Efl teachers’ perceptions of teaching vocabulary to young learners at quy nhon based primary schools

Trang 1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY LE THI THANH THI EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY TO YOUNG LEARNERS AT QUY NHON-BASED PRIMARY SCHOOLS Field

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Reality shows that early English education has become one of the increasing demands in the world In Vietnam, English has been decided to become a compulsory subject for third graders upwards and optional downwards at schools since 2020 Learning vocabulary is widely held as an indispensable part in helping learners become competent in foreign or second language learning Teaching English to young learners cannot be seen only as teaching the language

The demand for learning English as a foreign language, particularly at the elementary level, is expanding so rapidly Vocabulary is an important part of starting and understanding a language Without a large vocabulary, it is impossible to communicate or express ideas effectively Cameron (2001), Beck et al (2002), Beck and McKeown (2007), and Hedge (2008) emphasized that it is essential to take vocabulary instruction into great consideration because of its utmost importance during this stage There has been an oversight in primary language teacher education, which may lead to primary school EFL (PSEFL) teachers having insufficient knowledge and employing inadequate teaching methods in this area

More significantly, the social demand for English at all educational levels, especially at the primary level in Vietnam increases so dramatically that the training of PSEFL teachers is not in pace with the increased demand (Pham,

A lot of studies have been undertaken to look into the challenges EFL teachers face of teaching English vocabulary to young learners However, very few existing studies focus on the teaching of vocabulary to young learners and even fewer investigations have been carried out to find out about PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to this group of students

It is the reason why the researcher decided to do research into “EFL Teachers’

Perceptions of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners at Quy Nhon-based Primary Schools” with a view to helping PSEFL teachers to have effective measures to teach vocabulary to their students.

Aim and Objectives of the Study

This study aims to work out PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of importance of teaching vocabulary to young learners and challenges that they face in the process of doing it

The objectives of this research are:

1) To find out PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to teach to young learners

2) To examine challenges faced by PSEFL teachers in teaching English vocabulary to young learners.

Research Questions

Based on the aim and objectives, the research questions are:

1 What are PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to young learners?

2 What challenges do PSEFL teachers face in teaching English vocabulary to young learners?

Scope of the Study

From the above research questions, the study focuses only on EFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to young learners at primary schools and finding out about the challenges that EFL teachers face in teaching vocabulary at school The participants in the study are mostly female teachers from some primary schools in Quy Nhon as indicated in Table 3.1 Due to time constraints and expenses, only 15 EFL teachers from 04 primary schools in Quy Nhon: Ngo Quyen Primary School, Nhon Phu Primary School, Bui Thi Xuan Primary School and Nguyen Khuyen Primary School participated in the study The vocabulary is mainly taken from the textbook “I-learn Smart

Start grade 1-5” published by Ho Chi Minh University of

Significance of the Study

Theoretically, the present study aims to provide a deep understanding of teachers’ perceptions of teaching vocabulary to young learners at primary school level Moreover, the study also contributes to the perfection of the study of the methods of teaching vocabulary to young learners

Practically, the researcher hopes that this study will have some benefits for EFL teachers who teach English in primary school level to get information about the benefits, challenges, and media that are used by the teacher in teaching English to young learners The findings of the study help PSEFL teachers to be aware of challenges that they face in teaching vocabulary and provide them with some solutions to these problems Also, curriculum designing will be facilitated in terms of providing appropriate tasks to assist students in mastering English vocabulary In addition to this, students can learn vocabulary more effectively The findings of the research also may help high school EFL teachers gain insights on EFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching

English vocabulary to their students Thanks to this, EFL teachers can adjust and improve their teaching methodology to help their students know how to learn English vocabulary effectively.

Design of the Study

The study is divided into five chapters as follows:

- Chapter 1, Introduction, states the rationale, aim and objectives, significance, scope and design of the study

- Chapter 2, Literature review, presents the theoretical issues which shed light on this study and the previous studies on teaching English vocabulary to young learners

- Chapter 3, Methodology, describes the research methods, the participants, the data collection tools and procedures

- Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, unfolds the results revealed from the two sets of data - quantitative and qualitative Also, it discusses the results, interpreting them and comparing them with those of the previous relevant studies

- Chapter 5, Conclusion, exhibits a summary of the findings, some limitations and some pedagogical suggestions for teaching English vocabulary to YLs in Vietnam It also puts forward some suggestions for further studies.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical Background

2.1.1 Child Language Acquisition and Learning

A large number of authors and researchers try to segment learners strictly based on age: three to five years old, six to eight years old, etc (Nunan, 2011) According to Cameron (2010), young learner is being learner aged between five and twelve years old, so the young learner’s age is in elementary school Linse (2005) also defines young learners (YLs) as children between the ages of five and twelve Meanwhile, Scott and Ytreberg (1990) divide children into two groups: five to seven years old and eight to eleven years old They suppose that children aged five to seven are all at level one, the beginner stage; children aged eight to ten are also at the beginner stage, but they may have been studying the foreign language for some time This point of view is also included in Phillip’s

(2003) discussion Phillip defined that young learners are children aged five or six years old to eleven or twelve years old in their first year of formal schooling According to Harmer (2007), young children are “those up to the ages of nine or ten” while in Thornbury’s (2006) view, young learners are children at pre- primary school and primary school age or even sometimes including 7 adolescents He explains that in some countries, young learners learn English to prepare for their secondary school but there is a trend that young learners are taught English sooner and sooner, even at pre-primary school

Based on those theories mentioned above, it can be concluded that "young learners" are children in elementary schools from the first to the fifth grade (six to eleven years old) The present study focuses on primary school students in Vietnam, who commonly start to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) from grade 1 to grade 5 As a result, the term “young learners” in this research to Vietnamese EFL children of 7-11 years of age

EFL teachers, especially those who teach young learners, must have a thorough understanding of the characteristics of their pupils It is because EFL teachers will be able to use appropriate techniques or activities in teaching or assessing pupils if they understand them well Based on “English for Primary

EFL teachers” written by Slattery and Willis (2001), young learners range in age from seven to twelve years old They are rapidly developing as individuals and learn in a variety of ways, such as by watching, listening, imitating, or doing things They are also unable to comprehend grammatical rules and language explanations and must rely on nonverbal cues to make sense of situations

Furthermore, they usually talk in their mother tongue about what they understand and do, imitate sounds, are curious, enjoy playing and imagining, and enjoy repetition and routines However, the most important characteristic of them is that they have short attention spans and require variety Benjamin

(2002) wrote that it is common for students to pay careful attention to the lecture for around 10 minutes before they begin to lose interest Hence, the teacher should devise a creative instructional method to distribute the materials

In the line with this statement, Broughton (1980) claims that young learners

“love to imitate and mime: they are uninhibited in acting out roles, and they enjoy repetition because it gives them a sense of assurance and achievement”

