attitudes towards English teaching for young learners
Student’s attitudes towards learning English
English teaching methods to children in Hadong
Professional training courses for teachers
Data collecting procedure
The procedure of collecting data is as follow:
First, the teachers in Hadong are given a set of questionnaires with a clear purposes provided by the researcher in break - time Then they are all explained the benefits of this research for their teaching; this helps to encourage the teachers to complete the questionnaires
Finally, the researcher collects all the questionnaires right after the teachers have finished
In order to make the result of the questionnaire more reliable, during 10 weeks, the author conducts the observations in ten primary schools with ten teachers of English To have fair comparisions, the author observes teaching vocabulary lesson in all ten schools
3.5 The method of analyzing the data
In this study, quantitative and qualitative methods are used to analyze data
Particularly, charts and tables are employed to present data collected from questionnaires and classroom observations
In conclusion, this chapter provides the current situations in primary schools in Hadong such as, teaching materials, teaching facilities, teachers, school students, as well as instruments for collecting data, data collected procedure and method of analyzing the data which helps us have a deep look on primary schools and the methods to approach to this study
Also, it is the foundation for the following chapter
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA This chapter brings about the detailed analysis on questionnaires and classroom observation Using questionnaires and classroom observations as the main tools to collect data, this chapter works on the data collected which result in the findings and possible suggestions
In this chapter, the collected data will be illustrated on tables and charts Each table or chart is followed by an analysis of the data
4.1 Presentation and analysis of data 4.1.1 Teachers’ opinions towards English teaching to 1st grade - students
Although many researchers share the same opinions about the vital role of classroom management which is "the most important factor because children's self - control ability is very poor" (Ly & Wu, 1999:223), it can be said that "the effective classroom management in young learners English teaching means successful teaching and learning" (Campbell, 1990:98), the result of the first question is rather different Twenty one out of forty teachers express that it is teaching method, not classroom management, which is the most difficult However, the number of teachers expressing classroom management - the biggest problem - is not small
Sixteen teachers which accounts for forty percent facing the problem Knowledge of major, teacher’s manner and use of English are three biggest problems of the rest three teachers
Thus, the biggest problems teachers are coping with are English teaching method and classroom management
Chart 1: The most difficult skills to teach 15
The diagram shows the answer of the question 2 the most difficult skill in teaching English for grade one The reason is that speaking, story telling and vocabulary require teachers to combine different kinds of teaching methods and students have some certain background knowledge, but here the students are in grade one So, no matter how hard the teachers try, they hardly ever reach teaching aims The different figures in question 3 show the various opinions of the teachers on the feasibility of teaching English for grade one
Feasibility of teaching English to 1st grade students
92.5 percent of the teachers agree with the feasibility of teaching English to 1st grade children, sharing the same opinion with Scovel (1999:56) that "young children are the best second language learners"
Only 7.5 percent of the teachers think that it is not feasible
Their reason mostly is that students at this age are too small They cannot write, read or even speak full sentences, so how they can learn a foreign language well In my opinion, teaching English to young learners is feasible if there is suitable program which focuses on what children are good at, for example pronunciation and speaking
4.1.2 Children’s attitudes on learning English
With very small students at the age of six, adding the number of 100 percent of the students do not learn English at preschools; in fact, it is the first time experience in acquiring a foreign language This puts a burden on primary teachers’ shoulders because they have to invest more time and energy for their students However, the figures from question number five and seven is a good signal from students’ attitudes towards the textbook because they all have positive attitude towards the textbook and studying English.
5 How do the children like the textbook? 24 60 16 40 a Really b Rather c A little d Not at all
7 To what extent do the children like studying English? 32 80 8 20 a Not at all b A little c Really d Quite
Table 1: Students' attitudes on learning English
Table 1 shows that most of the students really like the books because they are colored books with a lot of colorful pictures; Sharing the same opinion with this idea, Amstrong (2000) emphases that visual imagery plays an important role in the student's learning process The individual is processing primarily in pictures rather than words, ideas are interconnected Thus, children will like to explore whatever attracts their attentions
Because of the spatial visual style (Amstrong, 2000), children like to learn through pictures, vocabulary learning is the skill that they like to learn the most Besides vocabulary, story telling is also their favorite skill Chart 3 below shows details about the children's favorite skills:
Sharing the reason for the fact that no student likes to study speaking and listening, many teachers say because students do not have much vocabulary and grammar structures to build sentences or hear the words, so when they study speaking and listening, it seems to be boring to them
Luckily, most of the students seem to have positive attitudes towards English study (80 %)
This is good news for the teachers for once the students love English they will be eager to take part in any learning process and activities
Chart 4 below presents students’ most difficult learning skills, 42.5% of teachers think that story telling is the most difficult because most of the stories are a little bit long and have many new words that are confused the students As a result, this causes negative attitudes
Then 40 percent of teachers agree that listening is the skill that puts students into trouble the most Their reason is that in English, words and sentences have stress and intonation, which is not flat like Vietnamese This is the first time they get familiar to English, so it is difficult to catch the words and sentences' sounds
Chart 4: The most difficult skills to learn
Speaking Listening Story telling Phonic learning
On the contrary, vocabulary receives no idea on this issue This is because when teaching vocabulary teachers use many teaching aids like flashcards, CDs, VCDs, ect Children are very eager to learn with funny clips or pictures So, vocabulary is not difficult for them to learn
Scovel (1999:213) said "children are the world's best imitators", they can learn a new language very well Thus, phonics learning and speaking are not the difficult skills
4.1.3 English teaching methods to children of primary school teachers
Presentation and analysis of data
Teachers’ opinions towards English teaching to 1st grade - students …
Although many researchers share the same opinions about the vital role of classroom management which is "the most important factor because children's self - control ability is very poor" (Ly & Wu, 1999:223), it can be said that "the effective classroom management in young learners English teaching means successful teaching and learning" (Campbell, 1990:98), the result of the first question is rather different Twenty one out of forty teachers express that it is teaching method, not classroom management, which is the most difficult However, the number of teachers expressing classroom management - the biggest problem - is not small
Sixteen teachers which accounts for forty percent facing the problem Knowledge of major, teacher’s manner and use of English are three biggest problems of the rest three teachers
Thus, the biggest problems teachers are coping with are English teaching method and classroom management
Chart 1: The most difficult skills to teach 15
The diagram shows the answer of the question 2 the most difficult skill in teaching English for grade one The reason is that speaking, story telling and vocabulary require teachers to combine different kinds of teaching methods and students have some certain background knowledge, but here the students are in grade one So, no matter how hard the teachers try, they hardly ever reach teaching aims The different figures in question 3 show the various opinions of the teachers on the feasibility of teaching English for grade one
Feasibility of teaching English to 1st grade students
92.5 percent of the teachers agree with the feasibility of teaching English to 1st grade children, sharing the same opinion with Scovel (1999:56) that "young children are the best second language learners"
Only 7.5 percent of the teachers think that it is not feasible
Their reason mostly is that students at this age are too small They cannot write, read or even speak full sentences, so how they can learn a foreign language well In my opinion, teaching English to young learners is feasible if there is suitable program which focuses on what children are good at, for example pronunciation and speaking.
