The need of learning english in language centers amongst young children graduation paper

HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE GRADUATION PAPER THE NEED OF LEARNING ENGLISH IN LANGUAGE CENTERS AMONG YOUNG CHILDREN Advisor: Mr HUYNH PHUOC HAI, M.A Student: NGUYEN HUYNH MINH HUY Student’s code: 15DH710404 June, 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On completing this graduation paper, I would like to send my most sincere gratitude to many people for their invaluable help during the conduct of the research I truly owe my deepest gratitude to the dean of Department of Foreign Language - Ho Chi Minh University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology for facilitating my graduation paper Foremost, I would like to send my gratitude to my supervisor Mr Huỳnh Phước Hải, M.A for his constructive and timely feedbacks which were decisive factors to the completion of the study Additionally, I would like to send my gratitude to my friend Mr Huỳnh Quốc Cường, who is studying grade 12 at Le Thanh Ton High school, for his help when doing survey in the Methodology that I can easily complete the results for this study Furthermore, I owe a deep thank to all my colleagues at ILA Hùng Vương center, ILA Phạm Hùng center, Âu Dương Lân Primary school, Minh Đức Secondary school for helping me have students the survey to get the result I would also like to show the deepest gratitude to Ms Trần Thị Tuyết Minh, my supervisor when working as an intern teacher at Bùi Thị Xuân High school, for her valuable advice and giving chance for me to have many classes and observation time I would also like to thank my students whom I am teaching for helping with the sources and the methods used in their schools On a personal note, I express my truly gratitude to my family, my friends who emotionally and spiritually comfort me through the challenging time of conducting the research The study could not have been completed without their encouragement TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 The need of studying English in Vietnam nowadays 1.2 Significance of the study 1.3 Scope of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 Pros and cons of learning a foreign language at young age 10 2.1.1 Benefits of learning a foreign language at young age 10 2.1.2 Problems of learning a foreign language at young age 12 2.2 The curriculum and consequence of wrong learning English methods of children in Vietnam 15 2.2.1 The inadequateness of the courses 15 2.2.2 Consequences of wrong learning English methods 16 2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of letting young children learn English at centers 17 2.3.1 Benefits of learning English in centers 17 2.3.2 Problems of learning English in centers 19 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Direct experiment 20 3.2 Direct tests and online survey 20 3.3 Observation 22 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS 23 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION 27 5.1 Benefits of studying English in centers 27 5.1.1 A professional way of organizing in well-qualified centers 27 5.1.1.1 Description of organizing system in ILA 27 5.1.1.2 Content of study program is various and suitable to students 29 5.1.2 Well-qualified teachers and various teaching methods 31 5.1.2.1 High requirements of teachers in well-qualified English centers 31 5.1.2.2 Various teaching methods and creative activities 34 5.1.3 Benefits for young learners’ improvement 39 5.2 Problems of studying English in centers 41 5.2.1 Some centers are not well-qualified 41 5.2.2 Education becomes a kind of merchandise 43 5.2.3 Students studying in centers lack of advanced grammar 45 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 46 6.1 Limitations 46 6.2 Conclusion 46 ABSTRACT English has become an international language all over the world Due to the need of this language, many parents want their children to be good at communicating and using English Some parents have children study English at public schools or with private teachers, others let kids study in centers Nowadays, studying English in centers becomes a trend, which many parents believe that it brings a lot of benefits to children when studying a foreign language This research will point out the benefits and problems of English centers By using an experiment, observation in classes, grammatical and vocabulary survey for students, the writer indicates the advantages and disadvantages of studying English in centers Through the research, parents also students may have a clear vision about this problem CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 The need of studying English in Vietnam nowadays In January 2007, the Ministry of Finance announced that Vietnam became the official member of World Trade Organization (http://www.mof.gov.vn) Since that time, many foreign companies have been investing in the commercial market of Vietnam Therefore, English has become the necessary requirement for any employees who want to have a great and high-paid job Being good at English, an applicant will have more chances to be admitted into a high-quality foreign company or a company that is invested by foreigners One important thing that everyone has to know is that the economic situation in Vietnam today is in difficulties Many graduated students cannot apply for their favorite jobs because their lack of foreign language competence, especially English To be economical, most companies require their applicants to have skillful use of English, or at least have to pass the academic tests such as IELTS, TOEIC, TOELF, etc Between an applicant who has perfect skills of using English in business or communication but normal major knowledge and one who has a lot of understanding about his major but he is not good at English, the company will give the chance to the first applicant so that he can be trained in the training courses of his major after being applied Moreover, studying English gives us chances to approach the multi-culture all over the world Mr Nguyen Tuan Vu, who is a sophomore of Van Lang University, said he was a big fan of Linkin Park and Lana Del Rey when he had been a high school student However, he could only hear the beat and tone of the songs, not the lyrics so he did not understand what the songs are about After four years studying English, he can clearly understand the lyrics of the songs he hears and knows the songs’ meaning Furthermore, being good at English gives you possibilities reading many famous newspapers and magazines that