(p.169) It means that they pay attention to other people and try to emulate what they do and say This is also how young students learn and grow in their knowledge From another viewpoint, Pinter (2006) stated that characteristics of young learners include understanding the meaning of language but being unable to analyze it, having lower levels of awareness, having limited reading and writing skills even in their first language, being more concerned about themselves than others, having limited knowledge about the world, and enjoying fantasy, imagination, and movement As a result, the statement above demonstrates that young learners learn in their own way It may be the teacher's responsibility to guide them during instruction They are unique and distinct from older or adult learners; they also learn at their own speed, allowing them to change quickly and develop their skills and abilities in a variety of ways It is clear from the characteristics listed above that younger and older learners are very different Therefore, EFL teachers should identify who they will interact with

2.1.3 Teaching English to Young Learners

Teaching English to young learners at the ages of around 4-12 years is one of the ways used to make and educate children to master English easier because it can bring many positive impacts for the young learners themselves Many elementary teachers in Indonesia agree that English is important for young learners and useful for their future (Octaviani & Fauzan, 2017) Besides English is important and useful for young learners’ future, learning a foreign language can develop children's basic communication capabilities in the language which needs to be stimulated as early as possible, (Jazuly & Indrayani, 2018) Because as stated by Harmer (2007), he explained that children's understanding comes from what they see and hear, and the chance to touch and interact with, not comes from the explanation, so that it needs to be stimulated as early as possible

Moreover, children in preschool generally learn through physical activities or learning by doing, it can be learning through hands-on experiences and manipulation of objects in the environment As the impact of those characteristics, Pinter (2006) explained that teaching English also encourages motivation and enjoyment in language learning especially when it is in a fun way, so that children can promote to learn about other cultures and improve children’s cognitive skills as well as improving children’s metalinguistic awareness, (Jazuly & Indrayani, 2018) Jazuly and Indrayani (2018) also explained another reason why children should learn English from an early age is that because they are in the convenience age to acquire a language, there is a belief that "younger is better" and they will learn more quickly and efficiently Consequently, based on the reason above, it can be concluded that teaching English to young learners is really important and gives many advantages for the children themselves

Many researchers argued that teaching English to young learners is necessary and useful for the future of the children, but we have to know that in the implementation not every process is run easily Some researchers explained that in the process of teaching English to the students in primary school, they often meet some challenges such as the condition of the school, the school facilities that are too minimal, the children’s proficiency in acquiring a foreign language, and others Songbatumis (2017) emphasized some challenges that generally exist in teaching English such as, crowded class, lack of vocabulary, lack of English exposure, limited resources accessibility, different teaching methods, and techniques application, and teaching facilities improvement

As known that in Indonesia, every school has a different quality of classroom size and facilities In some school which is in a rural area, the condition of the school might need many improvements such as the classroom size that is too small and the distance between one and another class is too thin so that the teacher and the students or even the desks and the chairs in the class do not have any space to move, and the noise between one and another class can disturb the learning process in the classroom In addition, the facilities in every school also might be different, because not all of the schools, especially in primary school, have a proper library that can provide literacy for the students, and it makes the teachers and students have limited resources accessibility Not all of the school has good facilities, some of the school just have blackboard and chalk which actually they need complete equipment that used for teaching such as blackboard or whiteboard, board eraser, board marker, chalk, LCD projector, and speaker so that they can learn those four English skills easily

As the impact of the condition of the school that has different classroom size and facilities, the teacher should prepare the methods and techniques that are suitable for the condition that they have Besides the condition of the school, Scott and Ytreberg (1990) mentioned some characteristics from the children which have very short attention and concentration span, have difficulty in knowing what is fact and what is fiction, often happy playing and working alone but in the company of others, love to play, enthusiast, and positive about learning, so that the teachers should considering the methods and techniques that can provide them to learning the language in a fun way without forgetting the learning objectives of the lessons The teachers also should make sure the methods and techniques that they use can improve students’ ability in mastering everything that they are taught and having high motivation in learning English, but it seems becoming the challenges that are the most challenging thing to do because every child has different language proficiency and background knowledge

Meanwhile, the challenges are something that is faced not only by the teachers but also by the students themselves Learning a new language is not always an easy one, some children in primary school think that learning a foreign language is difficult, so that it can make them have a low motivation in language learning According to Mustafa (2000), there are three challenges that faced by primary students in the process of learning a foreign language in Indonesia; the lack of chance to practice English in daily life; there is a different concept of English words in written text and words in the way it pronounced; the belief that is the way children learn was the same as adults In Indonesia, the implementation of teaching English in primary school based on the researcher’s experience is mostly focused on the form or in grammar, the teacher focuses on how the language is used in the written form correctly so that the students have difficulties in speaking language because as known that there are differences between written and the way we pronounce the word if the teacher only focuses on the written task the students will be confused while they want to speak because they do not know how to pronounce a word

Moreover, because of the task that teacher gives mostly on written form, the students have a lack of chance in practicing what they get in the school in their daily life In addition, it cannot be equalized the learning ways of children and adults, because both of them was very different, children mostly like to play while they learn but adults can learn on the serious way with their own way Pinter (2011) pointed the condition that there is extremely limited access to the target language outside the classroom which this point indicates as 'low input level' context and this is what happens when a foreign language is introduced in primary school Related to those issues, Pinter (2011) also explained that in fact, in many countries with foreign language programs, the children commonly are not exposed to the target language adequately to learn and participate in meaningful communication They might learn rhymes and songs, some basic vocabulary, and cautiously practice dialogues, but infrequently progress farther, and specifically unable to communicate their own meaning spontaneously

Teaching Vocabulary

There are numerous definitions of vocabulary expressed by experts; nevertheless, there are a few that are particularly significant to discuss Vocabulary, according to Ur (1996), is the list of words that are taught in a foreign language It indicates that all foreign language terms taught by EFL teachers can be used in sentences or daily conversations by students Whereas Linse and Nunan (2005) defined that vocabulary is the collection of words that an individual knows A vocabulary can be defined as a set of words or phrases that can be used to describe things in communication, hence, people have to know the vocabulary in order to communicate with others Teaching vocabulary is necessary for EFL teachers, especially English skills The statement implies that actually, people actually know about vocabulary since they communicate using language that contains a large number of words in their daily lives

In addition, Schmitt (2008) states that teaching and learning should be a long-term process of explicitly repeating the vocabulary acquired for the duration of the course Similarly, according to Harmer (2001), vocabulary is the most essential element of a language If language structures form the skeleton of the language, he claims that vocabulary provides the vital organs and flesh Furthermore, lexical knowledge is important for communicative skills and the acquisition of a second language (Schmitt, 2000)

According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Online, vocabulary is defined as a) all the words that a person knows or uses, b) all the words in a particular language, c) the words that people use when they are talking about a particular subject and d) a list of words with their meanings, especially in a book for learning a foreign language

From the above mentioned definitions, it can be seen that vocabulary is the group of words that speakers use to communicate and express their thoughts and feelings contains of aspects, they are meaning, use of word and form (pronunciation and spelling) Without vocabulary, communication will not be effective In other words, having a sufficient vocabulary is the foundation for effective language development

There are various explanations by experts regarding different types of vocabulary McCarten (2007) defined vocabulary as having two types: active or productive vocabulary and passive or receptive vocabulary Active or productive vocabulary is used in speaking and writing, whereas passive or receptive vocabulary is used in reading and listening

Furthermore, Finocchiaro (1989) divided vocabulary into two types namely function words and content words Function words should be memorized as rapidly as possible (but in a logical order and sequence) while content words can be learned in small groups in relation to "real-life" situations

