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

HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE GRADUATION PAPER THE NEED OF LEARNING ENGLISH IN LANGUAGE CENTERS AMONG YOUNG CHI

HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE

GRADUATION PAPER THE NEED OF LEARNING ENGLISH

IN LANGUAGE CENTERS AMONG

YOUNG CHILDREN

Advisor: Mr HUYNH PHUOC HAI, M.A

Student: NGUYEN HUYNH MINH HUY

Student’s code: 15DH710404

June, 2019

Foremost, I would like to send my gratitude to my supervisor Mr

Huỳnh Phước Hải, M.A for his constructive and timely feedbacks which were decisive factors to the completion of the study

Additionally, I would like to send my gratitude to my friend Mr Huỳnh Quốc Cường, who is studying grade 12 at Le Thanh Ton High school, for his help when doing survey in the Methodology that I can easily complete the results for this study

Furthermore, I owe a deep thank to all my colleagues at ILA Hùng Vương center, ILA Phạm Hùng center, Âu Dương Lân Primary school, Minh Đức Secondary school for helping me have students do the survey to get the result I would also like to show the deepest gratitude to Ms Trần Thị Tuyết Minh, my supervisor when working as an intern teacher at Bùi Thị Xuân High school, for her valuable advice and giving chance for me to have many classes and observation time

I would also like to thank my students whom I am teaching for helping with the sources and the methods used in their schools

On a personal note, I express my truly gratitude to my family, my

friends who emotionally and spiritually comfort me through the challenging time of conducting the research The study could not have been completed without their encouragement

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT 5

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 6

1.1 The need of studying English in Vietnam nowadays 6

1.2 Significance of the study 8

1.3 Scope of the study 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 Pros and cons of learning a foreign language at young age 10

2.1.1 Benefits of learning a foreign language at young age 10

2.1.2 Problems of learning a foreign language at young age 12

2.2 The curriculum and consequence of wrong learning English methods of children in Vietnam 15

2.2.1 The inadequateness of the courses 15

2.2.2 Consequences of wrong learning English methods 16

2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of letting young children learn English at centers 17

2.3.1 Benefits of learning English in centers 17

2.3.2 Problems of learning English in centers 19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20

3.1 Direct experiment 20

3.2 Direct tests and online survey 20

3.3 Observation 22

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS 23

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION 27

5.1 Benefits of studying English in centers 27

5.1.1 A professional way of organizing in well-qualified centers 27

5.1.1.1 Description of organizing system in ILA 27

5.1.1.2 Content of study program is various and suitable to students 29

5.1.2 Well-qualified teachers and various teaching methods 31

5.1.2.1 High requirements of teachers in well-qualified English centers 31

5.1.2.2 Various teaching methods and creative activities 34

5.1.3 Benefits for young learners’ improvement 39

5.2 Problems of studying English in centers 41

5.2.1 Some centers are not well-qualified 41

5.2.2 Education becomes a kind of merchandise 43

5.2.3 Students studying in centers lack of advanced grammar 45

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 46

6.1 Limitations 46

6.2 Conclusion 46

ABSTRACT

English has become an international language all over the world Due

to the need of this language, many parents want their children to be good at communicating and using English Some parents have children study English

at public schools or with private teachers, others let kids study in centers Nowadays, studying English in centers becomes a trend, which many parents believe that it brings a lot of benefits to children when studying a foreign language This research will point out the benefits and problems of English centers By using an experiment, observation in classes, grammatical and vocabulary survey for students, the writer indicates the advantages and disadvantages of studying English in centers Through the research, parents also students may have a clear vision about this problem

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 The need of studying English in Vietnam nowadays

In January 2007, the Ministry of Finance announced that Vietnam became the official member of World Trade Organization

