Challenges on the part of teachers

Amongst other knowledge and skills, teachers of young learners need:

- An understanding of how children think and learn

- Skills and knowledge in spoken English to conduct whole lessons orally, and to pick up children’s interests and use them for language teaching

- To be equipped to teach initial literacy in English.

It is not easy to teach children effectively, and the reliance on oral language means that teaching children a foreign language may, in some ways, be more demanding at primary level the at higher levels. If children are to kept attentive and mentally active, the teacher must be alert and adaptive to their language learning opportunities that arise on the spot. This requires a high level of fluency and a wide knowledge of vocabulary.

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Furthermore, since children reproduce the accent of their teachers with deadly accuracy, pronunciation skills are vitally important at the early stages.

Demanding the highest levels of spoken English for teachers of the youngest learners goes against much policy and popular assumptions about teaching children. How this challenge is met will vary from country to country. The Ministry of Education in Oman, for example, is collaborating to carry out a massive programmer of upgrading primary English teachers to degree level. Where the resources to undertake such retraining are not available, it would seem important for policy makers to be realistic about what can be achieved at primary level.

The most important problems in many contexts are related to teachers’ low level of communicative competence. In Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia and Croatia, there are not enough qualified teachers. More than 76% of foreign language teachers at Czech basic schools were unqualified (Nikolov & Curtain, 2000, p.

86). In Hong Kong, 55% of primary English teachers are not subject-trained.

The untrained language teachers tend to experience two main difficulties.

Firstly, their own language proficiency is insufficient for them either to be a good model of language use or to teach consistently through the target language.

Secondly, their lack of awareness of appropriate language teaching methodology inhibits pupil learning and has a negative impact on the teachers’ own professional development. Most classes are taught using predominantly traditional teacher-centred, whole-class methods. Teachers have tended to see their main role as to impart knowledge to pupils, who are generally expected to sit quietly and absorb information. Teaching is often text-book dominated. Many teachers, perhaps as a result of perceived or actual pressure from the school or from parents, try to “finish the textbook” with little regard to the ability of the students. In the context of teaching, this reliance on the textbook is also related to the fact that many teachers lack confidence in their own English proficiency and so the textbook becomes a crutch on which to cling.

The challenges faced by teachers working with ESOL learners, in spite of feeling sympathy towards ESOL learners, educators felt frustrated working with them, because of heavy workloads. As they first had to teach the language and vocabulary for specific content, they found it impossible to complete the syllabus for the year. Also having learners in the class with better English abilities, educators reported having to teach on diverse language and academic levels (see also DuPlessis& Naudé,2003). Educators reported being required to give extra attention to learners who were not keeping up, as well as adequately challenging stronger learners, in order to ensure that all learners in their class had an equally effective education. Large numbers of ESOL learners in their classes increased the workload in all teaching areas such as marking and preparation of lessons, leaving educators feeling over-worked and resentful.

Many educators reported frequent problems with discipline, identifying their main problem with the size and demographics of classes. As class sizes increased, the frequency of problems increased: Educators with large classes (more than 30 learners) were more likely to experience these problems frequently than educators with smaller classes (less than 30 learners). Most educators had more than 30 learners in their class and they felt that not only would smaller classes make their responsibilities easier, they would be of more benefit to the ESOL learners: the smaller classes “It is not because we have such a load and you know we want the easy way out. It’s not like that. You know the child … who learn language … they need so much of time to talk …”

A statistically significant association was found between class size and felt competency of the participants when teaching ESOL learners. More educators with classes above 30 ESOL learners felt competent only in some circumstances compared to educators with smaller classes. Conversely, significantly more educators of smaller classes felt competent, in most circumstances, than educators with larger classes.

How do young learners learn English?

English instruction to primary children in Vietnam