INTRODUCTION
Rationale
English is the increasingly offered at primary level (Enever & Moon, 2009;
Nikolov, 2009b) because of the following major reasons:
(i) The widespread assumption that earlier language learning is better (Y
(ii) The response to the ever-increasing demand for English as a result of economic globalization (Enever & Moon, 2009; Gimenez, 2009; Hu, Y., 2007)
Such a demand leads to pressure on governments from international economic forces to ensure there is an English-speaking workforce
(iii) The pressure from parents in the national context who want their children to benefit socially and economically from learning English (Brock-Utne
In an effort to become more competitive in the global market, Vietnam, as many other countries in South Asia, has declared English the dominant foreign language to be taught in schools across the country As a result, in the last 10 years, the government has launched out the project teaching and learning foreign languages – Project 2020, in the 3321 decision, the primary curriculum has been revised and emphasis has been given on learning English English is being taught in almost primary schools from grade 3 all over the country The main objectives of teaching English in primary level education in Viet Nam are to enable students to understand simple commands, requests and instructions in English and carry them out The students can speak and converse in simple English and also can read to comprehend the textbooks set for their age group and level They also write words, simple sentences, passages, paragraphs, informal letters and numbers according to their age group and level
Unfortunately many students, especially students of the rural primary schools are unable to attain the primary English language competencies due to prevailing challenges in our education system A survey is intended to do at primary schools in a province to find out: challenges that teachers, students encounters; what strategies they use to deal with those challenges and how effective they are
Teaching English to primary children did not receive little concern in Vietnam, it was introduced to grade 3 students National and local education professionals, now, have a more serious look at the situation Teaching English to primary children is by nature far different from teaching to other groups of learner Thus, if teachers are not qualified to work with primary children, they may not be able to motivate the children to study, or to use appropriate, effective tasks to develop students’ communicative competence
As a foreign language specialist in a Provincial Department of Education and Training, the author saw a great number of challenges of teaching English to primary children in her province To successfully manage the English teaching- learning throughout the province, the researcher feels the urge to study the challenges perceived by the teachers so that some feasible solutions to the problems can be employed.
Significance of the study
Since this study is concerned the researcher hope that it will contribute to the province’s duty people a general review of difficulties in teaching English at primary schools after some years to do the Decision 3321, therefore there will be policies to help to solve the problems
For the researcher: With the deputy of English Specialist in Teaching
English to primary school students of the province, the researcher can have better understanding about the difficulties of teaching, learning English in primary schools and can be the consultant for teachers, for schools, can propose some methods to have better out come
For the teacher: This study can support the teacher to develop their teaching abilities They can adjust strategies to teach the students In order students will be interested in learning process
For the students: New teaching strategies can help to motivate students to learn English better
This study points out challenges of teaching English at primary schools
Although the survey was conducted in one province, the author believes the challenges are similar in other provinces throughout the country Thus, the results of the study will be of some contribution to education management regarding teacher development and language policy implementation
Professionally, the findings and comments of this study are believed to be relevant to improving the primary English teachers’ quality in Vietnam in general and in the province in particular The study may be of great suggestions for the enhancement of primary English education in Vietnam.
Aims of the study
This study aims to investigate challenges of teaching English at primary schools as perceived by the teachers To be more specific, the objectives of this study are:
- To find out the challenges that English teachers at primary schools are facing with
- To explore the challenges in learning English that children at primary schools are encountered
- To suggest solutions to reduce the problems and challenges of teaching English at primary schools
These aims are formulated into 2 following research questions:
1 What challenges are teachers facing when teaching English at primary schools?
2 What challenges do children at primary schools have in learning English?
Research methods
This study is a survey study Three main instruments of data collection are:
- Questionnaire administers to 100 teachers of English from 100 primary schools within the province to find out the challenges they are faced with as well as the strategies they use to deal with those challenges
- Interviews with selected teachers to gain more in-depth information about issues raised in the questionnaires responses
- Classroom observations to find out the challenges learners have in learning English.
Participants
Participants are 100 teachers from 100 primary schools throughout the province and their students Data collected from questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively Data from interviews and class observation were qualitatively analyzed into corresponding topics for triangulation and for answering questions.
Scope of the study
Dealing with challenges of all types is too broad for a study of this size
Therefore, the focus of this study is to investigate some challenges relating to professional supports that primary teachers receive from local and national level in their teaching of English at primary schools.
Organization of the thesis
This minor thesis consists of four chapters
The first part is the introduction which reveals the rationale, significance, aims, methods, participants, scope and organization of the study
The second part includes chapters Chapter 1 is the literature review centering on Teaching English to primary school children as a global phenomenon, challenges in teaching English to primary school learners, how do young learners learn English, challenges on the part of teachers, privious study on primary school English teaching in Viet Nam and a brief introduction of teaching English to primary students in Vietnam context
Chapter 2 provides information about the research context which is the teaching of English to primary school children in one province
Chapter 3 presents the information about the study including the research methodology, participants and research procedures, research findings and the discussion of those findings
LITERATURE REVIEW
Teaching English to primary school children as a global phenomenon
With the belief that foreign languages prepare today’s youth for tomorrow’s opportunities by supporting basic skills instruction, developing cross cultural understanding and preparing the youth to enter the global market place, English has become a worldwide language and is used as the medium of international communication and is the language of professional advancement It has become the number one foreign language to be taught both inside and outside the formal educational systems of many countries The fact is that in most countries, children are learning English at younger and younger ages In many countries,
English is a compulsory subject in the early primary grades (Nikolov, 2009;
Pinter, 2006) In a recent survey of EYL teachers from 55 countries around the world, Shin and Crandall (2011) 3 1 Teaching English to Young Learners found that more than 50 percent of these countries introduced compulsory English language courses by third grade Even in countries where families may choose the foreign language for their children to study, English is “overwhelmingly the first choice” (Garton, Copland, & Burns, 2011, p 5) The growing demand for
English, plus parents’ belief that English skills provide their children with a better education and better employment opportunities, have led to an increase in the number of EYL programs (Enever & Moon, 2009; Gimenez, 2009) As
English becomes the world’s lingua franca, countries all over the world have adopted English language instruction as part of their education system Many countries begin at the primary level, and students are studying the language at younger and younger ages (Jenkins, 2009).