Children’s attitudes on learning English
With very small students at the age of six, adding the number of 100 percent of the students do not learn English at preschools; in fact, it is the first time experience in acquiring a foreign language This puts a burden on primary teachers’ shoulders because they have to invest more time and energy for their students However, the figures from question number five and seven is a good signal from students’ attitudes towards the textbook because they all have positive attitude towards the textbook and studying English.
5 How do the children like the textbook? 24 60 16 40 a Really b Rather c A little d Not at all
7 To what extent do the children like studying English? 32 80 8 20 a Not at all b A little c Really d Quite
Table 1: Students' attitudes on learning English
Table 1 shows that most of the students really like the books because they are colored books with a lot of colorful pictures; Sharing the same opinion with this idea, Amstrong (2000) emphases that visual imagery plays an important role in the student's learning process The individual is processing primarily in pictures rather than words, ideas are interconnected Thus, children will like to explore whatever attracts their attentions
Because of the spatial visual style (Amstrong, 2000), children like to learn through pictures, vocabulary learning is the skill that they like to learn the most Besides vocabulary, story telling is also their favorite skill Chart 3 below shows details about the children's favorite skills:
Sharing the reason for the fact that no student likes to study speaking and listening, many teachers say because students do not have much vocabulary and grammar structures to build sentences or hear the words, so when they study speaking and listening, it seems to be boring to them
Luckily, most of the students seem to have positive attitudes towards English study (80 %)
This is good news for the teachers for once the students love English they will be eager to take part in any learning process and activities
Chart 4 below presents students’ most difficult learning skills, 42.5% of teachers think that story telling is the most difficult because most of the stories are a little bit long and have many new words that are confused the students As a result, this causes negative attitudes
Then 40 percent of teachers agree that listening is the skill that puts students into trouble the most Their reason is that in English, words and sentences have stress and intonation, which is not flat like Vietnamese This is the first time they get familiar to English, so it is difficult to catch the words and sentences' sounds
Chart 4: The most difficult skills to learn
Speaking Listening Story telling Phonic learning
On the contrary, vocabulary receives no idea on this issue This is because when teaching vocabulary teachers use many teaching aids like flashcards, CDs, VCDs, ect Children are very eager to learn with funny clips or pictures So, vocabulary is not difficult for them to learn
Scovel (1999:213) said "children are the world's best imitators", they can learn a new language very well Thus, phonics learning and speaking are not the difficult skills
4.1.3 English teaching methods to children of primary school teachers
According to Richard and Rogers (1986), there are four main language teaching methods: direct method, grammar-translation method, audio-lingual method and communicative language teaching method Chart 5 below reveals the number of teachers in percent of using each method:
Apparently, more than half of the teachers (57.5%) use CLT method to teach, 22.5 percent of them use grammar- translation method the rest 25% use the direct and audio-lingual methods Through the above figures, we can see that the communicative approach receives most teachers’ attentions because according to them, they let students use the language a great deal through communicative activities such as games, role- plays, songs, and problem solving tasks On the contrary, the results of the survey questionnaire, when observing classes, the result is a little bit different 7 teachers use Vietnamese in the class most of the time about 80 percent except some imperative sentences such as, stand up, sit down, be quite, come in….However, they translate it into Vietnamese right after they say it in English while they totally can say and do some gestures so that students can understand the teacher’s By this way, teachers do not need to translate into Vietnamese because ―their own understanding comes through hands, eyes and ears‖, Ytreberg (1991: 32) Translation is the old method and nowadays teacher should avoid, instead of that teacher can use realia, actions, and gestures to teach the new words Another example of using translation method is in Kien Hung Primary School She shows pictures of the objects and ask children ―tell me what it is?‖ Students will answer in L1 After that, teacher sticks the picture and its English as well as Vietnamese words next to the picture Their reason is that they feel the need to explain everything into Vietnamese They worry about their students' misunderstanding Therefore, they use Vietnamese with a great deal of time in the class This makes it easy to understand the result of question number ten
On the other hand, teacher in Doan Ket primary school uses communicative method to teach children Particularly, she presents vocabulary by using realia, picture and drawings, gestures and so on As the result, students are enthusiastic to study due to they have chance to experience different kinds of approaches and more important, ―they can use their vivid imaginations‖, Ytreberg (1991: 32)
Question 10 indicates the time distribution in one period Most of the teachers in Hadong have rather good time distributions for each activity For instant, time allotted for warm- up activity is five minutes, for presentation is fifteen minutes, for practice is ten minutes and for production is five minutes The reasons of this may come from the form of the lesson plan According to the teachers, they all use the lesson plan form that the Hadong Department of Education requires in which the time for each activity is fixed In additon, in terms of using variety of activities, Amstrong (2000) says children usually communicate with body language and gestures They will get bored with just one or two activities In one period teachers use only one or two activities such as, ―slap the board‖, ―Chinese whisper‖ or ―hot seat‖ They use these activities again and again without adopting the new ones or adapting the old ones Besides, the ways of presenting vocabulary are not variable Instead of using pictures, realia, puppets, miming, they just use one of those methods to present vocabulary in the whole teaching period