Meanwhile, there are two forms of vocabulary, according to Haycraft

(1995) The first is receptive vocabulary, which learners recognize and comprehend when it appears in context Because the learner only absorbs thoughts from others through listening and reading, receptive vocabulary is also known as a passive process The second is productive vocabulary, which learners comprehend can pronounce, and can use effectively in speech and writing Productive vocabulary is also known as an active process because learners generate vocabulary through their activities It is concluded that vocabulary has several different types and this must be understood by EFL teachers who teach vocabulary

Vocabulary knowledge is regarded as one of the most important components in learning another language (Schmitt, 2008) English learners who lack vocabulary knowledge are unable to comprehend written texts or transmit messages to others Many linguists believe that vocabulary is an important component of second language learning

According to Harmer (2001), vocabulary is the foundation of the language He argues that if language structures form the language's skeleton, vocabulary contributes to the essential organs and flesh Furthermore, lexical knowledge is regarded as critical to communication skills and the acquisition of a second language (Schmitt, 2000) Furthermore, Richards and Renandya

(2002) suggest that vocabulary is the essential component of language proficiency and serves as the foundation for how well learners speak, listen, read, and write One of the language components that can influence macro abilities is vocabulary If we master vocabulary, we can do anything we want with language Mastering vocabulary will make listening, speaking, reading, and writing easier The second function of vocabulary is related to grammar It demonstrates that students can use language in conversation even if they do not properly understand the grammar; however, they are unable to speak more due to a lack of language The third function of vocabulary is fundamental to learning and mastering linguistics Prior to practicing syntactic structure, all learners must first practice their vocabulary (Carter & McCarthy, 1988)

Based on the statements above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is important for learners to learn a language, especially, the elementary school students Hopefully, by being introduced to a number of words, they will be able to express their thoughts or accept others’ perceptions In addition, they also have vocabulary knowledge when they are developing their four language skills Learning a language is not an easy task It needs a set of requirements One of them is having adequate vocabulary Vocabulary plays an important role in learning the four language skills

In conclusion, considering the importance of vocabulary knowledge, EFL teachers must pay more attention to vocabulary teaching EFL teachers can emphasize the importance of vocabulary development early in the school year and continue to give students opportunities to build word skills If someone can master vocabulary, he or she will be able to improve fluency, comprehension, achievement, thinking, and communication

Teaching vocabulary is not an easy thing to do, furthermore, teaching vocabulary for young learners is different from adults Harmer (1991) says that teaching vocabulary is more than just presenting and describing new words Thus, to introduce new vocabulary, EFL teachers need various ways or techniques to assist the students to acquire vocabulary effectively In other words, particular techniques are needed to direct students to expand their vocabulary Teaching techniques emphasize the ways the teacher delivers the lesson to the students Techniques are the ways and means adopted by a teacher to direct the student activities to achieve the objective which means techniques are the tool of the teacher (Gerlach, 2006) Similar with Gerlach, Brown (2001) defines techniques as any of wide variety exercises, activities, or tasks used in the language classroom that were consistent with a method and therefore were in harmony with an approach as well

A number of authors have described vocabulary teaching techniques (Gairns & Redman, 1986; Nation, 1990; Cross, 1991; and Brewster, Ellis & Girard, 2003) The techniques proposed by the authors involved a great deal of vocabulary teaching and learning The vocabulary teaching techniques are divided into three parts, they are:

The title of this very first stage has indicated clearly its function in introducing the new words and also its meaning The techniques of presenting vocabulary which can be applied in school classes are as follows: a Visual techniques

Previous Studies

There are some relevant studies that have been done previously related to this research

Typically, Buyun Khulel (2021) investigated teacher’s challenges about teaching English for young learners in Rustic area The purpose of this study is to look into some difficulties that EFL teachers face when teaching English to elementary students in rustic primary schools in Baureno, East Java To find the answer for this study, the writer used a qualitative approach To answer the question, a semi-structured interview with six participants from six elementary schools in five villages was conducted It began with a brief discussion of the function of English in the national primary school curriculum on one hand and the implementation of English programs in rural schools on the other The writer encountered three difficulties: (i) Students’ socio-economics condition, (ii) the status of English in the school, and (iii) Covid-19 pandemic As a result, the writer suggested that more research be done to highlight EFL teachers’ challenges on the implementation of primary school learning

Another study with a title “EFL teachers’ perceptions and implementation of pedagogical content knowledge in teaching English to young learners” was conducted by Virgianti in 2020 to investigate primary EFL teachers’ perceptions and implementation of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in teaching English to young learners, and the consistency between the EFL teachers’ perceptions and implementation of PCK in teaching English to young learners This study involved three EFL teachers from three different primary schools in Buleleng Regency which were selected by using convenience sampling technique The instruments used to collect the data were questionnaire, observation sheet, and interview guide The data were analyzed by using descriptive qualitative The study demonstrated that EFL teachers had high perceptions of PCK However, their PCK implementation was very low Thus, there is no consistency between the perceptions and implementation of PCK Moreover, based on the result of the interview, the EFL teachers encountered some problems included difficulty in using English in speaking and writing, designing learning activities to facilitate students’ characteristics, choosing media that related to the material, and providing learning media due to lack of facility in the school Therefore, school administrators need to promote EFL teachers’ improvement of pedagogical content knowledge by proposing them to participate in the certain professional development program

With the aim of finding out the EFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching primary school students, in 2017, Octaviani and Fauzan carried out a study about EFL teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of inclusive education in one regular primary school in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea The school was made up of twenty-five EFL teachers and an estimate of 350 students; however, only twenty EFL teachers participated in the study The twenty EFL teachers were composed of one head teacher, one deputy head teacher, two senior subject EFL teachers, five senior EFL teachers and eleven classroom EFL teachers It was a qualitative study using a case study approach The data were gathered through questionnaires, individual interviews, focus group interviews, and document analysis The results of this study showed that (i) EFL teachers were not fully aware of inclusive education policy and practice, (ii) poor implementation of inclusive education policy was due to a lack of appropriate training and professional development, (iii) inclusive education needs to be funded separately by all levels of government The results of this study showed that there are three perceptions related to the importance of English for young learners, such as children who learn a new language younger will get a better result, English becomes the needs that forced to face international economic at globalization era, and parents’ enthusiasm related in order to have social economical and benefit in national context if their children learning English earlier

Mart et al (2014) studied Turkish EFL teachers' opinions about teaching English as a foreign language to young children A questionnaire was sent to

131 preschool teachers in Turkey The findings showed that the pre-school teachers agreed to teach English as a foreign language to YLs, and they believed it was vital to begin early There was a mixed bag of evidence in favor of and against exposing young infants to foreign languages Due to an education reform, Turkey began teaching English as a foreign language in the second grade of primary school rather than the fourth Nevertheless, participation in the research was based on willingness and non-probability sampling, which may have resulted in a non-representative sample of pre-school teachers across the country Second, the data from the questionnaire, which served as the primary and sole data collection technique, was not triangulated More in-depth insights regarding EFL teachers' perspectives on teaching English as a foreign language may have been overlooked