Challenges in teaching English to primary school learners
Moon (2000) argues that children are capable of learning foreign language from any age providing that the right conditions are in place to enable young learners to be successful Some of the most important conditions are:
(1) Realistic aims/expectation and expected outcome
(2) Well-trained teachers fluent in English
(3) Age appropriate curricula and materials
(6) Continuity and Transfer to secondary level Concerning the effectiveness of language learning at primary level, Isabel
& Elisabeth (1997, p 23) emphasized the following factors which are considered to be of great importance for successful early language learning:
(1) Well-trained teachers (language competence and methodological skills)
(2) Well-organized in-service training
(3) Well-structured curriculum with adequate timetable
(5) Continuity of language learning within the primary school and from primary to secondary stage
(6) Quality assurance measures Considering all the above factors helps to identify the challenges For over a decade, a number of studies investigating early language programmer have been conducted in various countries Nikolov M and Curtain H (2000) summarized a number of issues relating to teaching English to primary children around the world
Through their collection, a concrete picture of teaching English to primary children was formed with a number of similar issues among which the most popular ones are related to teachers’ quality and continuity of the programmer.
How do young learners learn English?
With regard to primary school children, it is necessary to first specify that children have both features of new beginners and the peculiar characteristics of their age group, children have their own characteristics in learning foreign languages To achieve success in teaching English in primary schools, it is very important to know the characteristics of students Teachers should understand young learners’ instincts, interests, cognizance, emotional aspects and especially their characteristics These issues play a crucial role in guiding teachers’ planning a lesson in an attempt to make sure that the young learners are interested in and fully engaged in the whole process of learning
According to Paradowski (2007, pp 52-247) young learners possess the following features:
Children do not pay attention to the language system They have involuntary attention and memory, which means that their mind will be engaged with the semantics - the task, topic, or situation, but will not focus on the linguistic code
Children cannot control what they are taught; the younger the learner, the patchier storage and recall, which again makes recycling activities necessary, whereas age improves language capacity Memory consists of three phases: registering, storing (based on repetition, which may be passive) and recalling
(based on active repetition) In order to be able to say that we have learnt a given item successfully, all three stages must be available (actually, the learners who progress most rapidly may be adolescents, as they may have better memories than adults)
Children have limited life and learning experience Adults, in comparison, bring in a wealth of background knowledge and a long history of learning experiences on which the teacher can effectively capitalize to facilitate their learning; especially as they are all already masters of one language, frequently having the additional invaluable experience of learning another (Pratt-Johnson 2006, p.14)
Children are quick to learn words (they learn predominantly through mimicry, and this concerns not only language, but also all other kinds of knowledge as well as behavior and skills), but slower to learn complex phrases and structures, which pose the necessity of a constant repetition and recycling thereof While vocabulary is based on mechanical, short-term memory (the memory for rhyme and rhythm, which relies on frequent exposure and repetition, the earliest type of memory and therefore predominant in young children), grammar is based on logical, long-term memory – a memory for patterns, which develops very slowly (between around 11 and 14 years of age, in conjunction with abstract thinking tied to biological development) and does not reach full competence until around puberty (except dyslexic children, whose semantic memory comes first, but the mechanical one must be trained) Learners under the age of 12-13 can ably repeat and memorize long words and expressions, but are not able to analyze them as logical memory is not well developed yet
It is also conceivable that, as Krashen (1992) speculated, in as much as older learners are prone to be more involved in sustaining a conversation, they will progress more rapidly than younger ones (After all, few children display fascination with the meaning expressed through the exhaling noises produced by another person, while lengthy debates of intellectual and other nature form our daily bread.)