(http://www.mof.gov.vn) Since that time, many foreign companies have been investing in the commercial market of Vietnam Therefore, English has

become the necessary requirement for any employees who want to have a great and high-paid job Being good at English, an applicant will have more chances to be admitted into a high-quality foreign company or a company that

is invested by foreigners One important thing that everyone has to know is that the economic situation in Vietnam today is in difficulties Many

graduated students cannot apply for their favorite jobs because their lack of foreign language competence, especially English To be economical, most companies require their applicants to have skillful use of English, or at least have to pass the academic tests such as IELTS, TOEIC, TOELF, etc Between

an applicant who has perfect skills of using English in business or

communication but normal major knowledge and one who has a lot of

understanding about his major but he is not good at English, the company will give the chance to the first applicant so that he can be trained in the training courses of his major after being applied Moreover, studying English gives us chances to approach the multi-culture all over the world Mr Nguyen Tuan

Vu, who is a sophomore of Van Lang University, said he was a big fan of Linkin Park and Lana Del Rey when he had been a high school student

However, he could only hear the beat and tone of the songs, not the lyrics so

he did not understand what the songs are about After four years studying English, he can clearly understand the lyrics of the songs he hears and knows

the songs’ meaning Furthermore, being good at English gives you

possibilities reading many famous newspapers and magazines that you can enrich your comprehension and experience about the situations of the world

As seen in people who are excellent in English, they can read the magazines

or online news to approach the latest news They can also listen to a great deal

of interesting topics on TED talks or VOA English is really necessary for people these days, especially in a developing country like Vietnam

Because of those benefits, plenty of parents want their children to be good at English, so they let the children study English in many centers at a very young age In Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam, there are numerous English centers located in all districts of the city Some of the centers are very famous, namely International Language Academy (ILA), Vietnam USA Society

English Center (VUS), British Council, Apollo English Junior, etc ILA is famous for its policy The teachers in all centers are all foreigners, and they have also passed some international teaching certificates such as TESOL, CELTA, etc ILA has customer care service, which other centers or public schools do not Monthly, the teaching assistants and Front Office employees will call the parents of students to report the results and the situation in class VUS, which has the oldest establishment, has fifty percent of the teachers are foreigners VUS has training courses every quarter to improve the skill of staff Apollo English Junior is well-known because of its unique program called Learning English Through Subjects (LETS) The LETS courses, which are suitable to learners at young age from four to eleven years old, contain many integrated teaching methods, or a lot of Total Physical Response

activities Moreover, in all English centers, the major way of teaching is

student center, it means teachers just scaffold the use of language, students have to find way to master it themselves Public schools in Vietnam are

believed to follow the traditional way of teaching that does limit the abilities

of students Vietnamese parents put their hope on their children to be

successful in the future with a wide knowledge of a foreign language, so they let their children study English in famous centers at very young age

1.2 Significance of the study

Although the need of studying English in Vietnam nowadays is

increasing and many centers are established to fulfill the demand of studying English as a foreign language, especially for learners at young age There is

no concrete evidence shows that studying English in centers at young age is good for the growth of children The number of parents let their descendants study in centers has increased because it has become a trend for the past few years Many fathers and mothers are satisfied with the customer care service

of the centers and believe that their children will become better at both using vocabulary and grammar in conversation than studying at public schools Through this study, the writer hopes to make that situation clear so that

parents can have their right decision for the growth of their youngsters

The study is to seek answers for the following question:

“Is it necessary for children to study English in centers at young age?”

1.3 Scope of the study

Due to the small scale as well as time limit, the research will mainly focus on English young learners at centers also at public schools in Ho Chi Minh City The learners at centers are about four to eleven years old, some of them is older, the same to learners at public schools To concretize, the writer has used an experiment, online and offline surveys and observing classes at ILA Hung Vuong Center, ILA Pham Hung Center The same methods are

used for public schools which are Viet Nhi Kindergarten (district 8), Au

Duong Lan primary school (district 8), Vam Co Dong primary school (district 8), Minh Duc secondary school (district 1) and Bui Thi Xuan high school (district 1)

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Pros and cons of learning a foreign language at young age