Furthermore, Krisanti’s (2020) study entitled “EFL primary EFL teachers’ perceptions on teaching English to young learners in Yogyakarta ” The purpose of this research was to describe EFL teachers’ perceptions on teaching English to young learners in primary education level This research was phenomenology research which was conducted both in international and regular primary schools in Yogyakarta Furthermore, there were three participants in this research, two teachers who teach English at an international primary school, and one English teacher who teaches English in three regular primary schools In addition, the data were collected from the interview transcript as the main source for this research Moreover, thematic analysis was used by the researcher to analyze the data findings This research revealed that the EFL teachers had positive perceptions related to the benefit of teaching English to young learners With regard to the process of teaching English to young learners, it was found that different teaching methods and techniques became one of many difficult challenges faced by EFL teachers Then, in terms of the use of learning media, the findings showed that EFL teachers mostly used and integrated traditional media in the process of teaching English to young learners

In Vietnam, there are also some researchers who investigated teacher’s perception of teaching English vocabulary to YLs Le (2022) conducted a research on the “EFL teachers' perceptions of teaching English as a foreign language to pre-school children” To address the research questions, this study employed the mixed methods research design: the quantitative data was obtained through the questionnaires and the qualitative data was obtained through the open-ended focused interviews The participants were forty-three EFL teachers of English at the kindergartens in Binh Dinh province and other provinces across Vietnam The results showed that the EFL teachers generally agreed with the idea of introducing children to English at an early age Their agreement with the actual curriculum used for that purpose was considerably weaker The benefits articulated were mostly in agreement with those in the literature; however, the challenges mentioned showed features constrained by the social and educational background of Vietnam

The studies mentioned above shown that various pieces of research have been conducted in the field of teaching English to YLs However, little research has been done into EFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to YLs Hence, it inspires the implementation of this study, which can help fill the gap in the literature as well as bring out some conclusions and implications that are theoretically and practically significant.

Summary

This chapter has presented theoretical background knowledge relevant to the topic of the study It has discussed some definitions of young learners, perception, vocabulary, factors affecting teaching young learners and a review of some previous related studies To fill these gaps, it is worthwhile to investigate EFL teachers' perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to YLs at primary school, which is going to be discussed further in the next chapter.

METHODOLOGY

Research Approach

The study followed a descriptive research design It is helpful to identify the present conditions and needs (Sharma, 2000) Dahlia (2014) claimed that the goal of descriptive research is to paint an accurate picture of the way the world is Descriptive research includes describing just one variable It also includes describing relationships - how two different variables are related This study employed the former situation in which PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching vocabulary to young learners were investigated and described

To collect and analyze the data, the study used the mixed-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative approaches According to Creswell

(2002, pp 23-24), a need to clarify the goal of integrating quantitative and qualitative data in a single study led to the development of the mixed-method approach The complexity of the approach necessitated more detailed procedures due to the incorporation of many data sources and kinds of analysis These procedures were created in part to assist researchers in developing understandable approaches to complex data and analysis

It is a descriptive qualitative research surveying PSEFL teachers’ perspectives of teaching English to young learners The descriptive research was conducted by collecting PSEFL teachers’ responses to the questionnaire that was developed for this purpose The data of this research are PSEFL teachers’ perspectives of teaching English to YLs The data would be collected through a questionnaire The questionnaire that was designed by the researcher consists of four main sections The first was PSEFL teacher’s perspectives of the importance of teaching English to YLs The second was PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of vocabulary selection The third was PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of vocabulary teaching techniques The last was PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of challenges they face in teaching English vocabulary to YLs The data was taken from the EFL teachers who teach English at primary schools in Quy Nhon City Descriptive statistics were used and computed Tables will summarize the percentage of responses to each section of the questionnaire.

Participants

This research was conducted with the participants of 15 EFL teachers at 4 primary schools in Quy Nhon City, including Ngo Quyen Primary School, Nhon Phu Primary School, Bui Thi Xuan Primary School and Nguyen Khuyen Primary School The participants in the study were mostly female teachers (only 1 male) They have all spent at least one year teaching English to YLs from 8 to 12 of age 93.3% are teachers aged 22-40 (only 2 females out of 40) With regards to teaching experience, the majority of the participants (60%) have 1-5 years in teaching experience; 26.7% of EFL teachers have been teaching for a period of 6-10 years andonly (13.3%) have more than ten years

As for degrees, 100% of the teachers have Bachelor of English Teacher Education All PSEFL teachers use “I-learn Smart Start” textbook to teach The ethnological information about the participants is presented in Table 3.1

Numbers of years of teaching

Data Collection

The researcher used two key research instruments, the questionnaire and the interview, to collect data for the study in order to identify the teacher's viewpoint on teaching vocabulary to YLs Because each instrument has its specific benefits, this combination was expected to produce the greatest findings for the investigation The questionnaire, which was regarded as one of the most common and useful instruments for data collection in research (Gall

& Borg, 1989), was used as the main tool for the study It was administered to seek the participants’ factual perceptions of factors affecting teaching vocabulary Then EFL teachers’ interviews provided opportunities for clarification, explanation of questionnaire findings and for confirmation of the reliability of their answers given in the questionnaires Details of the two instruments are presented as follows

The purpose of the questionnaire is to find out PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching vocabulary to young learners

Brown and Coombe (2015) state that a questionnaire provides a relatively cheap, quick, and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of information from a large sample of people The questionnaire was adapted from the literature review and objectives of the study from Habee’s (2013) Eba's (2014), Kitaw's

In this study, the questionnaire was distributed to 15 PSEFL teachers at 4 primary schools in Quy Nhon City The current study was conducted in a limited time and on a small group of participants, for which a less structured questionnaire was entirely appropriate The questionnaire used in the current study was sequenced in a clear structure convenient for the participants to provide their responses in their own ways

The questionnaire consists of two sections Section One finds out about the participants’ personal information (gender, age, and years of teaching English at college) and Section Two, consisting of 23 items, categorized into four clusters, focuses on PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of importance of teaching vocabulary (Items 1-7), vocabulary selection (Items 8-11), teaching techniques (Items 12-18) and challenges of teaching English vocabulary to YLs

(Items 19-23) Each cluster is based on a 5-point Likert scale of Agreement:

Strongly Disagree/ Disagree/ Not Sure/ Agree/ Strongly Agree 15 PSEFL teachers were given detailed instructions before the distribution of the questionnaire The aims of the items are shown in Table 3.2

Description of items in the questionnaire

Aims Number of questions Questions

To survey PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of importance of teaching vocabulary 7 1-7

To survey PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of vocabulary selection 4 8-11

To survey PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of techniques for teaching vocabulary 7 12-18

To survey PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of challenges they face in teaching English vocabulary to YLs 5 19-23

The aim of the interview was to collect qualitative data for the study The interview used to collect data in this research was semi-structured With this instrument, the researcher attempted to achieve a holistic understanding of the PSEFL teachers’ points of view on teaching vocabulary to YLs

Before the interview, the researcher explained the purpose and intention of the interview to the respondents Five questions were posed to five PSEFL teachers during the interview These questions are based on the research questions, and they are primarily concerned with PSEFL teachers' perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to YLs In addition, interviews were required to ascertain the issues encountered by PSEFL teachers during English vocabulary lessons It was also implied to discover what solution could be used to solve the problem The open-ended interviews were aimed at uncovering the issues in order to obtain detailed, in-depth answers to the questions in the questionnaire The English version of these questions is provided in Appendix

B It was held for about fifteen minutes for each participant Because of the conditions that made it impossible to conduct the face-to-face interview, the researcher carried out the interview via video calls The interview was conducted individually at different times in Vietnamese so that the interviewees were not constrained by their ability to express themselves in English After that, the transcripts were translated into English when dealt with in the present study.