In addition, Halliwel (1992 pp.3-5) clarified the characteristics of children which are special characteristics that differentiate them from adult learners He said that children are already very good in interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual word They already have great skill in using limited language creativity Children tend to frequently learn indirectly rather than directly For example, they remember new words on their favourite cartoons far better than which are taught by teachers
One more outstanding characteristic of children is taking good pleasure in finding and creating fun in what they do They also obtain a ready imagination, children’s words are full of imagination and fantasy, and it is more than simply matter of enjoyment
Furthermore, the characteristics of young learners were mentioned by Clark
Children are developing conceptually: they develop their way of thinking from the concrete to the abstract thing
Children have no real linguistics: Different from the adult learners who already have a certain purpose in learning a language, for instance, to have a better job, children rarely have such needs in learning a foreign language They learn a foreign language just as a subject that the school provides for them
Children are still developing: they are developing common skills such as turn talking and the use of body language
Young children very egocentric: they tend to resolve around themselves
Children get bored easily: Children have no choice to attend school The lack of the choice means that class activities need to be as fun, interesting and exciting as possible by setting up the interesting activities
These characteristics of young learners are diversified and complex and quite different from adults Therefore, people who are working with young learners including teachers and parents should spend time discovering their characteristics to get higher results in learning English
Mary Slattery and Jane Willis (2001: 4-5) pointed out 12 characteristics as follow:
1 Children learn through seeing, listening, copying and doing
2 Children are unable to understand an explanation of grammar rules, for example, rules of using tenses of verbs
3 Children can understand the meaning partly through non-verbal communication activities
5 Love playing and using their own imagination
6 Short attention, so changes needed
9 Independent thinking is being developed
10 Ability to distinct between reality and imagination
11 Ability to organize the best to implement any activity
12 Teamwork There is evidence that children have sensitivity to pronunciation and are good at imitating and picking up whole phrases of language, but if their teachers lack fluency or have difficulties with pronunciation, then children will not be able to make use of that particular instinct
Therefore, it is noticeable to identify what should be done in the classroom
Carol Read (2003) proposes some of the optimal conditions for helping young learners to learn:
- learning is contextualized and part of real event
- learning builds on things the child knows
- learning makes sense to the child
- learning is interesting and enjoyable
- learning atmosphere is relaxed and warm
-learning takes account of multiple intelligences
- the child wants to learn
- learning belongs to the child and for the child
- learning is memorable - learning is part of a coherent whole
- learning is active and experiential -learning allows for personal, divergent responses
- the child is challenged and supported appropriately
- the child has a sense of achievement
Besides, Read (2005) also suggests an integrated framework called the seven Rs for managing children positively and creating a happy working environment for them:
Relationships - creating and maintaining a positive relationship with learners is at the heart of establishing a happy learning environment
Rules - establish a limited number of rules and make sure they are clear, as well as the reasons for having them
Routines - classroom routines make it clear to everyone what is expected of them and what they should do
Rights and Responsibilities - although these may not be stated explicitly with very young learners, teachers can model through their own actions which of these they value
Respect - students who are treated respectfully by the teacher will respond in a similar way to the teacher If the children feel that the teacher treats them as individuals, they will also respond to the teacher as an individual and not with a collective group mentality
Rewards - reward systems can be an effective way of reinforcing appropriate behavior e.g using stars, stickers, points, smiley faces, raffle tickets or marbles in a jar
Children will only be able to sustain their enthusiasm through primary school if they can develop an intrinsic interest in learning English through enjoyable and interesting activities and a good rapport with their teachers If teaching in primary school is overly formal and just another version of what is done in secondary school, it will kill children’s early enthusiasm (Moon, 2005)
Teaching English to primary children is much different to teaching English to the other learners Without being aware of these can threaten the teaching- learning implementation in the classroom.
Challenges on the part of teachers
Amongst other knowledge and skills, teachers of young learners need:
- An understanding of how children think and learn
- Skills and knowledge in spoken English to conduct whole lessons orally, and to pick up children’s interests and use them for language teaching
- To be equipped to teach initial literacy in English
It is not easy to teach children effectively, and the reliance on oral language means that teaching children a foreign language may, in some ways, be more demanding at primary level the at higher levels If children are to kept attentive and mentally active, the teacher must be alert and adaptive to their language learning opportunities that arise on the spot This requires a high level of fluency and a wide knowledge of vocabulary
Furthermore, since children reproduce the accent of their teachers with deadly accuracy, pronunciation skills are vitally important at the early stages
Demanding the highest levels of spoken English for teachers of the youngest learners goes against much policy and popular assumptions about teaching children How this challenge is met will vary from country to country The Ministry of Education in Oman, for example, is collaborating to carry out a massive programmer of upgrading primary
English teachers to degree level Where the resources to undertake such retraining are not available, it would seem important for policy makers to be realistic about what can be achieved at primary level
The most important problems in many contexts are related to teachers’ low level of communicative competence In Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia and Croatia, there are not enough qualified teachers More than 76% of foreign language teachers at Czech basic schools were unqualified (Nikolov & Curtain, 2000, p
86) In Hong Kong, 55% of primary English teachers are not subject-trained
The untrained language teachers tend to experience two main difficulties
Firstly, their own language proficiency is insufficient for them either to be a good model of language use or to teach consistently through the target language
Secondly, their lack of awareness of appropriate language teaching methodology inhibits pupil learning and has a negative impact on the teachers’ own professional development Most classes are taught using predominantly traditional teacher-centred, whole-class methods Teachers have tended to see their main role as to impart knowledge to pupils, who are generally expected to sit quietly and absorb information Teaching is often text-book dominated Many teachers, perhaps as a result of perceived or actual pressure from the school or from parents, try to “finish the textbook” with little regard to the ability of the students In the context of teaching, this reliance on the textbook is also related to the fact that many teachers lack confidence in their own English proficiency
The challenges faced by teachers working with ESOL learners, in spite of feeling sympathy towards ESOL learners, educators felt frustrated working with them, because of heavy workloads As they first had to teach the language and vocabulary for specific content, they found it impossible to complete the syllabus for the year Also having learners in the class with better English abilities, educators reported having to teach on diverse language and academic levels (see also DuPlessis& Naudé,2003) Educators reported being required to give extra attention to learners who were not keeping up, as well as adequately challenging stronger learners, in order to ensure that all learners in their class had an equally effective education Large numbers of ESOL learners in their classes increased the workload in all teaching areas such as marking and preparation of lessons, leaving educators feeling over-worked and resentful
Many educators reported frequent problems with discipline, identifying their main problem with the size and demographics of classes As class sizes increased, the frequency of problems increased: Educators with large classes (more than 30 learners) were more likely to experience these problems frequently than educators with smaller classes (less than 30 learners) Most educators had more than 30 learners in their class and they felt that not only would smaller classes make their responsibilities easier, they would be of more benefit to the ESOL learners: the smaller classes “It is not because we have such a load and you know we want the easy way out It’s not like that You know the child … who learn language … they need so much of time to talk …”
A statistically significant association was found between class size and felt competency of the participants when teaching ESOL learners More educators with classes above 30 ESOL learners felt competent only in some circumstances compared to educators with smaller classes Conversely, significantly more educators of smaller classes felt competent, in most circumstances, than educators with larger classes.