From the result of question 11, only 8 teachers use English to teach at the level of 60 percent to 80 percent And the rest 32 teachers use English at the level of 30 percent to 50 percent
Chart 6 : Teachers' using English in classroom
Obviously, it is not a good signal because there are still a lot of teachers using English in the class with a little amount of time
Sharing the reason with the researcher, most of them think it is difficult for students to understand when they speak English in the class most of the time Moreover, their EL is not so good to speak, especially their pronunciation That's why they do not prefer speaking English in the class
Being aware of the fact that "music can provide a relaxed lesson on a hot boring day It can also form the basis for many lessons" (Slattery & Willis, 2001: 33) When observing, 7 teachers usually teach English through games and songs However, there are still 3 teachers do not apply games and songs into teaching Especially in the warm-up, a very important step which helps to motivate students and prepare their good mood to get into the new lesson ―For young learners, the warm- up activities should be songs and games that can best create the exciting atmosphere in class‖ (Pinter, 1997: 232) However, one teacher does not have this opening activity He goes straight forwards to the new lesson Another use questions to review the previous lesson in the warm up, it sounds pretty boring to young children They feel nervous, for if they cannot remember the previous lesson, teacher will probably punish them
Thus, this really de-motivates students On the contrary, 7 teachers have games and songs in their warm- up step As a result, children are eager to start the lesson Some of the students said, ―Teacher, what is our game today?‖ In Le Loi primary school, when teacher enter the class, students shout out eagerly, ―we like to sing the song yesterday you gave us ―head, shoulder, knees and toes; so teacher, can you play that song now?‖ The reasons for the situation, according to many teachers, is that when they have students play games or chant, they make a lot of noise and this makes difficult for the teacher to control the class
Professional training courses for teachers…
The data in this table give information about the teachers’ training program：
12 The teacher training program is offered frequently a Agree b Disagree
13 The time allocation for teacher training program is enough a Enough b A little c Much 7 17.50 29 72.50 4 10
14 The training program is relevant with the requirement of the course a Very b Quite c A little d Not at all 9 22.50 20 50 11 27.5
15 The training program is well organized a Well organized b Not well organized 18 45 22 55
Table 2:Professional training courses for teachers
The percentage of teachers with the disagreed answers is 57.5 percent Sharing with the researcher about the time of their training program, they say that they receive the training program only once a year Only 42.5 percent of the teachers have the opposite answer
According to them, three times (before the first semester, in the middle of the semester 1 and semester 2) are enough The cause of the different figures is that they teach for different English programs, so the teacher training program they get is also different This leads to the teachers’ different opinions on the time allocation of the training program Most of the teachers (72.5%) think that the time allocation spent in training teachers is just a little, some others (17.5 %) reckon that the time allocation for the training program is enough and 10 percent of teachers show the idea that much of time is spent for the training program An average amount of time for the teaching program, personally I think, is at least three times a year Through the data we see that there is still a lack of time for the training program
Question fourteen deals with the relevance of the training program with the requirements of the course Fifty percent of teachers consider the content of the training program is quite relevant with the requirements of the course, 22.5 percent of others think that it is very relevant, and the same number (27.5%) of teachers think that it is a little relevant It may be because when providing the training program, the trainer does not put the agreement of the training content with the course’s requirement into scale To provide a suitable training program, in my opinion, the trainer should have a deep look on the aims of the course and may have to do a survey questionnaire to get teacher’s opinions on what they want to be trained from which the training program will meet the teachers’ needs as well as the course aims
In terms of the organization of the training program, 45 percent of the teachers agree that it is well organized, opposite to 55% of the teachers Many of them give the researcher information about the way that the training program is organized Some training programs are provided with all the theoretical teaching methods on all teaching skills at a time Some others are organized by dividing the teaching skills into small segments and giving theoretical teaching methods for those skills one by one and finally conducting teachers’ micro teaching
Besides, some teachers express that they receive the training program through trainer’s giving all theoretical teaching methods of all teaching skills first and then conducting teachers’ micro teaching and the teachers’ discussing about the problems in teaching then coming up with solutions to those problems 45 percent of the teachers like the second type of organization most because they have chance to take a deep look on the teaching methods of every teaching skill and they also take part in micro teaching through which they can experience applying the new teaching methods into the real situation and observe their colleague’s micro teaching so that they can get some experiences from this
Chart 7 : Needed - to - be - trained skills
Teaching Vocabulary Reading Speaking Listening Writing
Chart 7 shows us the figure of the teaching skills that teachers need to be trained in question sixteen Nearly half of them (47.5%) think that phonics teaching is the skill that they need to be trained the most, 37.5 percent of them want to be trained the methods to teach listening most
12.5 percent of the teachers think that speaking is the teaching skill that needs to be trained most Five percent of the teachers think vocabulary teaching needs to be trained most While only 2.5 percent of the teachers need to be trained writing and reading because the course does not focus on these two skills in grade one.