you can enrich your comprehension and experience about the situations of the world As seen in people who are excellent in English, they can read the magazines or online news to approach the latest news They can also listen to a great deal of interesting topics on TED talks or VOA English is really necessary for people these days, especially in a developing country like Vietnam Because of those benefits, plenty of parents want their children to be good at English, so they let the children study English in many centers at a very young age In Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam, there are numerous English centers located in all districts of the city Some of the centers are very famous, namely International Language Academy (ILA), Vietnam USA Society English Center (VUS), British Council, Apollo English Junior, etc ILA is famous for its policy The teachers in all centers are all foreigners, and they have also passed some international teaching certificates such as TESOL, CELTA, etc ILA has customer care service, which other centers or public schools not Monthly, the teaching assistants and Front Office employees will call the parents of students to report the results and the situation in class VUS, which has the oldest establishment, has fifty percent of the teachers are foreigners VUS has training courses every quarter to improve the skill of staff Apollo English Junior is well-known because of its unique program called Learning English Through Subjects (LETS) The LETS courses, which are suitable to learners at young age from four to eleven years old, contain many integrated teaching methods, or a lot of Total Physical Response activities Moreover, in all English centers, the major way of teaching is student center, it means teachers just scaffold the use of language, students have to find way to master it themselves Public schools in Vietnam are believed to follow the traditional way of teaching that does limit the abilities of students Vietnamese parents put their hope on their children to be successful in the future with a wide knowledge of a foreign language, so they let their children study English in famous centers at very young age 1.2 Significance of the study Although the need of studying English in Vietnam nowadays is increasing and many centers are established to fulfill the demand of studying English as a foreign language, especially for learners at young age There is no concrete evidence shows that studying English in centers at young age is good for the growth of children The number of parents let their descendants study in centers has increased because it has become a trend for the past few years Many fathers and mothers are satisfied with the customer care service of the centers and believe that their children will become better at both using vocabulary and grammar in conversation than studying at public schools Through this study, the writer hopes to make that situation clear so that parents can have their right decision for the growth of their youngsters The study is to seek answers for the following question: “Is it necessary for children to study English in centers at young age?” 1.3 Scope of the study Due to the small scale as well as time limit, the research will mainly focus on English young learners at centers also at public schools in Ho Chi Minh City The learners at centers are about four to eleven years old, some of them is older, the same to learners at public schools To concretize, the writer has used an experiment, online and offline surveys and observing classes at ILA Hung Vuong Center, ILA Pham Hung Center The same methods are used for public schools which are Viet Nhi Kindergarten (district 8), Au Duong Lan primary school (district 8), Vam Co Dong primary school (district 8), Minh Duc secondary school (district 1) and Bui Thi Xuan high school (district 1) CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Pros and cons of learning a foreign language at young age 2.1.1 Benefits of learning a foreign language at young age Discussing the advantages of learning a foreign language at early age, there are many researches that have pointed out the problem clearly Amina Nazarli wrote in her topic, whose name is “Should children learn second language at early age” (2014), studying a foreign language can give a chance to children to distinguish the difference between their mother tongue and the language they are studying When their parents or friends speak the mother tongue, it is easy for children to differentiate what the dissimilarity is It will help the thinking and minding develop This can give children many encouragements to appreciate how big the world is and also help them to approach to many multi-cultures all over the world Furthermore, Amina indicated the acquisition of children when learning a foreign language They are specialists in language obtaining, so it is not difficult to acquire another language after having mastering the native speech She suggested that the age between five and eight is very suitable for most children to learn a foreign language Artheo Education Academy totally agrees with that point in its article named Benefits of learning a second language as a child (2018) The academy also picks out the best ages for children to learn languages through a chart called Age of Acquisition of new language The brain of children is to absorb much information surrounding them, especially the new one This way is similar to adults when we learn the lyrics or song rhythms Moreover, the academy indicated that the brains of kids have special skills for learning 10 original test of chart 4.1 is about unscrambling vocabulary and sentences The vocabulary is not too much difficult and children have all studied about before, the sentences are too That is the differences between using grammar translation method in most public schools and many modern methods used in centers Not only young learners have chances to improve the academic knowledge but also other skills such as reflection Due to the result of table 4.4, which imitates the experiment of Ellen Byalystok and Michelle MartinRhee, children who have studied English before can distinguish shape and color clearly Children who only know Vietnamese feel embarrassed when arranging the sheet into the bins As a natural awareness, those children can distinguish the color but cannot realize the shape in different color The experiment is to point out the differences between bilingual language children and monolingual language children Bilingual ones, Vietnamese and English