Previous studies on primary school English teaching in Vietnam
In order to find out the effective ways of teaching English to primary school children, some research had been done to explore the use of modern equipments and techniques to raise quality of teaching These researchers identified some problems relating to the current practice of teaching English in the classroom employed by teachers
Vu Thi Luong (2002) and Dang Quang Sang (2007) put an emphasis on using games in teaching English to primary children to meet children’s interests, characteristics and capacity in acquiring a foreign language Such an important part that games play in primary English language teaching, teachers, however, had many different opinions about them as well as difficulties in using them
90% of teachers in the study sample agreed that games are effective to language teaching but almost all teachers complained that they had not got any book or materials including a game collection so they used only some games repeatedly
(Vu Thi Luong, 2002) Thus among 70% of the teachers using games in teaching only 20% used games frequently 30% of the teachers had never used games because they thought that the secondary school students were so anxious to learn English in order to pass the exams so the primary teachers should only focus on vocabulary and grammar and then asked students to do as many exercises as possible (Dang Quang Sang, 2007) Given this, the teachers spent no time for studying or collecting games for their learners As a result, “games were not used frequently and usefully in teaching English to primary school children” (Vu Thi Luong, 2002, p 23)
Nguyen Minh Ha (2001) conducted a study on Teaching English on Computer to Primary School Children in a school in Hanoi According to her findings, one of the problems with the uses of the computer in TEYL was that
“most teachers are not qualified enough to meet the demands of teaching
English on computer Their major short-comings are poor English, lack of computer skills, inexperience and weak teaching methods.” She showed a fact that many teachers abused computers and became too dependent on computers
The teachers had difficulty choosing appropriate programme, setting up a sustainable syllabus or applying techniques relevant to students’ level She provoked a conclusion that “teaching English to children not only fails but puts pressure on children’s attitude towards English language.” (p 27) because most primary teachers considered English a school subject like Maths, Vietnamese so they asked children to learn by heart a list of words and structures
Ta Van Diep (2003) explored the uses of video clips as an effective means of developing communicative competence for primary school children in Hanoi because “video clips create a natural language environment with the combination of sound and pictures” (p 19) However, the question of using video clips surprised many teachers because they had never considered video clips a means of teaching, instead, a means of entertainment Moreover, most schools in Hanoi were not equipped with video so both the teachers and learners did not have chance to enjoy video clips in English lessons
In an exploratory study on the situation of English Bilingual Education (EBE) in East Asia, To Thi Thu Huong (2010) gave an insightful discussion about the implementation of EBE in Vietnam from preschool to tertiary level
As a response to the pressing need of society, a strong political will be from leaders of the country, “EBE will move very fast in years to come” (p 112)
However, introducing EBE at primary level may cause some challenges for Vietnamese language maintenance Moreover, some obstacles to the implementation of EBE are identified as:
- lack of understanding and support from leaders and managers
- teacher quality and professional competence
- the English and Vietnamese proficiency levels of the learners.
Summary
In short, this chapter provides relevant literature which is needed to form the theoretical and the conceptual framework for the study First, an overview on the teaching English to primary children is given Second, the challenges in teaching English to primary school learners Two most common issues of primary education are identified through a variety of context worldwide, i.e teachers’ quality and continuity of the programmer Thirdly to say is about the ways young children learn English, in which typical characteristics of children; the optimal conditions for helping children to learn and an integrated framework for positive and happy classroom environment are discussed The challenges on the part of teachers are also recommended Last, an overview on English primary introduction in Vietnam from policy to practice is discussed
Having looked at the related literature, it is an urge to investigate the challenges of teaching English to primary children in the province since there has never been any investigation into how teachers are teaching English to primary children and what difficulties they are facing It is, therefore, essential for the present researcher to fill the gap by investigating what challenges are perceived by the teachers and students so that proper solutions can be adopted to help reduce these challenges.
THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING ENGLISH TO
English instruction to primary children in Vietnam
In terms of policy, there is a strong political will for English language teaching in Vietnam
On September 30 th , 2008 the Decision No 1400/QĐ-TTg was issued approving the project on foreign language teaching and learning in the national education system for the 2008-2020 period This is the first official involvement of Primary Education in the teaching of foreign language in Vietnam According to this Decision, English is introduced at primary level from Grade 3 with the target by 2018 English will be taught to 100% of primary children After 10 years English is taught as pilot subject at primary schools, on December 22 nd 2017, the Decision 2080/QĐ-TTg was issued with the aim to adjust and further the project for the 2017 – 2025 period Following that, English will be optional subject for students from grade 1, 2 and by the year 2025, 100% students of grade 3 will learn it as a compulsory subject follow the 10 year curriculum and gradually to upper grade
The Ministry of Education and Training issued Decision No 50/2003/QĐ- BGD&ĐT dated November 30 th 2003 providing guidance on full-day teaching in which English is an optional subject with 2 periods per week, starting from Grade 3 Then, the Decision on the curriculum 3321/QĐ-BGDĐT mainly on the pre period of considering English as the compulsory subject at primary schools was launched The objectives are specified as follow:
+ Forming basic English communicative skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing for students to communicate in English at schools, at home and in familiar social environment; of which, the former two skills are better focused
+ Provide students with fundamental knowledge of English to gain primary understanding of the country, people and culture of some English speaking country
+ Building students’ positive attitude to English, better understanding and love for Vietnamese through learning English Furthermore, students’ intelligence, personality and learning method have also been gradually formed
(National curriculum 2003) The needed conditions to get the target as above are: English is taught with enough 4 periods per week and there are English specialists in every Education and training Division in Districts
Currently, English language teaching at primary level has been actively implemented
- English is a subject from grade 3 with the time allocation from two periods to 4 periods per week depends on the condition of school’s facilities and number of
English teachers at the school English is an optional subject in grade 1, 2
- In Ho Chi Minh City, an Intensive Program has been piloted with 8 periods per week at Grade 1 since 1998 (Nguyen Ho Thuy Anh, 2007)
It is a fact that English education at primary level has been implementing for over a decade but it is still not become a compulsory subject
MOET has just announced the programmers for Primary English
According to this, in the school year 2020-2021 English will be compulsory subject from grade 3 Students will learn all 4 English communicative skills with
4 periods per week to achieve the aims and by the end of primary level students will get A1 level in ALTE From 1 to 2, English will be optional subject and students will learn 2 periods per week
Primary teachers will be required to reach standard of qualification e.g.
Introduction to the province context of teaching-learning English at
The province is small It has 8 districts It’s about 100km from the capital of Viet Nam On July 8 th , 2008 the President of the Provincial Committee of People issued Plan No 21/ĐA-UBND, approving the Scheme on foreign language teaching and learning in the education system for the 2008-2015 periods According to this plan, English is introduced into the primary education curriculum starting from grade 3 from the school year 2008-2009 Thus, English has been a subject for 10234 students of grade 3 and 4 in 153 primary schools throughout the province, 164 primary teachers have been employed to teach English Even Though, in early years, English was mainly taught with only 2 periods per week while the curriculum designed 4 periods From now on, to the school year 2018-2019, 43.960/44.350 equal 94% students from 152 primary schools are taught English with 4 periods per week 280 English primary teachers have been recruited
With the statement that a big amount of teachers were recruited without the primary teaching methodology trained at the universities, and a vast number of them were in –service trained, the Director of Provincial Department of Education and Training decided to take an evaluation of the programme to check whether English teachers are actually efficiently and effectively teach English to students A formal agreement was signed between The Department of Education and Training and Apollo Organization of Education and Training in order to develop and administer a plan for evaluation In June 2010, all English teachers (including 164 primary school teachers of English) sat a general English test, mainly speaking, listening, grammar and vocabulary
Although the test caused hot debate, it raised the strong awareness of self- study among teachers The result helped to classify teachers’ level of proficiency so that they were put into different groups for in-service training
After that, most of teachers were gradually and alternative given chance to take part in training course for primary teachers The courses often lasted for about 3 months aiming at upgrading language proficiency and teaching methodology Teachers also annually attended one day or two days workshop on teaching English to primary school students.
Teachers and their background
At the primary level, the shortage of primary English teachers is an even more serious problem Few teachers have been formally trained to teach English at the primary level Thus, the demand outpaces the availability of well-trained and competent teachers According to Dr Nguyen Loc, Deputy-Director of the
National Institute of Educational Strategy and Curriculum, in 2010, at least 1700
English primary teachers were needed The shortage of English teachers at the primary level forces the continued recruitment of teachers with inadequate linguistic and teaching competencies In addition, as there is no staffing quota for primary teachers of English at primary schools, most primary schools hire
English teachers on contract (Moon, 2009) The pay for these teachers is low, so they are not committed to the school; low status and motivation of primary
English teachers are obstacles to improving the practice of EFL teaching and learning In addition, the teachers’ proficiency and teaching capacity are far from satisfactory (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2007; Thuy Anh, 2007) In a recent study on teacher preparation for primary education in one province in Vietnam, Le and
Do (in press) found that the primary English teachers in that province showed weaknesses in pedagogical skills, oral skills, vocabulary knowledge, and pronunciation Current Issues in Language Planning 229 Downloaded by [UQ
Library] at 07:29 05 June 2012 There was no legislative policy governing credentialing for primary English foreign language teachers (PEFLTs) until the recent requirements set out in the Directive on Primary English Education, issued in August 2010 The new National Primary English Curriculum in Vietnam specifies that PEFLTs should have a degree from a university or college for training EFL teachers, their language proficiency should be equivalent to Level B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF), and PEFLTs must have opportunities to attend professional activities in their school or school clusters Teachers and managerial staff must participate in training workshops on the curriculum, teaching materials, and teaching methodology
However, despite these policy directives, changes are not evident and there remains a shortage of English teachers in primary schools, and for many of those employed, their proficiency is inadequate (Le & Do, in press) These unsatisfactory teacher standards are related to teachers’ low status, and poor in self updating and getting further training, insufficient teacher training, lack of professional support from colleagues, and lack of quality in-service professional development
The provinces’ context is on the same side, a vast number of teachers were trained to teach adults and adolescents, not primary children and most of them were in-service trained Many of them get language proficiency as B2, but they soon be below this level because they do not have chance to practice Moreover, only some teachers who eager to get knowledge about primary English language teaching techniques from training course can use, and use them in class, others do not want to take part in training workshops, they afraid of changing, they want to teach children as they were taught about 20 years ago.