2.1.1 Benefits of learning a foreign language at young age

Discussing the advantages of learning a foreign language at early age, there are many researches that have pointed out the problem clearly Amina Nazarli wrote in her topic, whose name is “Should children learn second language at early age” (2014), studying a foreign language can give a chance

to children to distinguish the difference between their mother tongue and the language they are studying When their parents or friends speak the mother tongue, it is easy for children to differentiate what the dissimilarity is It will help the thinking and minding develop This can give children many

encouragements to appreciate how big the world is and also help them to approach to many multi-cultures all over the world Furthermore, Amina indicated the acquisition of children when learning a foreign language They are specialists in language obtaining, so it is not difficult to acquire another language after having mastering the native speech She suggested that the age between five and eight is very suitable for most children to learn a foreign language

Artheo Education Academy totally agrees with that point in its article named Benefits of learning a second language as a child (2018) The academy also picks out the best ages for children to learn languages through a chart called Age of Acquisition of new language The brain of children is to absorb much information surrounding them, especially the new one This way is similar to adults when we learn the lyrics or song rhythms Moreover, the academy indicated that the brains of kids have special skills for learning

something new It lists a research of Patricia Kuhl (TED Talk, 2010) that points out the way children differentiate the languages The Japanese, for

example, does not differentiate between the l and r sounds, so that offspring

before 10 months old can hear the difference between the sounds However, when they are more than 10 months old, they lose their capacity to distinguish those sounds That is the reason why in daily spoken Japanese, we cannot

hear any words that contain the sound l Because of it, children who learn a

foreign language at young age can easily differentiate due to their brain skills The academy also specifies executive function improvement of children

studying another language besides the mother tongue by using the result of Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee (2004) The study is interesting that it points out how bilingual children distinguish the shape and color The study is for bilingual and monolingual preschoolers Both of the two parts were asked to sort blue circles and red squares on a computer screen into two bins, one marked with a blue square and one mark with a red circle When being asked to sort by color, both of them performed very well When being asked to sort by shapes, it means to place the blue circles in the red circle bin and place the red squares in the blue square bin, the bilingual children

performed much better Last but not least in the discussion of the academy, children who have good use of foreign languages in communication by

studying early, will have good opportunities to travel as mature The English Proficiency Index listed countries that are best at English as a second

language in 2016, which are Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Singapore,

Finland, etc Studying English from young age, children can easily explore quaint little towns, participate in authentic cultural rituals and ceremonies, and connect with other people from different cultures when speaking English as a second language

Azilleo Kristo Mozihim points out a theory called Critical Period

Hypothesis to support the advantages (2010) According to this theory, there

is an ideal window of time for learning languages The first few years of

human life after birth are the most important time for language acquisition Children should be provided chance to experience linguistically rich

environment, so that they can be able to gain full command of a particular language, especially the complex grammatical system Azilleo also suggests parents should prepare for a full development of their future child He also indicates the most skill which is the best preparation is reading Parents

should design some places in the house specifically for the convenience of a child to read However in those early ages, children are lazy and they always want to play, not to study much If parents put their kids in that places as prison, they will not study anything and that method is counter-productive Therefore, the places must be decorated with children-themed items and

furniture that make children feel comfortable to be there This way lets

children study by items and things surrounding them, which encourages them

to discover the world by themselves One more important thing is to buy some English books for kids to read, or parents should allow their children to watch English children video clips or films such as Phineas and Ferb, Kids English Learning Show, Toddler Fun Learning, etc Watching these shows not only improves their listening skill but also encourages the imagination for proper intellectual development

2.1.2 Problems of learning a foreign language at young age

Besides the advantages, there are some disadvantages of children when they are learning a foreign language as a second language Cordova Cordova and Walter Alejanson, whose research is Advantages and disadvantages that

kids have at the time they are learning English as a foreign language to

become bilingual (2010), point out the remarkable problem is children will mix the language It is normal for kids to mix up languages until the age of four If children are lack of vocabulary in language A, they will borrow the words form language B to communicate with other people It can be seen from children in Vietnam who start studying English at young age Whenever they are lack of a word, they will think for a while and use a Vietnamese word