Data Analysis

The data collected from the questionnaire with 4 clusters based on a 5- point Likert scale of Agreement: Strongly Disagree/ Disagree/ Not Sure/ Agree/

Strongly Agree as well as that obtained from the interview was classified and analyzed to find out about the PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of importance of teaching vocabulary, vocabulary selection, teaching techniques and challenges of teaching English vocabulary to YLs.

Summary

This chapter provided a detailed description of the methodology, participants, instruments, and data collection and analysis procedures: Data was collected using instruments such as questionnaires, interviews, and observation, as well as qualitative and quantitative approaches The findings and data analysis will be discussed in Chapter 4.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Questionnaire Findings and Discussion

In answer to the first research question “What are PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching vocabulary to young learners?” the initial quantitative data analysis aimed to investigate 15 primary PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of the aspects of teaching English vocabulary to YLs together with the corresponding discussions

4.1.1 PSEFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Importance of Teaching English Vocabulary to Young Learners

Most of the PSEFL teachers through the questionnaire agreed that teaching vocabulary plays a pivotal role in the learning of a new language and an increasing knowledge of vocabulary is a dynamic and meaningful way to develop it All the data collected from the questionnaire are presented in Table 4.1

PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of importance of teaching English vocabulary to young learners

Strongly Disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly

Vocabulary is the most important language component in learning English so I usually focus my teaching on vocabulary

Vocabulary building assists pupils in their

English studies as well as their overall language proficiency

Vocabulary knowledge has much impact on pupils when they use four language skills

Teaching vocabulary funnily and enjoyably enhances pupils' active involvement in learning the language

5 Translating new vocabulary when 0 0 0 0 2 13.4 5 33.3 8 53.3 it is an incidental or new concept to pupils is necessary for better understanding and saving pupils guessing time

Using mother tongue as a resource necessary to teach new words is important in teaching vocabulary to

Offering pupils with clear and explicit vocabulary instruction helps them to learn new words easily

Table 4.1 shows that the majority of the PSEFL teachers acknowledged the importance of teaching vocabulary with 26.7% and 73.3% agreeing and strongly agreeing respectively that they were aware of Item 2, which states that

"Vocabulary building assists pupils in their English studies as well as their overall language proficiency” With Item 1, which reads: "Vocabulary is the most important component in language learning", 33.3% agreed and 66.7% strongly agreed respectively because without vocabulary nothing can be communicated Most of the PSEFL teachers (53.3% agree, 46.7% strongly agree) answered that they provided short and clear exercises to pupils to let them practice vocabulary structures and develop fluency in English, use their mother tongue as a resource were necessary to teach new words and they are aware that it is important to offer pupils unambiguous vocabulary instructions while teaching vocabulary Besides, that 46,7 % and 53,3 % of the PSEFL teachers strongly agreed and agreed respectively with Item 3 means that they acknowledged that a comprehensive knowledge of vocabulary has a great impact on the pupils when they perform linguistically For Item 4, the PSEFL teachers who agreed with 60% and those who strongly agreed with 40% show that teaching vocabulary funnily and enjoyably enhances pupils' active involvement in learning the language Item 5 with 53.3% of the PSEFL teachers answering “strongly agree”, 33.4% “agree” and 13.4% “not sure”, indicates that translating new vocabulary when it is an incidental or new concept to pupils is necessary for a better understanding and save pupils guessing time The majority of the PSEFL teachers (with 40% answering “agree” and 60%

“strongly agree” respectively) show that offering pupils with clear and explicit vocabulary instruction helps them to learn new words easily Pupils have to memorize English vocabulary to communicate effectively As a result, it can be said that the teaching of vocabulary receives a good response from the PSEFL teachers surveyed

4.1.2 PSEFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Choice of Vocabulary

There are four questions in the first aspect of planning vocabulary for instruction to YLs (Table 4.2) The first two items are related to their recognition of what vocabulary to teach YLs by opting out language chunks or chunking (Item 9) and selecting a large oral vocabulary for fluency (Item 8) The next two questions concern their grasp of textbook vocabulary pools (Item

10) and the teachers’ judgment in selecting helpful or important vocabulary for YLs (Item 11)

PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of choice of vocabulary

Strongly Disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly

The choice of large vocabulary instruction enables young learners to improve their fluency

To develop vocabulary repertoire for young learners, vocabulary selected for instruction should be taught together with its meaningful language blocks such as collocations, set expressions or idioms

Vocabulary selected to teach to young learners should come directly from textbooks

Vocabulary selected to teach to young learners should be common

The PSEFL teachers' perceptions of the choice of vocabulary are shown in Table 4.2 The data analysis of Item 8 reveals that the choice of large vocabulary instruction enables YLs to improve their fluency Nearly 80% of the participants agreed and strongly agreed while those expressing their uncertainty and disagreement took up over 20% In response to Item 9, which is about the link between vocabulary size and fluency to YLs who develop oral language before written language, nearly 73% of the respondents agreed on such values and over 26% of the respondents hesitated and even did not believe it What is revealed from these unfavorable results is that not all seem to be fully aware of selecting the types of words that YLs find it possible to learn in spite of their positive understanding trend in vocabulary selection in connection with large oral vocabulary and fluency It is such incomplete perceptions of the critical values of chunks either in spoken or in written forms that may not bring optimal benefits to YLs in enriching their vocabulary, improving their fluency, reducing processing time and increasing their comprehension

In response to Item 10, nearly 80% of the teachers reported that they relied on textbooks and 20% of them did not Meanwhile, Item 11 about presenting words and phrases of high frequency or usefulness to YLs was supported by 87.7% of the participants in comparison with 13.3% of those who were not sure However, textbooks are for a wide range of learners of mixed abilities, so not all vocabulary could be taught Instead, textbooks allow PSEFL teachers to choose important words to teach directly and allow learners to learn in class or at home Secondly, when planning vocabulary, 73.3% of the respondents acknowledged their own roles in selecting vocabulary, which may be attributed to their understanding of YLs, lessons, curricula and testing or assessment to identify important and useful words and their relations with other words Thirdly, the data analysis shows that their reliance on textbooks (nearly 80%) was as approximately high as their judgement about usefulness or high frequency of target vocabulary (86.7%) This shows that there may be a juggle between their textbook reliance and their own decision Such dual overreliance may lead them to overload vocabulary planning Consequently, it is very important for teachers to balance their textbook-based vocabulary selection and their own judgement

4.1.3 PSEFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Techniques for Teaching Vocabulary

PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of techniques for teaching vocabulary

Strongly Disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly

New words presented with high oral quality greatly improve young learners’ oral vocabulary development

