final project teaching english to children

The younger generationstarts learning English from a young age, even when they are only a few months old.Therefore, teaching English to children is increasingly interesting.. In my opini

HONG BANG INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

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FINAL PROJECT Teaching English to children

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Why is this subject necessary? 1

2 What are the common problems of English teaching in Vietnam? 3

3 What are the problems you had while learning English in your childhood? 4

4 What are the learning outcomes that you are willing to achieve on this course? 5

PART II: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1 What contents have you studied in this course? 6

2 Present the contents that you think are the most useful for teaching Vietnamese children Explain why? 8

3 Present some contents that you think are not suitable in Vietnam context? Explain why not? 10

PART III: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS 11

1 What are the common problems you may face in the future? Why? 11

2 Present some useful methods that you have learnt to solve the above-mentioned problems: 13

3 Give suggestions/ solutions to children teaching: 14

PART IV: CONCLUSION 17

CONFERENCES 20

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Why is this subject necessary?

As globalization grows, it is important to learn languages, especially English toexpand your options in the future Therefore, learning English is increasingly focused.Moreover, the demand for learning is increasingly rejuvenated Many families want togive their children as much exposure to English as possible The younger generationstarts learning English from a young age, even when they are only a few months old.Therefore, teaching English to children is increasingly interesting In my opinion,there are three main reasons why children need to learn English from an early age.The first is that language acquisition is essential until the age of nine Learning isimportant for accumulating effort However, if you can effectively study even a littlebit, what better than that? Language acquisition is more effective when started at anearly age In particular, children up to the age of nine are said to be the most suitableperiod for language learning because they are in a critical period The critical period iswhen the brain is most effective when stimulated Children in the critical period have

a very strong ability to absorb new things, if they are well stimulated, they can firmlyabsorb them In addition, they are very sensitive and full of curiosity, willing to acceptnot only the language but also the culture behind it without prejudice, which is a greatadvantage in language learning For this reason, it is believed that starting to learnEnglish before the age of nine is the best time to expect high academic performance.The next reason is that children will be able to master English faster Althoughthere are individual differences, it is generally said that it takes about 2000 to 3000hours to become fluent in English However, the amount of time spent learningEnglish in general education in Vietnam is often less than 1000 hours, even when allschool hours from primary school to university are combined To make up for the timeneeded to learn English, you need to make time to expose yourself to English outside

of school hours However, the reality is that when they grow up to middle school andhigh school, they become busy with extracurricular activities, extracurricularactivities, and part-time jobs and cannot spend much time learning English If takingtime to learn English becomes difficult as you get older, then you need to make sure to

make time to learn while you are young For example, studying three times a weekduring childhood, when is easier to secure time than studying once a week during thebusy times of middle school and high school or adulthood You can learn faster andshorten the time it takes to learn English Besides, children need to be familiar withEnglish from an early age, so as not to be late to the starting line and to avoid the factthat children do not like English because they are not good at it.

Ultimately, children can develop skills necessary for future societies, such as theability to understand diversity As people get older, they begin to think consciouslyabout many things However, even in such a situation, most of the unconsciousbehaviors and basic ways of thinking remain even into adulthood For example,prejudice or discrimination against others Such latent senses are often acquiredwithout realizing it and are thought to be greatly influenced by the environment andchildhood experiences Early childhood education is very important because latentsenses remain even into adulthood English is very useful when communicating withEnglish speakers However, the purpose of learning English is not just learning tocommunicate It is also an opportunity to know, learn and understand the history andculture behind English By deepening their understanding of the history and culture ofother countries through learning English, children can cultivate their ability to acceptdiversity tolerantly without being bound by values and specific ideas withoutprejudice or discrimination Furthermore, if they can experience different culturesfrom an early age, they will have a broader perspective than children raised in a mono-cultural environment and this will have a positive impact to the construction of theiridentity

For the above reasons, for us who will be teachers in the future, the subject ofTeaching English to children is really necessary and practical Because to teachchildren effectively, it is necessary to understand both the needs and physiology of thechild From there, it is possible to offer appropriate teaching methods, creatingexcitement for children in language learning Because the course provides basicknowledge content, it not only focuses on the disadvantages as well as the advantages

of each method of teaching skills in English More than that, it not only gives effectiveideas and approaches that can be used with young children but also offers practical

and realistic pieces of advice on useful techniques in the classroom In addition, theteacher provides and guides us with many interesting games that we can use to makethe class more fun and the students to learn more effectively.