in this case, have an ability of distinguish the distinction of things surrounding them Because they have to the same thing every day, which speak to parents and friends in schools in Vietnamese and speak to teachers and friends in centers in English This is not a learning anymore This is an acquisition, and it happens regularly so children studying English have a good reflection than those who have not In conclusion, the benefits of letting young children study in centers are numerous: studying in a professional organizational system, suitable and interesting study program, well-qualified teachers, and good for the growth of children Those benefits may have been indicated in some topics or newspaper before, but they are more specific in this research 40 5.2 Problems of studying English in centers 5.2.1 Some centers are not well-qualified A statistic in 2017 led by Ho Chi Minh City Department of Educational and Training indicated that there are more than 400 English centers in the city That is just the number of legal places, which have signed the business registration certificate Actually, there are some centers that not work legally Due to this situation, many of them not have the good quality enough for children to study in The writer has discussed about the criteria of a well-qualified center above, typically ILA centers A good English center must include good teachers, suitable study program, professional organizational system and so on, the reputation However, to have children study in a good center, parents have to pay a lot of money The fee in ILA centers is about 13 million to 17 million dongs, in VUS centers is about million to over million dongs, in Apollo English Junior is about 14 million dongs The fee of well-qualified centers is not easy to afford, so parents choose to let their kids study in lower fee centers with have small scale in organizing system Despite there are also many average centers that can satisfy the demand of students, it is indicated that a lot of problems related to quality appear: - Like in most public schools, foreign teachers in some centers are not well-qualified Besides having no experiences in teaching children, some not have necessary teaching certificate Foreign teachers in those centers mostly are traveler, and they become teacher as a part time job, so the requirement is easy The foreign just need to speak English and comes from Europe and native England or America, he or she will become a teacher that 41 teaches young learners without any tests or estimation The inexperienced and skilless teachers, of course, not know how to use modern teaching methods and suitable activities in classes Vietnamese parents rarely care about this problem They just know that teachers are foreigners and believe that studying with a foreigner can improve their kids’ skills of English - Vietnamese teachers in some small centers are usually seniors of universities Hiring seniors could be more economical than an experienced teacher Other has graduated for years but did not study pedagogy The consequence is some problems appear when the inexperienced Vietnamese teachers not know how to manage the class and have wrong behavior when talking to students - Organizational system is one of the most important things to estimate the quality of the center In well-qualified centers, typically ILA, the system is organized professionally However, in other bad ones, it is not difficult to recognize all the work of the centers is just the assignment of one or two people A new English center in district 1, which teaches the study program of young learners, high school students and adults, the AM of that center, also vice-president and customer service officer is only a person Another staff is a translator who is responsible for translating textbooks and sources of teaching material Those problems are approximately internal Only people who have worked for small and badly-qualified centers recognize the disadvantages However, parents who are not affordable to the fee of well-qualified ones tend to sign their kids in smaller centers and not care much about the problems Besides, there are many attractive advertisements of small and average centers: magic teaching methods that can help children improve their skills in 42 a short time, modern infrastructure and well-qualified foreign teachers who are native ones, advertise on media and let their acquaintances review about centers by using beautiful words, etc Furthermore, natural Vietnamese parents prefer foreign imports to native ones Being heard the attractive advertisement, parents let kids study in affordable centers with the belief that the quality is the same as other big English centers 5.2.2 Education becomes a kind of merchandise Not only the small and average centers but also big and famous ones have to make sure an internal problem: re-enrollment It means to encourage parents to pay the fee for the next course again The better is attracting parents to pay for a pack of courses about six months or a year For each class, teachers and TAs have to make sure that over 80 percent of students will reenroll and not think about moving to other centers Therefore, some negative things may happen: - The centers will make parents misunderstand about their kids’ ability Before midterm test or final test, teachers in class must review the knowledge for students However, in some centers, teachers will have students the sentences and questions in the real test before a week or two weeks, especially the grammar and vocabulary questions Students just need to learn by heart the answers and write them in the real test when doing examination By this way, the results of students will be very high, most of them get over 80 scores (maximum 100 scores) When the result is sent to parents, most of them think that their kids are highly good learners - If the results of students are not good, TAs are asked to change the score In a famous center, TA is the last person to import the scores of 43 students into online system If the TA realizes a student who fails the final test, he or she will speak to TAS or CM and they will increase the score of the student enough to pass the test Because students who fail the recent course have to study again, some parents may not be appreciate with the result and think that it is the fault of the center By changing the result, parents think that their children actually pass the final examination and will re-enroll the next course This action, in a very negative way, leads to misunderstanding of parents