Teaching vocabulary in sentences through four skills enables young learners to develop fluency

Vocabulary should be explained easily, simply and basically

Vocabulary should be presented to young learners in fun and interesting contexts

Some further funny stories to read after class suggested by teachers are necessary for vocabulary development

New vocabulary can be taught through games, songs and plays rather than direct instruction

Vocabulary meanings can be presented in many ways through visual aids, miming, gestures, drawing, games, songs, poems or chants

As can be seen in Table 4.3, four question items examine the PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of direct teaching techniques including offering oral modeling (Item 12, 13), explaining skills (Item 14) and setting contexts (Item

15) Specifically, with Item 12, 33.3% of the PSEFL teachers strongly agreed, 60% agreed and 6.7% were unsure, which shows that new words presented with high oral quality can greatly improve pupils’ vocabulary development Besides, that 53.3% of the respondents agreed and 40% strongly agreed shows that teaching vocabulary in contexts enables pupils to develop their fluency Secondly, concerning explaining skills in Item 14, 33.3% of the respondents strongly agreed and 66,7% agreed These results indicate that vocabulary should be explained easily, simply and basically Thirdly, the data analysis of Item 15 reveals that vocabulary should be presented to YLs in fun and interesting contexts were very positive with 80% of the respondents who agreed and 20% strongly agreed

On the other hand, the mean score of indirect vocabulary teaching techniques through play learning, after-class reading and visual vocabulary display for incidental learning was low Specifically, Item 18 “Vocabulary meanings can be presented in many ways through visual aids, miming, gestures, drawing, games, songs, poems or chants” was illustrated with 93,3% of the respondents who agreed as opposed to 6.7% of those who hesitated and gave little preference to informal learning For Item 17 “New vocabulary can be taught through games, songs and plays rather than direct instruction”, 86.7% of the respondents supported it while 13.3% hesitated and disagreed The next indirect technique (Item 16) for encouraging YLs to read some further funny stories or picture books after class got the lowest mean score among the three with a surprising disproportion with 60% hesitating in contrast with 40% of those who approve It means that stress on free reading seems to be considerably questionable to the respondents Though reading after class for incidental exposures, which is theoretically considered critical, seems to be very questionable with significant uncertainty or disagreement while visual vocabulary display around classes and play learning activities through games or fun learning activities received much recognition from the surveyed PSEFL teachers It seems that their incomplete understanding about YLs whose characteristics include short attention, reasoning ability, multisensory learning, good imitation, or instinct of play learning may result in such conspicuous hesitation

In short, the above deeper screening of all the perception data on indirect vocabulary teaching techniques has brought to the surface their most questionable aspect reading after class Meanwhile, almost all PSEFL teachers perceived the importance of the other two elements play learning activities and visual incidental vocabulary learning in class

4.1.4 PSEFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Challenges in Teaching English Vocabulary to Young Learners

The reality of teaching English to YLs does not always run smoothly, there are many challenges that EFL teachers might face during the process The challenges themselves might come from the students, the school, or PSEFL teachers themselves, those can bring different impacts for the teaching and learning process

The challenges PSEFL teachers face in teaching English are summarized in Table 4.4 The overall responses were not very positive with statements about challenges PSEFL teachers face, indicating that the difficulties faced by the PSEFL teachers were moderate

PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of challenges in teaching English vocabulary to young learners

Strongly Disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly

The lack of equipment and facilities to teach

Some pupils are not interested in learning English vocabulary

I have difficulties in time constraint and word selection in learning materials

Pronunciation can be a problem in vocabulary teaching

PSEFL teachers’ limited knowledge of vocabulary and teaching techniques

Table 4.4 shows that the item that has the highest agreement is Item 20,

“Some pupils do not appear to be interested in English” Just 6.7% of the teachers disagreed with this statement It demonstrates that the greatest obstacle for PSEFL teachers was their pupils’ attitudes towards learning Overcoming these difficulties demands a lot of factors, time and investment For Item 19, most teachers (with 40% who agreed and 46.7% who strongly agreed) answered that their schools do not provide enough facilities to teach vocabulary effectively With Item 21 “I have difficulties in time constraint and word selection in learning materials”, 13.3% of the respondents answered “strongly agree” and 73.4% “agree” whereas 13.3% expressed uncertainty With Item 22, 73.4% of the participants chose “Agree”, 13.3% “Strongly agree” and 13.3%

Interview Findings

The interviews were conducted to evaluate the attitude of PSEFL teachers as to teaching vocabulary Five PSEFL teachers were required to answer in English for the gain of sufficiency with the study In order to be sufficient with the study, the answers were classified into four groups: (i) Importance of teaching vocabulary (ii) PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of choices of vocabulary; (iii) PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of the challenges teachers face in teaching English vocabulary to young learners

4.2.1 Importance of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners

The PSEFL teachers’ responses in the interviews supported the statistics obtained from the questionnaire data analysis The PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to YLs were positive

As one interviewee puts it:

“A solid vocabulary boosts reading comprehension for students of all ages The more words students know, the better they understand texts That's why effective vocabulary teaching is so important, especially for students who learn and think differently.” (T1)

If students have enough word knowledge, they can understand the text they are reading, the words they are listening Ashley (2018) said that lack of vocabulary could be a reason that students are not able to access the meaning of a text Therefore, everyone who is learning a language should increase their vocabulary at the first place

The overall responses to the question of the importance of teaching PSEFL to YLs were highly similar, with all of them emphasizing the numerous importance of vocabulary to comprehension The responses to this question included:

“Personally, I would say that the knowledge of vocabulary is the foundation of the progress of language acquisition as well as in literacy development In the teaching progress, the majority of students claim that they cannot understand the meaning of a word and a large number of them fail in doing tasks because of lack of vocabulary” (T2)

“Vocabulary is the key to reading comprehension Readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean As children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.” (T3)

These interviewees reported that vocabulary plays an important role in reading skills, saying that we could not understand the text, if we did not know the meaning of words

“The teaching of vocabulary is important because without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed People need to use words to express themselves in the English language Most learners acknowledge the importance of vocabulary acquisition” (T4)

Based on the opinions by the PSEFL teachers represented above, it is clear that vocabulary helps YLs communicate fluently This is why importance should be placed on teaching vocabulary so that there will be no obstacle to the understanding of texts due to a lack of vocabulary However, some students might be confronted with the problem of forgetting words immediately after the teacher has elicited the meaning of the words or after looking them up in the dictionary and this also is caused by lack of vocabulary “The more words students learn, the easier they memorize them”.(T5)

In general, all the PSEFL teachers agreed that it is crucial to teach vocabulary to YLs and consider the role of vocabulary in teaching English, as it is one of the skeletons of the language that pupils are expected to learn at an early age

4.2.2 PSEFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Choice of Vocabulary

Most of the responses of vocabulary selections were textbook-based, which is double-checked through all the interviewed PSEFL teachers’ strong commitments and duty to textbooks for guidance and conformity in teaching, testing and assessment

“According the format of the textbook (I-learn smart star) design, each unit encompasses four lessons and reviews Each lesson is to provide several new words and one sentence pattern which related to the topic of unit The last lesson will be a revision for the previous one.” (T1)

Some teachers said that their building vocabulary was mostly textbook- guided and may not be their intentional vocabulary selection T2 said:

“I took most of the main vocabulary from textbooks Sometimes I expand some sentence structures so that students can communicate more effectively.”