to express the idea The same to adults or even workers, some of them may speak a sentence in both Vietnamese and English The study also points out the disadvantage of not having suitable integration into society This point is appropriate to the situation in Vietnam According to Antoree team, children

do not have enough gradual integration into society They are just taught English at centers The environment is just in that center, not in the real life The use of English of children will be limited, because most of the

conversation they have in life is spoken in Vietnamese Parents at home also

do not have time to practice speaking with them to make an environment like native speakers, or even parents do not know how to speak English Because

of the lack of practicing, children in Vietnam will not remember much

vocabulary despite having studied for a long time Besides, it can lead to the mispronunciation of the words Because in daily life, children communicate with each other by Vietnamese and do not have a chance to practice English

pronunciation, the accent of Vietnamese affects the way of pronouncing

Another serious problem is the lack of motivation Due to Amy Pearson (2019), kindergarten students are eager and enthusiastic but it is not enough for the motivation to learn a new language They are likely motivated to learn English when parents are interested and supportive of foreign language

instruction Lam Nguyen indicates in his discussion of which the topic is “Vi

dau ma tre chan hoc tieng anh” (2017), children cannot have a full awareness

of the importance of learning English In their simple mind, going to the

English class is going to have fun with their friends, or even just simply

studying due to the request of the parents Adults and workers can recognize the need of English for their work those days, but kids do not Many kids hope to go to the English class in the evening because they want to meet their friends, have many games celebrated by the teachers, or enjoy the customer care service of that place Since that, children do not pay much attention to what they have studied so many of them cannot improve their skills even though they have learned English for a long time

Dr Thu Hong, who is an English teacher in the United States, give some advice to Vietnamese parents that they should not let their kids study English at a very early age (2017) She tells that Vietnamese is definitely the background knowledge Being good at English at young age can bring

children some benefits, but lack of Vietnamese will cause a lot of problems to them All the subjects at school are taught in Vietnamese Many newspaper and magazines or also the television program are in Vietnamese If they do not master in the mother tongue, they will become a bad student at public school and that result will prevent them from attending a good secondary school She also claims a trend in the previous years that many parents ignore the mother tongue They just wanted their kids to be good at English despite their children have bad result in the Vietnamese Literature examination Ms Hong says that it is not good for the natural growth of a child At her school in the United States, there are many first language supporters at school It means those people will remind the English as a second language (ESL) learners and their parents to communicate with themselves by using the mother tongue at home She shows a study that the ideal ages for studying a second language is

before they reach the puberty It means, before ten to twelve years old, parents should let their kids study and master the first language before they can have

an acquisition of another one

2.2 The curriculum and consequence of wrong learning English methods

Mathematics, Science in English

2.2.1 The inadequateness of the courses

There is an article written by Hoang Huong (2018) that lists the speech

of Vu Van Xuan According to Mr Vu Van Xuan, who is the vice-principle

of Le Quy Don secondary school (district 3, Ho Chi Minh City), most of the primary schools in the city have deployed the extra English course for

students After five years attending the course, students finish studying about Past continuous tense and other structures used for daily conversation

However, when children move to secondary high school, they have to study about the greeting sentences and Present simple again in the official book of the seven-year English course Because the course is included in the

curriculum of MOET, its grades are used for graduating secondary school, it

is compulsory That makes many students bored with the lesson, also makes the teachers become tired Also in that article, a student who is in grade 6 of

Le Quy Don secondary school said that he had passed the Flyers certificate of Cambridge with the maximum points (15/15 shields) and he did not have any

motivation to study the course of MOET because he had to study again the simple questions or sentences used for daily greetings, and the tenses also the lesson were elementary Mr Nguyen Van Vuong, who is the principle of Nguyen Gia Thieu secondary school, states that the curriculum of the extra English courses should be constant He said that the students who are

studying the extra English courses have great skills of communication and they also study with the foreigners which can help them a lot in speaking and listening skill