Summary
This chapter presents briefly the province context in which the policy of primary English instruction and teachers’ background are detailed.
THE STUDY
The data collection instruments
The instruments for data collection in this study were questionnaire, interview (face-to-face and facebook group) and class observation
Instrumentation one: A set of questionnaire answered by the teachers
The questionnaire consisted of 9 questions which are mainly about: the number of years teachers have been teaching English, the training they received to teach English to primary children (contents of training workshops and its usefulness), the problems/challenges of teaching English to primary children that teachers are facing in teaching (learners, programme and course books, teaching facilities, teachers’ themselves), good conditions in teaching as learners, programme and course books, school’s facilities, ; How teachers solve the problems; teachers’ recommendation
The researcher conducted interviews (face – to – face with 8 key teachers and group of facebook with about 30 teachers) for further explanation, clarification and details of their own teaching context about which the researcher was not clear when gathering information from the questionnaire
A total of 11 classroom observations from 10 schools were done in a year
The teachers’ teaching methods and students’ activities were taken notes and captured with some pictures
The topics below guided the analysis of data obtained from the questionnaire, classroom observation, interviewing:
(1) Teachers’ experience of English teaching at primary level
(2) Teachers’ self-judgement of training workshop they have attended
(3) Teachers’ difficulties in teaching at primary schools
(5) Teachers’ solution to solve their difficulties
The participants
100 elementary school teachers who are currently teaching English at primary schools responded to the survey The author surveyed the respondents by using Google form and call form complication through face book group The survey contains items addressing their perceptions and attitudes towards various aspects of English teaching and in total the survey took 15 to 20 minutes on average for the teachers to complete.
Data collection procedure
The researcher had one - year experience visiting 10 different schools throughout the province (3 schools in the city and 7 schools in the countryside)
The researcher had 11 class observations in total: 2 in Grade 3, 5 in Grade 4 and
4 in Grade 5 Thus, class observations with a lot of notes and small talk with the teachers revealed much about what was happening in the classroom
The questionnaire was administered by Google form through face book group Before the questionnaire was delivered, the researcher had explained the purpose of the questionnaire, the requirement for the respondents and answer any questions made by the respondents The respondents were also encouraged to ask if there was anything in the questionnaire they did not understand
To make sure the collected questionnaires were all correctly completed, the researcher asked for permission to have another contact with the respondents after data collection through Google form so that she could clarify any unclear responses
Besides, the researchers interviewed 8 teachers who are key teachers- representatives of 8 districts in the province These eight areas differ slightly in terms of their economic and educational development.
Data analysis
Data from the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively in terms of percentage Responses to open-ended questions were coded into, categories for analysis The observational data were examined thoroughly and relevant extracts were chosen for analysis.
Findings
The result of the study will be reported in the following items:
- Teachers’ experience of English teaching at primary level
- Teachers’ self-judgement of training workshops they have attended
- Teachers’ difficulties in teaching at primary schools
- Teachers’ solution to solve their difficulties
- Teachers’ performance in the classroom
3.5.1 Teachers’ experience of English teaching at primary school level
There were totally 100 responses from teachers included 70 respondents from rural area The average years of English teaching experience was 8 years, 22% of respondents have been teaching for more than 10 years 22% of them have less than 5 year experience in teaching children 78% of the respondents had not received training in teaching English to primary school children at university
There is no meaningful differ in teachers’ teaching experience with their responds
3.5.2 Teachers’ self-judgement of training workshops they have attended
50% of the respondents have 5-10 times to participate in teaching methodology workshops, others have 3-4 times The majority of the surveyed teachers (90%) had positive attitude to the training workshops they attended
The contents of workshops were mainly about upgrading language competences; children’s characteristics, teaching methodology; teaching techniques to develop children’s abilities; using Information technology in teaching, learning and making assessment; designing teaching activities, using games, songs, chant in teaching English, classroom language; training in making information assessment and summative assessment of primary students
10% of the surveyed teachers do not give high judgment for workshops which were about upgrading language competence to B2, C1, they think it doesn’t help them in teaching children, and because they sometimes have to take the test again even they have achieved B2 level before It’s pressure and waste of time Though 90% respondents have positive judgment about teaching method workshops, they can not apply many of those techniques in teaching
Order Items of advantageous Number of mentions
1 Students are active in learning, confident and have the love for English 26
2 Parents concern about their children’s learning 41
3 Programme and course books are clearly presented and accompanied with the e-version, “sach mem” 51
4 Have assistance from school managers and others 53
5 Classrooms are equipped with school facilities 44
6 Love teaching job, continuously self upgrading language competences and teaching techniques 27
7 Teachers are initiative in finding creative techniques to teach children 19
The advantages above were mentioned repeatedly by surveyed teachers
Number of mentions for items show that the most advantageous is that teachers got assistance from school managers and others It implicates that teaching
English at primary schools gets the care of community those days Though, most of the advantages items are from teachers who are in center of cities or towns