Classroom management
In addition to the teaching method, classroom management is also a vital element that makes the teaching successful First, let us have a look at the number of student in one class because it has deep influences on the teacher's classroom management
Chart 8: Number of students in one class
From the result of question 17 is showed in chart 8 and ten teachers' classrooms observations, there are a big number of students in a class with the average of students accounts for thirty to fifty Out of ten classes observed, Doan Ket is the one which has the biggest number of students with 46 students per class, the other schools contain from thirty five to forty While Hollin (1997: 129) stated: "twenty to twenty five children in an English class in favorable." Compared to the number of students in primary schools in Hadong, we can see that no schools in Hadong are able to meet that standard As a result, it is difficult to control the class Most of teachers control the class by shouting at the trouble maker(s), punishing them by asking them to stand still at their seat or standing facing to the class, or standing on the corner of the board or minusing the points of their team Some other teachers control the noise by dividing the class into groups and create competitive atmosphere in the class, if any group makes noise, the teacher will not give stars for that group; and at the end of the period, the group which has the most stars will be winner
By this way, the students try to keep quite during the class in order to become the winner However, teacher in Van Khe keeps the students quite by writing the names of some noisemakers on the corner of the board Students seem very scare of this because they may do not want the other students to make fun of them In the classroom management part, Hill (1985: 31) expresses: ―try and achieve a warm, friendly, relaxed atmosphere in which young learners feel comfortable, competent and most important secure.‖ And setting rules to keep disciplines to define teachers’ expectations for their students at the beginning of the school year Whereas, most of teachers in Hadong create a nervous atmosphere for students for they may think that by so doing, students will follow the disciplines
For the question 19, 33 teachers accounting for 82.5 % do not have different types of work arrangements (pair work, group work, individuals or chorally) during the class period
This is clearly presents in chart 9 below:
Chart 9: Student's work in classroom
When observing lessons, the researcher find that choral repetition is used by most of the teachers; the other types of work arrangements receive little attentions from the teachers For grade one, teachers need to take care every students to check their pronunciation because this stage is very important; if children mispronounce words, later they will take them ingrained One important thing in the classroom management that I think teachers in Hadong still cannot achieve is that they seem not to give praises or encouragements to children As we know, it is important to praise them to keep their enthusiasm and feel successful from the beginning (Pyles and Algae, 1970)
Moreover, the way desks and chairs is arranged also affects the teachers' classroom management All the classes in Hadong Primary Schools have desks and chairs arranged in rows It is not effective when teaching English especially teaching English to children
Because during the class, students have many activities and they need room to take part in those activities Working in rows makes difficult to move and also it wastes time and always makes much noise When being asked about the reason for not arranging in U shape, teachers say that there are big number of students in one class Also, in many schools, English class and music class and classes for other subjects share the same room Therefore, there is no other way than to arrange desks and chairs in rows.
Teaching curriculum
In an English program, teaching curriculum plays an important role To have a deep look on the teaching curriculum in primary schools in Hadong, it is necessary for us to look at the collected data in table 3 Question 21 represents the agreement of the curriculum and students’ levels The reason for the answer of 52.5 percent of teachers is that they are using
Phonics and Let's Learn as the course books
21 How does the teaching curriculum suit students’ level? 0 0 21 52.50 19 47.50 0 0 a not at all b quite c a little d much
22 What are the focused skills in the curriculum?
7 17.50 21 52.50 12 30 0 0 a Reading and writing b Listening and speaking c Pronunciation
23 What is the time distribution of the curriculum?
23 57.50 17 42.50 0 0 0 0 a One period per lesson b Two periods per lesson c Three periods per lesson d More than three periods per lesson
24 How many skills are taught in one teaching period?
0 0 7 17.50 33 82.50 0 0 a One b Two c Three d More than three
Students with these two books get familiar with some short sounds, short words and short sentences For example, in the course book Phonics, some vowels in a short word like
/ӕ/ in apple, /e/ in bed or consonants like /h/ in hat or /m/ in mom are taught In Let's Learn book, short sentences like "I am Mai, What's your name? are taught Teachers in those schools using these books say that it is easy to understand for students Unlikely, Next Stop or Family and Friends , words and sentences different from unit to unit, the level of difficulty of words and structures are increasing Take for example, in unit 1, children study some words like: mom, dad, sister, boy, girl, but in unit 2 they are dealing with grandmother, grandfather, or pencil case At grade one, it is a little difficult for them to remember the long words However, only 47.5 percent of teachers think that the curriculum a little suits the students’ level that means we should have a deep look at this issue
In addition, the difference in course books also leads to the unsimilarity in the focused skills in question 22 52.5 percent of the teachers express that speaking and listening are the focused skills; other 17.5 percent of them think that reading and writing are central skills and the other 30 percent of teachers indicate that it is pronunciation which is focused skill in the teaching curriculum According to the Decision No 3321 by the Ministry of Education and Training (2010), one of the detailed targets is helping students to communicate with four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, of which, listening and speaking are the most focused skills One more time, we have to consider the English program so that there would be the agreement of the curriculum with students’ level and the focused skills would be suitable to grade one students
As far as curriculum distribution is concerned in question 23, a lesson is conducted in one period by 57.5 percent of teachers, and a lesson is taught in two periods by 42.5% of teachers The reason for this difference, according to the teachers, is that there are different
English programs in each school and each program has a different teaching curriculum And, the time distribution is different correspondingly
Question 24 lets us know about the number of skills taught in one teaching period
Mass of the teachers (82.5 %) have to teach three skills in one period and the other teachers (17.5 %) conduct two skills in one teaching period because each lesson is designed with different skills (usually speaking, vocabulary, and listening), so if they have to teach lesson in one periods, it means that they have to teach three skills and if the lesson is taught in two periods, then the teachers have to teach two skills in one period.
Teaching materials and teaching aids
The process of teaching - learning depends much on the different types of equipments available in the classroom There are many aids available these days like, audio, visual and audio- visual aids They play a very important role in teaching - learning process because every individual has the tendency to forget Proper use of teaching aids helps to retain more concepts permanently for students can learn better when they are motivated properly through different teaching aids (Nikky, 2010)
Table 4 below reveals issues related to the teaching materials and teaching aids, a key factor in any teaching program
There are 37.5 percent of teachers use Phonics as the course book, Next Stop is also used in the course by 32.5 percent of teachers and the other teachers (17.5 %) use Let’s Learn
While 12.5 percent of teachers use Family and Friends as the course book Each book focuses on different skills, so the relevance of the material and the curriculum is different accordingly
Twenty one teachers agree that the course book meets the curriculum's requirements and nearly the same number do not agree According to the teachers, some parts in the textbook do not meet the teaching curriculum’s requirements Take for example, speaking is a focused skill in the curriculum but in the textbook, listening or pronunciation is a central skill This is because when the head of the school whose English is not his/ her major chooses a textbook, maybe he/she does not put a thorough attention on it
25 Does the course book meet the curriculum's requirements? 19 47.50 21 52.50
26 Is the course book attached enough materials? 11 27.50 29 72.50
27 Is the course book designed with colorful pictures? 31 77.50 9 22.50
28 Do you usually make teaching aids? 29 72.50 11 27.50
Table 4:Teaching materials and teaching aids
As we know, materials without aids are not valid at all The result of question 26 still makes us worry because in most of schools, the material used is textbook only Only 27.5 percent of the teachers agree that the teaching materials are attached enough The rest of the teachers who have the opposite answer, give many reasons Those teachers from schools where Next Stop book is being used say that it is a very interesting book but there is not VCD attached In this book, there are many stories, many funny clips If only there was a VCD together with flashcards, that would be perfect Other reason goes from teachers from schools where Let's Learn and Family and Friends are being used There are no flashcards attached, this leads to the difficulty in teaching for children, especially teaching vocabulary It can be seen that there is a big demand of using aids for teaching while the available aids in use are limited This emerges a need of making aids for teaching Question 2 8 shows the teachers’ frequency of making teaching aids The majority of teachers (72.5%) always make aids for themselves; the other 27.5 percent of them sometimes do this because it wastes their time and money According to them, English is a very special subject which requires many different aids if you want to have a successful lesson Therefore, many teachers try their best to find real objects, pictures and many things to get the success of the lesson
Question 27, one more time, gives a good news for the teachers and learners because all the books are designed with a lot of colorful pictures, this is a favorable condition for teachers to teach, it also helps to attract students’ attentions.