2.2.2 Consequences of wrong learning English methods

According to an article written by Quyen Quyen, Dr Pham Van Tinh, leader of the Vietnam Linguistics Association, language is the symbol of social communication, so the best way of learning it is to assimilate to the surrounding environment (2018) In his opinion, students should be let to have a natural growth that they can master the mother tongue before learning another language He also indicates that if children before 5 learn English, the lesson should be games though the videos, situations, cartoon or music That

is a way to encourage the reflection of children Parents must not require their kids to be professional in writing, reading or any else skills at that ages

In the same article, Dr Nguyen Vo Ky Anh (2018), who is the former

of Central Pedagogy College and the rector of Linguistics Academy, says that the methods used for teaching English to young learners are very important Using wrong ones can lead to serious problems and bad results He indicates the pronunciation teaching to children must definitely correct The wrong pronunciation or spelling words at this age can lead to the misunderstanding when children grow up after He also says that the one-side of studying

English through videos, games or private tutor, without having the application into the real situation surrounding children can be counterproductive

Language confusion is an illness It is known that children can say a simple word in English but cannot communicate with other people in both Vietnamese and English That is the result of letting children study English too early without suitable methods However, many parents think their kids are genius Then, they reject the Vietnamese learning and also let the kids study English only This kind of illness can lead to many serious problems and bad results such as not getting on well with friends, depression, violence, etc Another article written by Quyen Quyen states about Dr Cu Thi Ly

(2018), who is working at Psychological Science Researching and Applying Center, said that her center treats for over two hundred children that have language confusion a year The popular reason causing the confusion is being forced to learn English by their parents One of her patient, who is 4 years old, cannot speak Vietnamese and communicate with other people in Vietnamese That leads to the worrying warning of having wrong methods to teach

children English at young age

2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of letting young children learn

English at centers

2.3.1 Benefits of learning English in centers

Many people seem to agree that letting their kids learn English in

centers bring many benefits Due to Susan Verner, there are many benefits for children to learn in centers that can improve their growth also the way of studying (2016) First of all, students can learn what they want or what they really need Susan said that in some ESL classrooms or public schools,

children have to study more than two times about a topic that they have

already known It means that they will not have enough time to practice what they have studied In learning centers, the curriculum is always new and it is rarely repeatable about one topic or structure Secondly, Susan said that she could cover various materials for her students Time in class is limited but many requirements have to be finished for students to understand clearly the lessons Because of the time limit, teachers have to use many games or

activities that help students to know about the lesson fast In centers, there is always a room that contains the tools or materials teachers need so that they

do not need to bring the materials to all classes Furthermore, the tools in the centers are various and modern so it can be used in many activities in

classrooms Last but not least due to Susan’s idea, learning in centers give chance for students to be expressive and creative Not all students are

confident enough to express their expression, qualified teachers at centers are trained to help students to express their ideas, use art with English or even

compose literature

According to some experts in Langmaster, the most important benefit

of studying in centers is having high-qualified teachers A good center always recruits good teachers with suitable teaching certificates and working

experience When children have some problems on pronunciation, grammar,

or communication, teachers in centers obviously know how to deal with their students’ problems and will find the best solution to help students improve their skill Furthermore, centers always have foreign teachers They mostly come from countries that use English as their first or second language That can help children contact with different accents of English from very early ages Moreover, working and studying with foreigners create an environment

as the same as foreign social life Children studying in centers have to use

English to discuss about a topic, a social problem, describe their favorite routines, express their ideas or just to communicate with others

2.3.2 Problems of learning English in centers

There are not many research or topics that point out obviously the

disadvantages of learning centers The most definite problem of it is the cost

of the courses Due to the quality and the requirements of building and

preparing good infrastructure and tools used for teaching, the cost of courses

in many centers is really expensive Not many people can afford to let their children study, although there are many discounts to encourage parents to sign

up to give a chance for their toddlers to study in a professional environment According to Mr Thanh Trung, a journalist usually writes about educational topic, indicates that rate of progress in ESL classrooms of centers is belong to the poorest student (2016) It means that teachers are believed to make sure that every students can understand the lesson, so they will teach slowly and their methods are suitable to the poor and average students Furthermore, all students will make mistakes when studying Teachers will correct the