Teacher 5 tried to point out that the English course for grade 3, 4, 5 is overloading and grammar focused with 5 tenses without revision

“Textbook Series of English (I-learn smart start 3, 4 and 5) are rather overloading with very little practice I have seen a big learning load for third graders For instance, in my textbook review, pupils have to learn over 25 new words and 5 sentence patterns in each unit That‘s a big load for them” (T5)

Not only what words to teach but also how many words are in each lesson Even age-appropriate vocabulary loads were considered with Teacher 4’ judgment: “In general, each unit has 5 lessons and the maximum number of words for each lesson is 10 To grade 5, I usually provide them 6 or 7 words for each lesson As for third-grade pupils, they are very slow so we should teach 5 words at most”

“Teaching vocabulary is indeed a boring job Learning too large a number of words also makes it difficult for PSEFL teachers to convey and difficult for pupils to absorb PSEFL teachers must choose the most appropriate and important vocabulary” (T3)

In summary, the interview data in reference with the questionnaire data above may partly highlight several findings in this aspect Most of the respondents chose words from the textbooks as their strong commitments to teachers’ books Moreover, their overreliance on textbooks sometimes results in several difficulties in vocabulary selection

4.2.3 Challenges Faced by PSEFL Teachers in Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners

The interview data sheds more light on the challenges that PSEFL teachers confront when teaching English vocabulary to YLs When asked about the difficulties, the first interviewee stated:

PSEFL Teachers’ Suggestions

To obtain the PSEFL teachers’ suggestions on improving the effectiveness of teaching English vocabulary to YLs, through individual experiences and difficulties during their work, PSEFL teachers have made their own suggestions The themes that emerged were an enjoyable learning atmosphere, PSEFL teachers’ English language proficiency and an official curriculum First, there are some opinions that it is necessary to give YLs a comfortable mentality environment towards English For instance,

“The most efficient English teaching approach for children, in my opinion, is a combination of studying and fun during classes, complemented with new technologies so that pupils are not bored with lectures.”(T1)

“Parents and schools work together to help children learn happily, without children's losing interest in English.” (T2)

Moreover, some argue that YLs should be taught English vocabulary in a relaxed and comfortable environment before moving on to more advanced language instruction because learning environment is important for children Teachers should allow children to learn while playing, learning with songs and chants about things that are relevant to their lives, playing games, etc

“Teacher should teach English vocabulary through activities, games, music, listening to stories, etc will help them absorb better and enjoy learning English more.” (T4)

“Students require a conducive learning environment The results will be more beneficial if students have the ability to interact in a setting with numerous possibilities for exposure, and if the family and school encourage students to use English more regularly.” (T5)

In addition, there are some suggestions from PSEFL teachers about the techniques and vocabulary selection to teach YLs For example,

“Teachers should provide direct teaching of a word or concept providing child-friendly definitions and illustrating the word with a picture, realia or gesture.”(T2)

“Teachers must provide clear explanations and examples of the meanings of these words in various contexts, and provide students with opportunities to discuss, analyze, and use words.” (T3)

The next theme among the responses is the concern about PSEFL teachers’ professional knowledge For example,

“Numerous appropriate courses should be available to train PSEFL teachers of young learners When teaching English to youngsters, it is important to have well-equipped and frequently updated teaching resources PSEFL teachers ought to switch up the activities they offer to draw in more kids To improve their professional competence, PSEFL teachers ought to have additional possibilities to take part in experience-exchange seminars or training courses As a result, the results of Vietnamese youngsters learning English have shown to be successful.” (T4)

Another suggestion is that “The school should have well school facilities which support teacher in teaching process The school should have reading corner in every class, libraries with many types of book in bilingual language, or full English, and computer laboratory.” (T5)

T4 also agrees that each classroom should be equipped with a TV or projector to make the lesson more vivid thanks to the images and sounds Teacher A also offered suggestions to encourage teachers to self-study to improve themselves using online resources and other source found She said,

“I think teachers should cultivate themselves more knowledge about teaching from online resources Currently, the methods of teaching English in a natural way are many and amazingly effective…” (T3)

From the PSEFL teachers’ suggestions, a number of points can be summarized If English teacher is proficient in the right English teaching techniques for this level of education and has the necessary knowledge of the target language, it will be successful According to the aforementioned responses, educators generally support bettering educational facilities and giving PSEFL teachers more time to concentrate on teaching in order to deliver better instruction and foster the kind of environment that will allow kids to interact with one another often and comfortably, which will pave the way for successful English learning later.

Summary

Chapter 4 presents and discusses the findings from the analysis of questionnaire and interview data with 15 PSEFL teachers to answer two research questions The study results indicate that the majority of the respondents had positive perceptions about the importance of teaching vocabulary to YLs This means that learning vocabulary may bring about many benefits to EFL learners Most PSEFL teachers mainly chose vocabulary from textbooks to teach Furthermore, a large number of techniques were used in vocabulary teaching methods Besides, the findings also show that PSEFL teachers faced difficulties in teaching vocabulary to YLs Based on these findings, the next chapter will present the conclusion, limitations, implications, and recommendations for further research.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Conclusion

The most important language component in learning English is vocabulary Learning vocabulary can help the students in studying English and support them in mastering the other language components

The conclusion of this research is based on the research findings and discussion on primary PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English to young learners The researcher concludes that PSEFL teachers’ perception of teaching English vocabulary to young learners which is about selecting vocabulary and using different teaching methods and techniques, challenges of EFL teachers and some suggestions to teach vocabulary effectively

The data collection instruments consist of the questionnaire and interview for PSEFL teachers The study aimed at exploring PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching vocabulary for YLs The data analysis shows that PSEFL teachers were aware of the importance of teaching vocabulary The majority of SPEFL teachers stated that they relied on their textbooks as much as they did their own judgment in responding to the next series of question items on vocabulary selections, but they had serious reservations about both methods Moreover, some of the respondents were confused by the decision to teach YLs vocabulary in chunks The final finding is that many participants had only vague perceptions of the relationships between chunking and vocabulary sizes for fluency These differences may be attributed to the respondents’ insufficient training as PSEFL teachers, who were not taught how to instruct YLs while this group of learners should be taught vocabulary in chunks

This study has confirmed Butler et al.'s (2010) findings about the superiority of explicit teaching over implicit teaching in that the respondents’ perceptions were more predominate in the former than in the latter with regard to the third set to measure the informants’ perceptions of direct and indirect vocabulary teaching Particularly, in direct instruction, the majority of them were aware of their responsibilities to give young learners basic and straightforward explanations, high-quality oral modeling, and contextualizing; nonetheless, many of the participants raised questions about these techniques Three aspects of the participants’ indirect vocabulary development through in class activities, reading outside of class, and visual word displays around the classroom for incidental learning were the focus of indirect vocabulary teaching, although free reading gained their highly dubious attention There are some difficulties that PSEFL teachers often face in the process of teaching English vocabulary The first problem is that some children are not interested in learning English vocabulary They are boring and do not concentrate in learning vocabulary As a result, some of them do not appear to be engaged in learning; a noisy atmosphere makes it difficult for the children to focus on the lesson and the amount of time PSEFL teachers spend teaching in a class is greatly impacted by the time they spend maintaining discipline in the classroom The next issue facing PSEFL teachers is that the facilities are insufficient to teach them Moreover, teachers have difficulties in time constraints and word selection in learning materials Another issue is pronunciation Some students have a lisp and poor pronunciation, which affects to learning vocabulary Therefore, to teach vocabulary effectively, there should be the proper methodologies, techniques and strategies

In short, from the findings of the study, flashcards are considered as a very useful teaching tool to enhance YLs’ vocabulary retention.