Teaching conditions
29 How many 1 st grade- classes are there in your schools?
9 22.5 7 17.5 26 65 a four b five c six d seven e eight
30 Beside grade one, what grade do you teach?
You can choose more than one options 0 0 19 47.5 14 35 24 60 0 0 a two b three c four d five e only grade one
31 How many teachers of English are there in your school? 4 10 31 77.5 5 12.5 a 1 b 2 c 3 d.4 e 5 f 6
32 How many periods of class time do you teach per week?
From the results of question from twenty nine to thirty two are shơwn in Table 5, we can have a deep look on the teaching conditions of each teacher 65 percent of the teachers say that there are six 1 st grade classes in their schools, other 22.5% of them express that there are four classes, and five classes of grade one are in schools of the other 17.5% of teachers However, teachers not only teach grade one but they also have to teach other classes such as, grade three, four or five One hundred percent of the teachers teach other grades besides grade one
Moreover, thirty one teachers express that there are two teachers of English in their schools, five of them say that there are three English teachers and the rest four teachers say that there is only one teacher of English in their schools Through the above figures, we can see that each teacher has to teach too many classes Some teachers have to teach 8 classes per week In addition to those things mentioned, we also talk about the number of teaching periods that they have to teach per week Teachers share different ideas about this; particularly, 45 percent of teachers teach 25 -30 periods per week, other 22.5 percent of them teach 20 – 25 periods and
20 percent of the teachers teach 15- 20 periods and the rest 12.5 percent of them teach 10 – 15 periods per week These numbers are just for grade one Besides, they have to teach other grades, so the number of the teaching periods in a week is very big
In brief, through survey questionnaires and classroom observations, we can see that most of the teachers in Hadong have big difficulties in the teaching method, classroom management, and teaching facilities among which teaching method is the most difficult one because most of them have no or a little training in English teaching for children The results of this part will be discussed in detail in the ― findings” part below.
Findings
Thanks to the teachers’ survey questionnaire, classroom observations and analyzed statistics, we can see all teachers’ difficulties in teaching English for grade one In general, teachers have to confront to the problems as briefly mentioned following:
Firstly, teaching method is clearly seen as teacher’s most difficulties in teaching English for children for all of the teachers in Hadong graduated from colleges which train teachers to become secondary or high school teachers As the matter of fact, at that time in Vietnam there were not any colleges or universities training primary school teachers Thus, when they come to primary schools to teach children, they usually apply the methods as if they were teaching for secondary or high schools students into teaching for children Because teaching English for children is not teachers’ major, they have no understanding on the nature of children, characteristics, stages of developments, learning style, for instant, which are clearly mentioned in the literature review As a result, teachers do not meet the aims of the lesson and the course as well as the standard requirements of teaching English for children
Furthermore, majority of the teachers in Hadong still employs translation method in their teaching While there are very few teachers using communicative method in their teaching
Moreover, the variety of activities is still limited In fact, a large number of teachers use maximum two activities in the class period
Secondly, they do not get enough teachers’ training program Because they have no experiences in teaching English for children, obviously they really need to be trained but the training program is provided inadequately just about twice a year sometimes once a year
Moreover, the training program, to some extent, does not meet the teachers’ needs Take for example, story telling and phonics are the two teaching skills that teachers need to be trained most They are just given some training on skills that they feel quite confident to teach On the other hand, according to a workshop held by British council in April the fifth in Hanoi about teacher training course, they point out that teachers should be received training course at least three times a year Besides, if there are any changes in the teaching curriculum or text books, teachers must be provided extra training courses to adapt those changes
Besides, classroom management is one of the most difficult for most of the teachers in Hadong because of the following reasons First, they have a very big class in terms of number of children In average, they have about 30 - 50 children in class; this leads to difficulties in controlling class, specially when having students play games In addition, teachers cannot take care of them one by one and as a result students have no chance to practice speaking or just a little And thus, choral repetition is used by teachers most of the time While pair works, group work and individual work are not employed Also, the interaction is mostly from teachers to students instead of students to students Moreover, the arrangement of chairs and desks is also a barrier for teachers to convey the lesson With in - rows shape, it is not convenient to for pupils to take part in activities As we see in the picture of the classroom observation part, students are standing, singing and acting it out in space of the desks and chairs which is very inconvenient for them to move their arms and legs While the ideal arrangement for an English class is ―U‖ shape but there is not such an arrangement in any English class in Hadong On the other hand, none of primary schools in Hadong has such type of classroom arrangement This result in lack of activities in the class for it is very difficult for teachers to carry activities in such a class which chairs and desks are in –rows shape
Compared to children’s learning styles and stages of development in literature review, children learn well through games, images, and activities which involve them in reflections
Especially, activities concerns with the physical movements that help them feel more confident and more social in learning process However the classroom arrangement feature in Hadong cannot help meet the standard In addition, vast of the teachers lack techniques to correct students mistakes They usually ignore the students’ mistakes or they correct the mistakes in improper ways Besides, a large number of teachers do not encourage or praise students when they have done their tasks well As we know, ―it is important to praise them if they are to keep their enthusiasm and feel successful from the beginning.‖ (Pyles & Algae, 1970: 45) Moreover, the ways teachers deal with students’ misbehaviors in the class are also taken into account A great deal of teachers still use punishments to control the class such as having students stand on the board, facing to the wall, or sitting in the desk which is deserted from his/ her friends According to the teachers, the number of students in each class is big, so they employ the strict methods to deal with students’ making noise and disobeying
In addition, the curriculum distribution is still heavy for teachers as well as students
There is only one period for each lesson with more than two skills to be taught in thirty five minutes As a result, it is also heavy for grade one - students to acquire three parts of one lesson within thirty five minutes For instant, in a vocabulary lesson there are three parts; part one is presentation of six new words, part two is a task, and part three is a practice activity (a speaking activity, or a game) In my opinion, two periods for each lesson seems more suitable for grade one - students This helps to put less pressure on teachers in teaching as well as students in learning