3.5.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching at primary schools
Through questionnaire, class observations and interviewing with 8 keys teachers, the most common challenges are listed as below:
Order Items of challenges Number of mentions
1 Large class size (more than 35 sts, up to 43) 35
3 Unfavorable conditions for learning English in the rural areas 43
4 Parents’ and school leaders’ unawareness of the role of
5 Contents in the course book are not related to students’ real life 32
6 Inappropriate sequence of activities and linguistic content in the course book 27
7 Lack of teaching technologies or lack of physical space for using technologies in teaching 30
8 Available equipment is not in good condition 40
9 Heavy teaching schedule while students cannot learn
English four class periods a week 31
10 Teachers do not feel confident teaching children 35
11 Teachers lack of initiative in finding creative techniques to teach children 29
12 Lack of time for self-study 12
Among 11 items above, number 1, 7 are mainly come from the advantageous areas as cities, towns Nowadays, people often rush to earn living in cities, population there increase, classes are dense with students because it is difficult to expand the schools, English rooms are also used for classes, teachers often have to bring along cassettes to classes to use instead of projectors Items number 4, 8, 9 are mainly from remote areas, and this reveals that in remote areas English does not get much concern from people, in those places are often short of teachers, short of schools’ facilities Other items are from both rural and urban areas
3.5.5 Teachers’ solutions to their difficulties
Order Solutions Number of mentions
1 Love children, be children’s friend, love teaching job 17
Continuously study independently to improve their language competence and teaching techniques by using resources and materials on the internet, from other teachers, through workshops
3 Try to find creative techniques of teaching s to make learning fun to the students
4 Adapt materials to the students’ levels and characteristics
5 Guide students to learn by themselves outside the classroom
6 Cooperate with teachers from schools and students’ parents
There are totally 100 surveyed teachers, however, 35% stated that
“Teachers are not good at teaching children techniques, teachers do not feel confident teaching children” but only 14% stated that “continuously self upgrading language competences and teaching techniques” is needed The biggest percentages in the table are for “Guide students to learn themselves and peer help, group help”, “Adapting materials” and through class observation, many teachers are not good at guiding students to learn in groups and rarely of them adapt materials, they follow strictly course book
Order Proposals Number of mentions
1 Have English room equipped with basic facilities for teaching and learning English 32
2 Reduce the number of weekly teaching hours to 18 instead of 23 29
3 Recruit enough English teachers to make sure that all students can learn English four class hours per week 25
If possible, reduce the number of students in English class to 20 or 25 so that teachers can individualize their teaching
5 Invest in creating a favorable teaching and learning environment within the school 35
Encouraging teachers to continuously improve their professional competence and to think of more creative ways of teaching
Through the proposals that respondents stated, the environment for teachers and students to upgrade language, teaching skills and using language is necessary A private room for English teaching and learning in school is mainly recommended by candidates from urban areas Schools in rural areas are often lack of teachers so that students there do not have enough 4 periods per week
The biggest percentage proposal in this table is for encouragement from schools’ managers to teachers who are creative and active in self upgrade language competences and teaching techniques
3.5.7 Teachers’ performance in the classroom
Through the 11 observed lessons it was shown that many teachers (4/10 teachers) had problems with their pronunciation, particularly, final sounds, syllable clusters and intonation So it was difficult for them to give children an accurate linguistic model to imitate
For example: In grade 5, unit 9 “What did you see at the zoo”
T: Good job, sit down please ok we are saw many animal at the roo (zoo) ok today we are continue unit 9 what did you see at the roo (zoo) whole class open book on page 58 ok or
T: “Look at the board listen and repeat unit 9 what did you see at the roo (Zoo)”
In the above lesson extract, the teacher did not speak the sentence with correct intonation and word stress, let along grammatical accuracy
Some teachers (6/10) demonstrated problems with classroom language and low level of communicative competence Some tended to use Vietnamese more frequently than English in their teaching By contrast those who were quite fluent in English, demonstrated difficulties in adjusting their language to suit children’s level, They tended to use unnecessarily long and complicated sentences (they do not concern that they are teaching grade 3 students or grade
5 students, they use the same complicated instruction and interacting language)
Two-third of the observed teachers (7/10) seemed to have great difficulties in adapting the textbook, creating interesting situations to introduce new language and interacting with children in English in an appropriate and natural way
Surprisingly that, even though all 10 teachers got B2 degree, they still had many challenges in teaching English through English to children Many of them said that they rarely had chance to use English for real communication (when they were at university, all their trainers were Vietnamese, they explained mainly in Vietnamese and teachers never had chance to speak to foreigners) so whenever they spoke English, they felt not confident As they thought that their students were young, they felt more comfortable to speak in Vietnamese
Among 11 observed lesson observations at 10 schools around the province, seven of them were teaching in the rural areas, others in the urban areas Most of the schools in the rural areas had specifically designed classrooms for teaching and learning English These classrooms were equipped with a projector, internet connected computer, but the projector did not work in two cases There was one case where the teacher was observed using her smart phone to use the e-version of the textbook By contrast, in the schools located in the urban areas, the lesson was delivered in the staff-meeting room where the teacher had access to a smart