common mistakes of the entire class or just focus on the average students, because they do not have enough time to correct all Last but not least, the common problems in Vietnam, especially in Ho Chi Minh city, there are many English centers For over five years, more and more centers are

established to reach the demand of studying English For new centers, the managers use many public relation campaigns or advertisement to attract parents and children Famous centers such as VUS, ILA, British Council, etc have high price so many parents will choose lower-price centers At that fee,

parents will not decide what centers they will let their children to study in

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Direct experiment

The writer imitates the experiment of Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee (2004) (mentioned in Literature Review) There are 10 students whose ages are under 4 participated in the work There are 5 students that have not studied English before The others are studying English in Jump-start classes (classes for kindergarten students whose ages are between 3 and 4) in ILA center The writer provides two bins: one is marked with a blue square and another is marked with a red circle There are 12 sheets that are cut into square and circle shape Then the writer colors the square sheets in red and the circle sheets in blue The experiment has two requirements:

- The students have to put the sheets into the bins with the same color

of the symbols marked on two bins

- The students have to put the sheets into the bins with the same shape

of the symbols marked on two bins

The purpose of the imitation is to verify the results of Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee’s experiment

3.2 Direct tests and online survey

The writer prepares 3 surveys:

- The first test is used for Primary school students whose grades are between four and five The survey contains eight questions: five questions that require students to unscramble the words with specific situations, three questions requiring students to unscramble sentences to be a meaningful one The purpose of the survey is to test the use of language of students There are

30 students that participate in the survey Half of them are studying at ILA Hung Vuong center in Super Junior classes (J4A class) The writer chooses three classes, five students of each class Three of them are good students, and the others are average students They directly finish the survey on the sheet The others are studying at Vam Co Dong primary school in district 8, Ho Chi Minh City The students in Vam Co Dong primary school do not study in any English centers The writer chooses two classes at grade 4, eight students (4 good and 4 average) of the first and seven students (4 good and 3 average) of the second one The students in public school finish the survey by texting the answers on smart phones

- The second test is used for Secondary school students whose grades are between 7 and 8 The survey contains 5 questions about grammar (Past simple, Past continuous, Present perfect, Future simple and Past perfect) to test the use and understanding of grammar that students have studied about ; and 4 questions about vocabulary and daily structure used in communication There are also 30 students participating in the survey Half of them are

studying at ILA Hung Vuong center in lower smart teen classes (S3B) The writer chooses two classes, eight students of the first class and seven students

of the second class The students finish the survey directly on sheet The other students are studying in Minh Duc secondary school in district 1 They are studying in grade 8 which contains extra English course and have not studied

in any English centers before The students in public school finish the survey online by smart phones The same criterion of student’s classification in the first survey is used in this one

- The last test is used for high school students who grades are between

9 and 10 The survey contains 10 questions only about grammar, some of

which is advanced (relative clause, Future perfect continuous, inversion, etc) The purpose of the survey is to test the understanding and use of the grammar used in the entrance examination of students There are 45 students

participating in the survey 23 students are studying in ILA Pham Hung center

in smart teen classes (S6A) The writer chooses 3 classes which have 9, 7, 7 in turn The other students are studying in Bui Thi Xuan high school and they have not attended in any classes of English centers before The writer chooses

2 classes whose grades are 10 The same criterion of student’s classification

in the first survey is used in this one Both of the groups finish the survey online

organizing activites in classes and how students interact with teachers in class and how they participate in the activities also the lessons Futhermore, the writer observed two classes in ILA Pham Hung center for 3 weeks in April, which are a Super junior class and a Grammar class

- The writer had an intern at Bui Thi Xuan high school for 6 weeks He directly taught in four classes which are grade 10 and 11, participated in a speaking activity celebrated by the English teachers, prepared the tests and observed the ability of students Moreover, the writer worked as a teaching assistant for students at Au Duong Lan primary school (grade 4, class 43) and

Minh Duc secondary school (grade 8, class 811 and 812) in the English periods that students study with foreigners