Furthermore, the textbook somehow does not match the content of the teaching curriculum properly We can see this clearly through the focused skills in the curriculum and that in the textbook This makes teachers difficult to achieve the aims of the teaching curriculum Therefore, I think teachers should make a careful choice on the textbook to make it suitable with the curriculum
Also, the aids required in the materials and those available for use at schools are not synchronous Take for example, some materials require flashcards and VCD but the aids available for use are tapes or CD without flashcards and so on There are no agreements between the required aids and the available ones while teaching aids play a very important part in teaching in general and teaching English in particular
Besides, teachers’ English proficiency is one of the difficulties for the teachers in Hadong According to Mr Trinh Quoc Hach, specialist of English in Hanoi Department of Education, for the time being, Hanoi has 30 percent of primary school teachers get common European frame B2 And most of them are in the central part of Hanoi This means that in Hadong the number of teachers who reach the standard is still limited
Finally yet importantly, teaching condition is also a difficulty for teachers because most of them have to teach many different classes with a large number of teaching periods because beside grade one, they have to teach other grades Also, there are not many teachers of English at school, that is why they feel teaching is a big burden, it is not a passion any more, according to some teachers.
Summary
In brief, this chapter deals with the analysis on the figures found in the questionnaires and class observations through which the findings are emerged Once conducting the analysis, the main difficulties of teachers in Hadong are diagnosed In short, teachers in Hadong have difficulties in English teaching method for children, lack of teacher’s professional training course, classroom management skills Also, they are teaching with heavy teaching curriculum, lack of teaching materials, teaching aids, and teaching conditions with so many classes in a week From all of these difficulties, possible solutions are emerged to those problems in the next chapter
This part deals with teachers’ difficulties in teaching English for grade one in Hadong and giving suggestions or possible solutions to the problems in the findings
There are seven suggestions to be generated: improving teachers’ English proviciency, strengthening teachers' English methodology, equipping enough teaching facilities, making a good choice on materials, adjusting the numbers of children in a class, increasing time for the training program, and adjusting teachers’ teaching hours.
For teachers
Improving teachers' English proficiency
As mentioned above, the number of teachers reach the common European framework at B2 level in Hadong is quite limited; as a result, this emerges a need to improve teachers’
- Improving pronunciation practice: It is very clear that pronunciation is extremely important to English learners in general and to children in particular In reality, teachers are not master in pronunciation When observing the class, I can see that most of them (90 %) get pronunciation mistakes Thus, it is very urgent for the teachers to improve their pronunciation This can be done by looking it up in the dictionary all the transcriptions, listening to the CD before going to school to get the correct pronunciation
- Improving teachers’ language skills: Teachers themselves have to improve their language to achieve common European framework at B2 level According to the Ministry of Education, all of the teachers teaching in primary must get this standard Eventually they must get this standard or they cannot be teachers Teachers can take some English courses that train for this level and then take examination to get B2 certificate
- Strengthening lexicon – grammar knowledge: It is apparent that English teachers should be the masters of English In terms of language skills and language elemenets, if listening, speaking, reading, writing and pronunciation are stems and branches of a tree, grammar is the root Thus, teachers must study hard to master it They can widen their knowledge by reading grammar books, learning from internet, or taking some grammar courses to consolidate grammar rules and update the latest ones.
Strengthening teachers' teaching methodology for young learners
Teachers of English in primary schools in Hadong need to be trained in methods of teaching English for children due to the role of teachers in teaching and learning process has already altered They are no longer expected to dominate all work in the classroom explaining new words by translating into Vietnamese, ect., which can create a passive habit of children’s learning However, the teachers’ tasks are to create learning environment in the classroom in which children can learn by engaging in activities or working on tasks Nowadays, students are the centre of teaching and learning process Not only do the teachers achieve common European framework B2 level which is regulated by the Ministry of education but they also must be artists, singers, dancers, good story tellers and so on
These are very useful for teachers at any primary schools for children learn through imagination not explanation For instance, when teacher presents a word ―banana‖, instead of describing how a banana looks like and tastes, she does an action of peeling a banana and then children will know what word the teacher is presenting right away Teachers have to use gestures most of the time in the class, especially when presenting vocabulary
To improve teaching methodology, there are ways that many schools are conducting effectively such as:
Have teachers take part in teaching training programs in a sufficient amount of time (at least three times a year) When having a training program, the holder should follow these steps:
- Pre - training stage: Make a survey to investigate what teaching skills need to be trained for teachers most
- While training stage: to get the desired effects, the training should be organized by this way:
Have teachers work in groups of six or ten
Give a model teaching on each skill one by one
Get teachers work in groups and draw all steps for teaching that skill while they are observing the teaching demo
Teachers are asked to present the skill orally
Trainer summarizes the steps for teaching that skill
Teachers work in groups and choose a certain teaching skill to give a micro- teaching
Trainer and teachers give feedbacks to the teacher’s micro- teaching (Richards &
Have teachers learn from others through making class observations in their colleagues’ classes Look at the teaching schedule and find out the spare time of each teacher Then have them to take part in another English class to observe After each observation, teacher has to write a report which reveals all teachings steps and all comments about that teaching period; which stages or activities are good and which ones need to improved , and give some suggestions to the problems
Hold some teacher conferences in which teachers will have chances to share teaching experiences Through these conferences, teachers can get a lot of benefits from theirs colleagues
Have some practice teaching on certain topics:
Choose a teaching skill that is a difficult for teachers to teach
Select a strong teacher who teaches this skill well
Invite all teachers in that district to take part in the teaching demo in real class
While teachers are observing the teaching demo, they have to take notes all teaching steps After finishing the teaching, all teachers will give feedbacks and comments to the teaching demo This activity should be held monthly due to it is very useful for teachers