TV, but she didn’t use it Other three teachers taught at regular classes All 4 classes in schools in urban areas were crowded with students (over 40), and teachers couldn’t arrange desks suitably to learning activities
Observing students from 11 classes, many of them keen on English, they looked happy delivered every time moving to English room Even though, a vast number of them had difficulties They could not concentrate on the lesson, their teacher produced long sentences and they couldn’t follow, they produced language not in natural way Sometimes they do not have turn to perform in front of class or group because of crowed class When working in groups, the group leader does not give them support so they get difficulties
In the schools where English is taught in a separate classroom, it takes time to move from class to English room because the two rooms are not on the same building, or not on the same floor Especially, when it rains or shines, students cannot move to English classroom and teacher has to travel to class to teach without teaching facilities
CONCLUSION
This research has highlighted a number of issues in teaching English to young learners It has been shown that teachers are challenged, partly by lack of appropriate training, partly by lack of suitable school facilities and partly by overload of work While government policy often results in time and energy being spent on introducing teachers to contemporary approaches advocated in the literature, training of this kind does not necessarily serve teachers well
Teachers identify teaching skills as a particular challenge to which training courses need to respond Addressing differentiation is another challenge that could be met by a range of responses from training courses to course book materials and it is certainly an issue that is both relevant and emergent
Other challenges are more local, as revealed in this survey These include class size, teachers’ own skills and confidence in English, and time pressures
Care needs to be taken to ensure that responses to local challenges are mediated by English teachers face numerous challenges when teaching ESOL learners
Besides the academic and socio-emotional difficulties of ESOL learners, ones who participated in this study were frustrated by a considerable workload and large classes with many ESOL learners per class There was a discrepancy in support and resources available Educators called for increased teaching facilities, professional and parental support as well as practical training in teaching ESOL learners More in-depth knowledge about the needs, experiences and coping strategies of educators teaching ESOL learners could lead to better training for educators, and better preparation for SLTs for their roles in supporting educators This knowledge could also initiate further research leading to possible policy changes to meet educators’ needs With many ESOL learners attending school in English, meeting the challenges of educators, partially through the involvement of SLTs, will ensure that learners achieve their academic potential and have the same opportunities in life as their peers who are learning in their first language
Although the survey reported in this chapter was conducted just in one province of Vietnam, the information it provides can be useful to policy-makers and teacher educators throughout the country We believe that the situation elsewhere in Vietnam is similar politically, economically, socially and educationally Therefore what found in this survey is true, at least to some extent to other provinces across the country However, in order to achieve generalizations, it is necessary to conduct the survey on a larger scale in a variety of provinces located in different geographical areas Studies using multiple methods of data collection would be useful in yielding more comprehensive information
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2 Cameron, L (2003) Challenges for ELT from the expansion in teaching children
ELT Journal, April, Issue 57, Oxford University Press
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6 McLachlan, A (2009) Modern languages in the primary curriculum: Are we creating conditions for success? Language Learning Journal, 37(2), 183-203
7 Moon, J (2005) Investigating the Teaching of English at Primary Level in Vietnam: A Summary Report Presentation at the Conference on English Language Teaching at Primary Level, Hanoi, June 2005, pp 47-55
8 Nguyen, Ho Thuy Anh (2007) Pilot Intensive Programme in Ho Chi Minh City: A programme that Meets the Needs of Society Presentation at the Primary Innovations Regional Seminar, British Council, Vietnam, pp 113-116
9 Nguyen, Minh Ha (2001) A Study on Teaching English on Computer to Primary
School Children in Hanoi Graduation Paper VNU
10 Nguyen, Loc (2005) MOET Strategies for Teaching Foreign Languages at Primary Level Presentation at the Conference on English Language Teaching at
Primary Level, Hanoi, June 2005, pp 3-13
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Innovation Regional Seminar, Hanoi, March 2007, pp.53-59
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Policies, Challenges and prospects Insight from East Asia Chapter 5 British Council
17 Le Van Canh (2017) Báo cáo nghiên cứu đánh giá chương trình bồi dưỡng giáo viên về năng lực sư phạm và năng lực ngoại ngữ dành cho giáo viên tiếng Anh phổ thông.
Bảng hỏi này được thiết kế với mục đích khảo sát để tìm hiểu những khó khăn trong dạy học tiếng Anh trong các trường tiểu học trên địa bàn tỉnh Câu trả lời của các bạn được đánh giá cao và là đóng góp tích cực thúc đẩy việc dạy học tiếng Anh Câu trả lời của các bạn chỉ với mục đích duy nhất như trên và được hoàn toàn giữ bí mật
Thật sự cảm ơn sự hỗ trợ và phối hợp từ các bạn
1 Bạn đã dạy tiếng Anh trong trường tiểu học được bao lâu?
a) dưới 5 năm b) từ 5 đến 10 năm c) trên 10 năm
2 Trường tiểu học nơi bạn dạy ở nông thôn hay thành thị? a) rural areas: b) urban areas:
3 Bạn có được đào tạo về phương pháp giảng dạy tiếng Anh tiểu học khi học ở đại học sư phạm không?
4 Bạn đã được bồi dưỡng về phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh tiểu học mấy lần rồi?
5 Bạn hãy miêu tả ngắn gọn nội dung các lớp bồi dưỡng bạn đã tham dự
6 Các lớp bồi dưỡng đó có hữu ích với bạn không? a) Rất không hữu ích b) Rất ít hữu ích c) Rất hữu ích
7 Bạn gặp những khó khăn gì trong giảng dạy tiếng Anh ở tiểu học?
7.1 Khó khăn về người học 7.2 Khó khăn về chương trình, sách giáo khoa
7.3 Khó khăn về điều kiện dạy và học
7.4 Khó khăn về chính bản thân bạn
8 Bạn có những thuận lợi gì trong giảng dạy