Implications

Foreign language education is becoming increasingly important in today's modern, globalized, and mobile society in order to prepare children for success and a high level of social integration This study is extremely beneficial for teaching vocabulary to young learners in primary schools

For PSEFL teachers, the results of the study show that the selection of English teaching materials, curriculum planning, class administration, and initiating students' learning motivation are all critical aspects to consider when teaching English vocabulary PSEFL teachers need to find the appropriate technique to teach students based on their needs, interests and characteristics of YLs PSEFL teachers need to use techniques such as real objects and flashcards in presenting new words It makes students motivated and enjoys learning vocabulary The findings are hoped to contribute to the literature on teaching vocabulary to YLs in general and in the context of Vietnam in particular The practical significance is that PSEFL teachers in Vietnam are going to have insights into the teaching vocabulary to this special age-group so that they can carry out their job more confidently and effectively The findings also help managers and parents have appropriate decisions concerning EFL of this age group.

Limitations

Although there has been much effort in conducting the research, there still exist some limitations and shortcomings

First, due to the limitation of time and knowledge, the present study focuses only on PSEFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching vocabulary to YLs of some EFL teachers teaching English at Quy Nhon City-based primary schools

If the time was sufficient, it would be better to compare the perceptions of PSEFL teachers and YLs

Secondly, the scope of this investigation is constrained The research was conducted only at four Quy Nhon City-based primary schools, so the number of PSEFL teachers who took part in the study is so modest For this reason, the generalization of the results is also limited

Thirdly, the limitation of the sources is clearly an impediment to conducting this research perfectly For several reasons, there should be more documentaries that the researcher was unable to access and present in the Literature Review chapter

Because of the limits listed above, some mistakes are unavoidable when conducting research As a result, many more research papers on the issue will hopefully be conducted with more analysis.

Suggestions for Further Research

Further investigations will penetrate deeper into teaching practices from the major findings in Vietnamese primary school settings to facilitate teaching and learning vocabulary burdens of PSEFL teachers and YLs Specifically, additional research will focus on the obstacles PSEFL teachers encounter in topic-based combinations of lexical sets in textbook chunks to balance vocabulary knowledge and size appropriately in vocabulary selection In explicit vocabulary teaching, it would be beneficial to integrate more teaching activities or games of rich intercultural contexts that arouse Vietnamese young learners’ interests, to support PSEFL teachers with short and easily understandable classroom language of English instruction, effective attention getting techniques and language learning routines Meanwhile, implicit teaching which has been reported to be open can attract a lot of instructional guidance for a collection of well-graded readers, accompanying vocabulary display around classes for incidental learning as well as interesting multisensory games for YLs Research in professional development activities that enable primary PSEFL teachers to modify their understanding of primary English teaching and learning such as YLs’ learning styles, teaching phonics, modeling, strategic explanations with more English than Vietnamese or two- stranded teaching with more effective IT implementation is needed For further studies, the researcher suggests that future experimental studies be conducted on the same issue, yet more on the exploration of PSEFL teachers’ perceptions, classroom practices and vocabulary teaching techniques at different levels in the EFL context Further studies are also suggested to focus on the students’ side rather than the teacher

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The researcher designs the questionnaire to find out what EFL teachers think about the teaching of English vocabulary to primary learners (aged 7-11) All the information you are going to provide below will be kept confidential and very helpful in develop strategies for teaching English vocabulary to primary school students Please complete this part or put a tick (√) where appropriate:

You teach English to first …./ second …./ third …./ fourth …./ fifth … graders School: ……….………… Degree(s): The certificate(s) / qualifications you have for your teaching job is:

1  Bachelor of Education in English

2  Bachelor of English teacher education

Your current English proficiency level:

The questionnaire is designed to find out about EFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English vocabulary to young learners in the social and educational context of Viet Nam I'd like to invite you to take part in this study by completing the questionnaire All the information you are going to provide below will be kept confidential and very helpful in develop strategies for teaching English vocabulary to primary school students

Please tick the box that best indicates the extent to which you agree or disagree with each statement

Strongly Disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly

Vocabulary is the most important language component in learning

English so I usually focus teaching on vocabulary in the classroom to the pupils

Vocabulary building assists pupils in their English studies as well as their overall language proficiency

Vocabulary knowledge has much impact on the pupils when they use four language skills

Teaching vocabulary funnily and enjoyably enhances pupils' active involvement in learning the language

5 Translating new vocabulary when it is an incidental or new concept to pupils is necessary for better understanding and saving pupils guessing time

Using mother tongue as a resource necessary to teach new words is important in teaching vocabulary to

Offering pupils with clear and explicit vocabulary instruction helps them to learn new words easily

The choice of large vocabulary instruction enables young learners to improve their fluency

To develop vocabulary repertoire for young learners, vocabulary selected for instruction should be taught together with its meaningful language blocks such as collocations, set expressions or idioms whenever possible

Vocabulary selected to teach to young learners should come directly from textbooks

11 Vocabulary selected to teach to young learners should be common

12 New words presented with high oral quality greatly improve young learners’ oral vocabulary development

Teaching vocabulary in sentences through four skills enables young learners to develop fluency

14 Vocabulary should be explained easily, simply and basically

Vocabulary should be presented to young learners in fun and interesting contexts

Some further funny stories to read after class suggested by teacher are necessary for vocabulary development

New vocabulary can be taught through games, songs and plays rather than direct instruction

Vocabulary meanings can be presented in many ways through visual aids, miming, gestures, drawing, songs, poems or chants

The lack of equipment and facilities to teach English vocabulary effectively

20 Some pupils are not interested in learning English vocabulary

I have difficulties in time constraints and word selection in learning materials

22 Pronunciation can be a problem in vocabulary teaching

23 PSEFL teachers’ limited knowledge of vocabulary and techniques

Thank you for your assistance!

APPENDIX B ENGLISH QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS

The purpose of the interview is to find out what EFL teachers think about teaching English vocabulary to primary school students as well as challenges they face The set of 4 questions related to EFL teachers’ perceptions can be seen as follows:

1 Why is teaching vocabulary so important?

2 What vocabulary did you teach in each lesson? (single words / phrases /fixed expressions) Why?

3 How did you select them? (from the textbooks/ your pupils‘ needs/ usefulness)? Did your vocabulary selection guide you in how to teach vocabulary? Why?

4 What are some of the challenges you face when teaching English vocabulary to young learners?

5 Can you give some suggestions on how to improve the effectiveness of teaching English vocabulary to young learners in the Vietnamese context?