Also, teachers should consider the ways to exploit, use and develop materials in harmony with students’ levels and learning styles In deed, most of the materials need to be adapted when used because they are designed for mass of the students in a large scale, not only for particular ones Thus, sometimes they may not be suitable with the students’ levels Teachers must know about this and adapt materials accordingly This will help to create an effective teaching and learning
Besides, teachers also need to be trained technology for primary English classroom It is very common nowadays that many schools apply technology in teaching such as using projectors, screens, liquid crystal projectors (LCP), active boards, and so on These technologies are still not familiar with the teachers in Vietnam in general and teachers in
Hadong in particular As a result, they need to be trained to use and apply these things in their teaching
In addition, teachers need to be equipped with classroom observation skills Most of the teachers can go to class to make classroom observation, but not many of them grasp the process of this They need to be provided classroom observation sheets to record teaching procedure and give comments for the teaching period Also some principles when observing the class should be given to the teachers in order to help them focus on the needed issues
Richard & Lockhart (2005) suggested principles for classroom observation as follow:
- Pre – observation stage: the goal of the pre-observation discussion is to identify the instructor’s learning goals for the students, the materials used in the lesson, her or his strategies for meeting these goals
- During the class observation: during the class visit, the observer takes notes both on what he or she observes (describing what the instructor and students are doing at each moment) and his/ her responses to the behaviors (e.g., comments on the observer’s level of understanding or reactions to the material and what aspects of class help or hinder that understanding, questions that come up in observer’s mind, the observer’ emotional reactions drawn from students’ behaviors, etc.) An effective way to take notes is to use a split – page format : A line is drawn down the middle of the paper On the left, the observer makes notes on the content and instructor’s actions On the right, the observer makes notes his or her response to the material or situation, questions that come up for him or her, or other commentary
- Post – observation stage: the instructor and observer should discuss the class as soon after the class as possible Ideally, the discussion occurs immediately after the observed class session when it is still fresh in both their minds An early meeting also helps to relieve any anxiety related to the visit that is felt by the instructor
Finally, it is ideal if the teachers keep teaching journals, portfolio and lesson plans:
―Keeping a teaching journal gives teachers a space to generate teaching ideas, work out pedagogical problems, reflect on your successes and struggles in the classroom, and put your past insights to work in planning future courses‖ (Scott & Ytreberg, 1991) Teaching journal as a place to record all of the course marginalia that does not make its way into formal teaching documents (such as assignment sheets) Teachers can typically write in journal as soon as possible after each class session, keeping what happened during that class fresh in mind Teachers compose a short summary of the class, and then reflect on and evaluate how lesson went Of course, this isn’t the only time—or the only material—that teachers write in teaching journal They can keep it with them all the time so that at the spur of the moment they can jot down ideas They also use journal during class sessions–for example, to write down smart things their students say.
Equipping classroom management methods to teachers
ESL and TEFL teachers often do not have class management training that their primary school colleagues benefit from Without preparation, it can be somewhat of a shock to take on a classroom of energetic children Here are some tips and ideas to help teachers contain the pupils' enthusiasm to a manageable level, which is shared by Shelly Ann Vernon, a game writer for ESL English teachers
- Have pupils define the rules in the first lesson, and post them on the wall for reference Knowing why a rule is in place makes it easier to keep You must establish the rules on day one and stick to them!
- Be consistent in applying your rules If teachers are arbitrary about how to dish out rewards or 'consequences', or punishments teachers will undermine the rules themselves
- Praise good behavior to generate love and self-esteem Whatever the teachers do, avoid being like so many parents who spend their whole time telling their children, "don't do this", and "don't do that"
- There is nothing so sweet as the sound of one's own name So use an individual's name for praise and avoid using it when ticking someone off
- Prevention is better than cure, so try giving boisterous students an important task before they start to play up They may respond well to the responsibility
- Do not break teachers’ rules by raising your voice to be heard Instead, talk quietly or stop and wait Your pupils should know that for every minute you are kept waiting they will receive extra homework, or whatever consequence you have designated
- Hand things out quickly or use a system to have things handed out, such as giving the well-behaved students the task as a reward Sing a song together or do some counting to occupy the class while materials are handed out
- Play a mystery game and say that during the activity you will be watching out for 3 well-behaved students who will be rewarded
- Create teams and use peer pressure to encourage good behavior Deduct or reward behavior points to a team's score during a game
- Start a song the children know and love – they will all join in with teacher and at the end teacher will have their attention
- Clap out a pattern that they must clap back, or start a rhyme they know with actions
- Use quiet cues such as heads down or lights off
- For children aged 6 to 12 you could think up a fun 1 to 5 with actions such as clap your hands, turn around, sit down, eyes front, finger on lips" Teachers would adapt this idea depending on the space they have in their class
- Not comply start counting 1, 2,… The child knows that if teacher gets to 3 there will be some sort of consequence, such as missing out on the next game If teacher uses this and she/he reaches three, she/he must follow through with an appropriate consequence consistently
Moreover, teachers should balance the use of L1 and L2 in the class because the plenty of teachers are abusing L1 in classroom instead of L2 In an English class, teachers should use English in an appropriate amount to form an English classroom environment for students
Last but not least, teachers need to create communicative English environment for children Not many teachers can do this because most of them teach English in a traditional way They need to employ games, songs, dramas into the class period because by this way, not only can they create an exciting and relaxing atmosphere but they also can bring chance for children to take part in conversations naturally, that is, communication
To summarize, establishing the rules and consequences for good and bad behavior, apply them consistently, set a good example, use peer pressure and points, and use attention grabbing cues such as favorite songs, rhymes with actions and countdowns
Teachers can be firm and fun at the same time, and if they cannot manage their class, teachers should realize that, although it sounds harsh to say it, they are wasting their time
For stake-holders