and lack of motivation also knowledge of students A student who cannot pass the exam means he has problems with his knowledge, so he has to study again to understand all the things clearly If that student pass the exam without having understood the vocabulary and grammar, it is difficult for him to study in an upper class Furthermore, parents will think that their kid is good and proud of the fake result Days by days, the lack of knowledge increases and studying in upper classes make student feel bored Sometimes, it leads to bad results at public schools but parents not know what the matter is - In a famous center, if students have problems while studying, they will be tutored after class The person who tutors them is the TA in class, not the teacher The TAs whose responsibility is to help teachers in class to manage the students are mostly part time workers from different majors Therefore, some of them not know how to teach students in an effective way The TAs who are not studying pedagogy usually tutor students by using grammar - translation method, which was used for them to study English when they were at high schools Furthermore, the centers have extra grammar classes for weak students to attend However, those classes are managed by TAs, not teachers The salary scale for TA is about 35,000 dongs per hours and salary scale for teachers is over 300,000 dongs, so the centers let TAs 44 manage the class to be economical In tutoring time or extra grammar classes, it is sometimes the best time to let the weak students learn by heart the answers of the upcoming test, or the answers of the following lessons 5.2.3 Students studying in centers lack of advanced grammar Many parents believe that studying in English centers help children improve all skills: vocabulary, grammar, communication, presentation It is definitely a false belief Due to the result of chart 4.2 and 4.3, students in public secondary and high schools have higher average scores than students studying in centers In the survey for secondary students (see Appendix), most of the centers’ students cannot question which is about the usage between Past simple and Past continuous and question which is about Past perfect Those tenses were taught in centers, but in a brief way The purpose of teaching grammar for students is to apply in speaking and communicating, so many teachers not widen the usage of grammar in advance Question is a question about singular and plural noun with a complicated adjective, just students of centers give the correct answer In spoken English, it is hardly to see this structure but it is just a simple grammar Although it is not difficult, students not study about it Meanwhile, in the survey for high school students, all of the questions are grammar (see Appendix) All students have difficulty doing question which is about Future perfect continuous, question which is a type of inversion and question 10 which is about article Students find it not difficult to give the correct answers for basic knowledge such as Present perfect, relative clauses, or the first conditional sentence In total, the average of high school students in public school is higher than students in centers 45 Through the results of surveys, it can be easy to indicate that students studying in centers not improve in all aspects as parents believe They are very good at communication, presentation and using vocabulary in spoken English, but they are not very excellent at grammar CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 6.1 Limitations Due to the small scale of study as well as time limit, the methods used in this research are just finished by a small number of students in only centers of ILA and some public schools The teaching methods of teachers and TAs are indicated by observing in some schools and centers, not by a wide range of survey 6.2 Conclusion The research has listed many advantages and disadvantages young learners studying in English centers besides at public schools In a brief way, it is good for young learners to study in centers The teaching methods used in centers are suitable and good for the acquisition of new language Wellqualified teachers and modern infrastructure can satisfy the need of teachers also students Furthermore, the professional organizational system can help parents feel satisfied about not only the quality of education but also the care for their kids However, studying in centers contain some problems, so parents have to learn about the centers they are going to let their kids study in Last but not least, studying English in centers should not be a trend If parents want kids to master English and can use the language well in communication and have a chance to study abroad or about English major, studying in centers 46 is the best choice If not, studying at public schools or with teachers at schools is enough for students to get grades and pass the entrance examination to university when they graduate from high schools 47 APPENDIX Vocabulary and grammar survey for primary school students The London Eye is an enormous wheel It (t r n u s) very slowly Tower Bridge has two (s e t o r w) Sometimes the traffic stops and the (r e g i b d) opens The (c l c o k) in Big Ben tells people the time This tower tells people about the Great Fire in 1966 It started in a (r e k a b) grapes/ Have/ you/ got/ any/ ? -> have/ else/ What/ got/ you/ ? -> are/ What/ do/ going/ this/ to/ weekend/ you/ ? -> 48 Vocabulary and grammar survey for secondary school students Yesterday morning I (get) up at 6.00 The teacher (write) on the board while the students (fill) the words in text Last week my rabbit (run) away, and I .(not find) it yet Last Monday they (play) chess after they (do) their homework I think that they (arrive) tomorrow morning Students have two each day a 20-minutes breaks b 20-minute breaks c 20-minutes break d 20-minute break What is your ? a birthday b day of birth c date of birth d day birth We table tennis to badminton a prefer b like c would love d fancy Mai learns to use a computer a what b when c how d why 49 Grammar survey for high school students It's time we this old car and brought new one a sell b sold c have sold d had sold The room smelled terrible Someone before I came a smoked b smoke c have smoked d had smoked That are my friend and his dog lost in the forest a who b which c that d whom Peter disconnected the phone a so as not to disturb b to disturb c to be disturbed d so as not to be disturbed If I finish doing the 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