2 What are the common problems of English teaching in Vietnam?

After a long time of studying and teaching English, from personal experience, Irealize that the reality of teaching English in Vietnam has three common problems Not only in elementary classes but also in communication classes for adults, themain problem is that students often speak Vietnamese more than English and they areafraid to speak English in class And this makes it difficult for not only native teachersbut also Vietnamese teachers For that, they usually discuss with their friend inVietnamese instead of English Especially, this problem occurs when teachers ask theirstudents to tell what they are thinking, such as their feelings, their points of view, etc.Vietnamese students are afraid to make mistakes while speaking This is one of theworst habits caused by traditional Vietnamese teachers, they will give bad marks iftheir students do not have the right answers

The next thing is that students do not pay attention, are not motivated, so they areoften bored and sluggish in class Parents want their children to be exposed to Englishfrom an early age but do not understand their wishes As a result, many children areforced to go to school and they go to class reluctantly When you are not interested indoing work, the results will certainly not be as desired And because of that, thechildren do not have positive results and absorb knowledge effectively What’s more,their parents will push them harder, and they’ll have less interest in learning thelanguage

The final is the problem that comes from the teacher Many English teachers whoteach at primary level or at centers do not have standard pronunciation and teachchildren to read incorrectly at the beginning, which is difficult to correct later.Besides, teachers are still weak in communication ability, so the teaching becomesmechanical, mainly teaching about the English language, not seeing it as a means ofcommunication at all For most teachers, with each lesson the focus is on teachinghow to use tenses, tips on knowing how to use them For them, teaching is about

giving students a lot of exercises, exams are the number one priority, so class timebecomes time to teach test tricks For example, when teaching a reading passage, theteacher never considers the reading to be a content that students need to read tounderstand and then discuss, exchange, and ask questions about that content As forthe old educational students, the first reaction of many students are try to translate intoVietnamese to see what the talk is about, and then pay close attention to the frequentlyasked parts of the reading comprehension test In the long run, they do not realize theinteresting, useful, and novel things that the texts provide them, or the interesting andunique writing, expressions, and word usage used in that reading text.

3 What are the problems you had while learning English in your childhood?

As I mentioned in item two, I had similar problems when I was learning English in

my childhood There are a teacher problem and a fear of communicating in English.Besides, I had no opportunity and environment to practice English is also the problem

of learning English when I was young

I belong to the 9X generation, so in that decade, the teachers who taught meEnglish all followed the old educational method of teacher-centured The teacher isthe one who speaks in all lessons, I just sit and listen, take notes, do exercises andanswer questions when asked I and my friends do not have any opportunity to share,talk or discuss the content of the lesson And we still believe that the test score is themost important thing So we just learn like a machine and don’t know how to apply it

in practice

The next thing is that I am very afraid to speak English because I am afraid ofsaying the wrong thing and people will laugh at me That was very embarrassing for astudent with such excellent ratings For example, the teacher was willing to give me abad grade just for saying the wrong grammar or using the wrong word They didn’tcare about my feeling So I used to scared to say something in English in front ofcrowd

I was born and raised in the countryside, so the opportunity to use English isalmost nonexistent But fortunately when I was in middle school, I had access to the

Internet at that time And from there, I can talk to my aunt who is settling in Americamore often Although it only speaks in simple English sentences, it also helps mepractice speaking English every week.

4 What are the learning outcomes that you are willing to achieve on this course?

Because of the reasons that I mentioned above, when I started this course, I verymuch hoped that I could gain the necessary skills to not only create excitement andmotivation for my students in learning English, but wish to bring to the younggeneration now the best that I did not enjoy in the past In addition, I can accessinteresting teaching methods, organizing ideas and activities suitable not only forchildren but also for all ages and learners Moreover, I can consolidate the knowledgethat I have learned in other subjects such as Teaching Methods, Teaching Practices and

so on in issues such as lesson plan design, organization and classroom managementand use of tools to support teaching

PART II: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 What contents have you studied in this course?