teaching facilities decide the teaching and learning’s success Slattery (2001), a book writer emphasized, ―teaching facilities are teachers’ useful tools.‖ Thus, beside the existing teaching facilities like chalk, board, cassette player, course book, it is necessary to equip the classroom with modern facilities such as television, CD players, CD, VCD, laptop, PCs, projectors, overhead projectors, screens, cassette players, tapes, and microphone In addition, flashcards, pictures, puppets, posters, word cards, etc The modern facilities will make the lesson more attractive as the teacher can explain the subjects lively and effectively It also helps to save time and energy Furthermore, it is very important to equip a library with various reference books on ESL English teachers
If teachers are equipped these facilities as above, their teaching will be carried out effectively and easily Also, it create a positive attitudes towards teaching and learning from teachers as well as students
Second, the materials should be chosen very carefully When it is chosen, these factors must be taken into account:
- The material serves the curriculum’s requirements/ aims
- It catches children’s eyes This means that the material is designed with all colorful pages and attractive pictures
- It has an appropriate skill distribution in each lesson Each lesson should contain at least two skills to be taught
- The material is attached with a variety of teaching aids
- The content of the material is easy and interesting for children to get access
Third, to get an effective English class, the numbers of children in large – size class should be adjusted Through the statistics in the previous part, it can be seen that the number of children in each English class is overloaded Thus, it is necessary to adjust the children in terms of quantity According to a teaching English for children forum in Taiwan in June 2009, each class should include from twenty to twenty five children so that all of them can get guidance and feedbacks from the teacher equally
Besides, time for the training course should be increased According to many teachers, the time for teacher training program is still insufficient Thus, the need of more time for it is emerged Training program should be given to teachers from three to five times a year
Finally, teachers’ teaching hour must be put into consideration As mentioned in the previous part, most of the teachers in Hadong have to teach about 25 – 30 periods per week
This is a big number of teaching periods If teachers have to teach a lot, they will not have time to prepare the lesson well Moreover, they will be very tired; As a result, this affects teachers’ health as well as teaching and learning results From twenty to twenty five periods per week are enough for teachers.
Summary
In short, this chapter presents the useful suggestions to the difficulties found in the findings Not only do the teachers but also the educational managers get benefits from those suggestions by the detailed guidelines for teachers to conduct their class such as the suggestions to classroom management and holding the teacher training course This has a significant contribution to the present education in Hadong in particular and in the whole country in general
In conclusion, an overall picture of the study is provided with a brief description of the study as well as the findings and conclusions In addition, there are some suggested solutions for ESL teachers of English for young learners Finally, the limitations of the study are notified and some recommendations for further studies are suggested.
Conclusions
This study aims at finding the difficulties of teachers of English teaching for grade one in Hadong district and then offers some suggestions to overcome those difficulties This study was carried out in terms of both theory and practice The study started with reviews children background such as, characteristics, stages of developments, learning styles, teaching methodologies in teaching English for children on four skills, and classroom management in an ESL class for children The next chapter described an over view on current situation of teaching and learning English in primary schools in Hadong district This led the readers to the teachers and students’ backgrounds, teaching materials and teaching facilities in Hadong
In order to find out the problems, a survey questionnaire is employed to collect data from the twenty primary schools in Hadong with forty teachers of English for grade one The goal of this instrument is to find out difficulties at teachers in grade one are confronting The findings have shown that some difficulties that the teachers face to are lack of teaching methods for children, lack of training program, lack of teaching facilities, lack of classroom management skills, big number of children in the class, overloaded teaching hours, also the teachers' master of English needed to be improved
Based on the study’s findings, some solutions are suggested to overcome those difficulties including training for the teachers in teaching methodology, master of English as well as classroom management, equipping enough teaching facilities, making a good choice of materials, adjusting number of children in the class and teachers’ teaching hours, increasing time allocation for teacher training program
Of all those difficulties, according to teachers, teaching methodology and classroom management as well as teaching facilities are the big problems for them Through some suggestions of this study, they can help teachers deal with the problems they are facing Some of them can make the teachers deal with several difficulties effectively.
Limitations and suggestions for further studies
Although the paper has accomplished the objectives set at the beginning, the thesis cannot avoid some limitations
Firstly, the target of the subjects of this study are limited to forty teachers in grade one at twenty primary schools in Hadong district
Secondly, the suggestions in the last chapter are likely to be subjective
Finally, within the limitation of a minor thesis, the study does not deal with all difficulties and their causes of teaching English for grade one in details
This urges the author to make research which is more thorough and wider in terms of content and scale on teachers' difficulties in teaching English for primary school children in further studies
Despite all the aforementioned limitations, it is hoped that the study will make a contribution to the better situation of researching and for primary school teachers for grade one in Hadong district
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APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS
This survey questionnaire is designed to support my study on ―difficulties in teaching English for grade one in Hadong district‖ Your assistance in completing this survey questionnaire is highly appreciated and will help in the development of better way of teaching English for grade one You can be sure that this questionnaire is for research purpose only and that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data
1 What are your big problems in teaching English for children?
2 What do you think is the most difficult to teach English to 1st grade students?
3 In your opinion, how feasible is teaching English for grade one? a Feasible b Not feasible State the reasons for your choice:
4 Did the children study English in preschool? a Yes, they did b No, they didn’t
5 How do the children like the textbook? a Really b Rather c A little d Not at all
State the reasons for that:
6 What do the children like to study the most? a Speaking b Listening c Vocabulary d Phonics e Story telling
7 To what extent do the children like studying English? a Not at all b A little c Quite d Really
8 What do you think the most difficult skills for your students to learn? And why?
9 What teaching method do you use to teach English for your children? a Grammar translation b Communicative Language Teachingc Audial - lingual d Direct
10 What is your time distribution in one period?
11 Circle the number to indicate the time of teacher’s use of English in class a b c d e
12 The teacher training program is offered frequently a Agree b Disagree
13 The time allocation for teacher training program is enough a Enough b A little c Much