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS

CHART 4.1: VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR TEST RESULTS OF STUDENTS

AT VAM CO DONG PRIMARY SCHOOL AND ILA HUNG VUONG CENTER

Chart 4.1 shows information about the results of vocabulary and

grammar test of students at a public school and a famous English center In Vam Co Dong Primary school, there are no students that have zero and one point There are four students get two points and four points, three student get six points and one student get seven points The highest point is recorded at eight, which all the answers are correct, and only one student get that point Meanwhile, there is no one at ILA that has fewer than two points There are three students that get four points and three students who get six points The highest number of students peaks at six, who get seven points and there is one student that has all the answers are correct In overall, the average score of

Students at ILA Hung Vuong center

students studying at ILA center is higher than students studying at Vam Co Dong Primary school

CHART 4.2: VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR TEST RESULTS OF STUDENT

AT MINH DUC SECONDARY SCHOOL AND ILA HUNG VUONG CENTER

Chart 4.2 shows information about the results of vocabulary and

grammar test of students at a public secondary school and a famous English center In Minh Duc secondary school, there are no students get lower than three points Only one student has four points The highest number of students peaks at six, those of whom get seven points There are two students who have eight points and four students have all answers are correct On the other hand, the number of students in ILA center fluctuates The highest number is recorded at six, those of whom get six points There are two students who have eight points and no students gets all the answers are correct In overall, the average score of students in Minh Duc school is higher than students in ILA center

CHART 4.3: GRAMMAR TEST RESULTS OF STUDENTS AT

BUI THI XUAN HIGH SCHOOL AND ILA PHAM HUNG CENTER

Chart 4.3 shows information about the results of grammar test of

students at a public high school and a famous English center In Bui Thi Xuan high school, there are no students has lower than three points There are only one student getting four points The number of students continually increases till it reaches nine, those of whom get eight Then, it plummets to two

students who get nine There is no one who has all the answers are correct Meanwhile, in ILA center, there are no students have the score lower than one The number of students remains stably from two to four points Then it

fluctuates and reaches the highest point at eight, those of whom get seven

Then it plummets to two at eight points There are only one student get nine points and no one gets ten points In overall, the average score of students at Bui Thi Xuan High school is higher than that of students in ILA Pham Hung center

Students have studied English Students have not studied English

TABLE 4.4: RESULTS OF THE IMITATION OF

ELLEN BYALYSTOK AND MICHELLE MARTIN-RHEE’S EXPERIMENT

Table 4.4 shows information about time that children need to finish two requirements in experiment of Ellen Byalystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee Due to the table, the average time that all children need to finish the first requirement is not too much different The fastest of children who are

bilingual is one minute twenty four seconds, while the fastest of children who have not studied English before is one minute and a half However, the time that students need to finish the second requirement is extremely different The average time of bilingual children is lower than the monolingual children The slowest time of bilingual children is four minutes and five seconds, while the lowest time of students that know only Vietnamese reaches to almost six minutes In overall, the first requirement that is to put the sheets into the bins

by color has no difficulty for all children The second requirement which is to put the sheets into the bins by shape is hard for monolingual students

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION

5.1 Benefits of studying English in centers

5.1.1 A professional way of organizing in well-qualified centers

5.1.1.1 Description of organizing system in ILA

A well-qualified English center always has a professional organizing

system ILA is a clear example In all centers, the educational system is set up

as the diagram below:

Center manager (CM) is head of the structure or the leader of a center

In ILA, CM is the person who is responsible for all aspects and deal with

problems Academic manager (AM) is the person who is responsible for

preparing and providing content of study program in center Also, AM is the manager of teachers, responsible for interviewing, recruiting, providing

schedule and following teachers’ work In ILA centers, AM and teachers are exactly one hundred percent foreigners When registering for studying,

parents have to meet Front officers (FOs) to be introduced about some courses that is suitable to children and other benefits FOs are also in charge of setting

TEACHING ASSISTANTS

OTHER STAFF

ACADEMIC MANAGER ASSISTANT

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