The course presents many ideas and essential methods and skills that teachers orparents can also apply when teaching languages to young children The subject notonly provides basic knowledge but also detailed instructions, appropriate and meetingthe needs of children With practical experiences, the author has synthesized usefultips and effective teaching techniques through nine topics in different areas such aschildren's personalities through each stage, classroom arrangement, and management.learning, important skills in language learning, lesson planning, and use of supporttools, etc And from there, we understand the principles of teaching English tochildren, the emotional, behavioral and psychological aspects of young learners andthe primary role of teachers in the classroom in preparing them socially, psychologyfor English teaching in the future

The first part of the course content focuses on analyzing and showing personalitytraits through each stage of development, language development, and the importance

of understanding these traits in teaching Each learner is a different individual and has

a different acquisition of knowledge As many people know, teaching children isdifferent from teaching adults According to Harmer (2001), young learners learndifferently from adult learners On the other hand, kids are cute and energetic but theyare also naughty and stubborn It can be said that inside a child can appear an angel,and evil is up to you Therefore, children of different ages have different perceptions,behaviors, and psychology So I think knowing them well is the best way to treat themand help them learn better

The next section deals with issues of classroom management, learning environmentdesign, and classroom arrangement In order to create interest in learning for learners,especially children, the surrounding physical environment also plays an importantpart The classroom is decorated vividly with self-drawn products, designs, or lovelypotted plants, posters, etc will make the children excited And the teacher canencourage the children to tell the story behind that drawing or postcard to theirfriends For example, “This is a drawing that my three-year-old sister drew for me on

my birthday, I love it very much” It's great for them to be motivated to come to class,and eager to go to school just to share with their friends something they care about.Besides, how to arrange desks to suit each purpose of the lesson There are so manydifferent ways such as: O-shaped, horseshoe-shaped or U-shaped, semicircular,arranged in small groups Depending on the lesson and how the lecturer can bearranged accordingly For example, with an O-shaped arrangement, the teacher canteach the whole class easily It also lets learners do pairwork easily We can have aspace in the middle of the classroom for more general activities such as playinggames, telling stories, acting out dialogues, etc The traditional arrangement or sitting

in line is the best idea for individual and whole class work or the test But thisarrangement does not encourage natural communication since learners can only seethe back of the heads of the learners in front of them, so it is not as suitable as an O-shaped for language work

The next content is about effective methods of teaching listening, speaking,reading and writing skills Not only does it point out the difficulty of teaching theseskills, but it also provides suggestions for teaching children The article is not toodifficult but only uses common words, and gives detailed illustrative examples with asystem of images, vivid and close annotations And this makes it easy for readers tounderstand and apply in the classroom With such detailed instructions, teaching skills,especially writing skills to young students, becomes easier for teachers

Topic-based work, Planning work, and tools of the trade are the topics covered inthe last chapters of the course Children are often highly motivated and energetic sothey get bored easily with traditional lessons Therefore, lessons need to be diverse inboth form and activity A grammar lesson integrated with a small project like making aChristmas card, creating an insect scrapbook, etc., and then presenting the product infront of the whole class will help students not only absorb the lesson better and alsoequipped with soft skills for life Besides, keeping kids engaged in activities requiresthe help of tools and props such as pictures, toys, puppets or brightly colored objects.Using these materials, teachers can make lessons more interesting and understandable.These tools can be collected through various forms such as purchased, handmade, cutfrom newspapers, etc and saved them for use in the classroom

2 Present the contents that you think are the most useful for teaching Vietnamese children Explain why?

In my opinion, content about young learners, classroom management andatmosphere, and using game in teching will be very useful for teaching English inVietnam

The first is about The young language learners There is a Vietnamese proverb thatsays “He who sees through life and death will meet with most success” So if youwant to teach someone, the first thing you have to do is know about their personality,psychology, and aspirations Understanding the importance of that, the authors haveincluded this content as the first lesson of the course Early childhood education is asimple task, and it is often thought that anyone can do it According to Cameron, ateacher for young children should be someone who understands children, understandswhat they need, and provides materials in ways that interest them "Children's teachersmust possess advanced skills to approach children's worlds and guide them to a moresystematic, inclusive and different way of understanding" (Cameron, 2001, p xii).Therefore, in addition to a high degree of expertise, you must understand childpsychology, including young children's preferences, and be able to effectively managethe classroom to enhance the language learning experience And this is extremelyimportant to be able to teach children

Compared with the current Vietnamese education in public schools, these issuesare overlooked and ignored As someone who has studied in the old education, Icannot avoid forming a mindset similar to what I have experienced When I wasteaching at an English center, I used to think that understanding my student was thejob of a manager, not a teacher’s job So I had nothing to do with it My job was to go

to class, teach, and go home when the time was up After this lesson, I realized I waswrong To understand learners, teachers can search information about students' profile,talk more with their students and become their friend From there, a teacher can base

on this to design lessons suitable for students, and meet the demand of students Ifthere are more teachers like me in the past, the language learning of the youngVietnamese generation will increasingly lag behind children in other countries around

the world Therefore, I hope that more teachers will be able to access this content andapply it to their classrooms.

The next thing is about classroom management, but more specifically, how toarrange and decorate the classroom As everyone knows, children learn not only fromtheir parents and teachers, but also through their surroundings They enjoy exploringthe world through objects, pictures, drawings, and so on Not only that, a lively,colorful environment also stimulates creativity, learning motivation as well asexcitement for children At English centers this is done very easily However, inschools this is considered unnecessary In addition, a classroom is used for manydifferent subjects, so it is quite difficult to decorate or arrange classroom seats Inaddition, a classroom usually has a student population of 35 to 40 students, so thespace is not enough to rearrange the seats

The final issue is the incorporation of games in teaching Games not only helpreinforce language skills, but they also allow learners to interact with each other todevelop social skills and good relationships When exercises or practice are organizedalong with games, students’ acquisition of lessons is better and their retention lastslonger, while improving students’ foreign language achievement compared totraditional education Besides, they can be able to apply and use that learning in dailylife According to Andrea (2011), games play an important role in achievingmeaningful learning and are the most effective and motivating learning experiences.Additionally, games have the advantage of allowing students to practice and absorbvocabulary, grammar, and structures extensively Many learners are not interested inlearning about grammar because the structure and usage of grammar are difficult toremember and hard to master By designing games in which students can use whatthey have learned, they establish themselves with language patterns for later use Forexample, use the game “Write a clause” to learn about the conditional sentence type 1.Divide the class into 2 groups, each member of group 1 will write the If clause, andthe members of group 2 will write the clause the main topic on the sheet of paper theteacher gives Then the teacher will randomly invite a member of group 1 and group 2

to stand up and read their sentences The game will be very fun because there will bequite funny sentences For example “If I am a cat, I will become a superhero”

Additionally, educators around the world have also shown that games help creatediversity and are extremely helpful in keeping students engaged in school Byintegrating different forms of games into the lesson, teachers will have more access totheir students to understand their students better Therefore, games need to beconsidered as an element of the teaching process.

3 Present some contents that you think are not suitable in Vietnam context? Explain why not?

In my opinion, the content on topic-based work is not really suitable for languageteaching in Vietnam Because of safety, space, and cost constraints The effectiveness

of topic-based work is undisputed because it has been applied by many educators andhas gradually become the main teaching trend in the world However, in Vietnam, as Isaid, some limitations currently cannot be applied perfectly and completely Forexample, in the lesson of this content, our group came up with a project on “How toread the recipe”, namely making a strawberry smoothie After we finished ourpresentation, the instructor gave some advice that the class would be more enjoyable ifthe ingredients were prepared and the students could make smoothies in class and turnthe lesson into a cooking class However, the traditional classrooms in public schoolstoday cannot meet the safety requirements of about 40 young students If students arenot careful when using electricity, knives, grinders, etc., students are very likely tohave unfortunate accidents Obtaining permission from superiors to organize suchsessions also encountered many obstacles Besides, the salary of Vietnamese teachers

is quite low, so if every class organizes such a lesson, it will cause difficulties forteachers Therefore, such projects only stop at research sessions, find information, andmake scrapbooks or posters but have not been implemented in larger jobs