The Chanllenges of teaching English at Primary Schools: A Survey in One Province = Những thách thức trong việc dạy tiếng Anh tại các trường tiểu học : Khảo sát tại một tỉnh

18 CHAPTER 2: THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING ENGLISH TO PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE PROVINCE .... In an effort to become more competitive in the global market, Vietnam, as many other countri

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

TRAN THI GIANG

THE CHALLENGES OF TEACHING ENGLISH

AT PRIMARY SCHOOLS: A SURVEY IN ONE PROVINCE

(Những thách thức trong việc dạy tiếng Anh tại các trường tiểu học: Khảo sát tại một tỉnh)

M.A Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

TRAN THI GIANG THE CHALLENGES OF TEACHING ENGLISH

AT PRIMARY SCHOOLS: A SURVEY IN ONE PROVINCE

(Những thách thức trong việc dạy tiếng Anh tại các trường tiểu học: Khảo sát tại một tỉnh)

M.A Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof.Dr.Le Van Canh

Hanoi – 2019

DECLARATION

I, Tran Thi Giang, declare that the thesis entitled “The challenges of teaching English at primary schools: A survey in one province” reports the result of the study conducted by myself The thesis is submitted to College of Foreign Languages-Vietnam National University for Degree of Master in TESOL It has not been published anywhere

Signature Student

Tran Thi Giang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who gave

me the possibility to complete this thesis Furthermore, I am grateful to his close guidance and generous help, which have been great encouragement to me during the process of writing and completion of thesis

I wish to take this opportunity to express my heart-felt thanks to Mr Le Van Canh whose lectures provided me with a great deal of pedagogical knowledge in language teaching His initial suggestion inspired me conduct this study

I am deeply indebted to the teachers who were willing to give me information via survey questionnaire, face-to-face and facebook interview My thanks also go to

my colleagues, officers in Ninh Binh Provincial DOET, who gave me favorable condition of time for pursuing MA course and completing the research

Last but not least, I would like to offer my deepest thanks to my family whose affection and support enable me to complete this work

more learning strategies, are offered for teachers of English

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Teachers’ advantages in teaching

Table 3 Teachers' difficulties in teaching English at primary schools Table 4 Teachers’ solutions to their difficulties

Table 5 Teachers’ proposals

LIST OF APPREVIATION

MOET Ministry of Education and Training DOET Department of Education and Training PELT Primary English Language Teaching EBE English Bilingual Education

PEFLTs Primary English foreign language teachers TESOL Teaching English as a foreign language

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES iv

LIST OF APPREVIATION v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.Rationale 1

2.Significance of the study 2

3.Aims of the study 3

4.Research methods 4

5.Participants 4

6.Scope of the study 4

7.Organization of the thesis 4

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Teaching English to primary school children as a global phenomenon 6

1.2 Challenges in teaching English to primary school learners 7

1.3 How do young learners learn English? 8

1.4 Challenges on the part of teachers 13

1.5 Previous studies on primary school English teaching in Vietnam 16

1.6 Summary 18

CHAPTER 2: THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING ENGLISH TO PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE PROVINCE 19

2.1 English instruction to primary children in Vietnam 19

2.1.1 Policy 19

2.1.2 Implementation 20

2.1.3 The way forward 20

2.2 Introduction to the province context of teaching-learning English at primary schools 21

2.3 Teachers and their background 22

2.4 Summary 23

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 24

3.1.The data collection instruments 24

3.2.The participants 25

3.3.Data collection procedure 25

3.4.Data analysis 26

3.5.Findings 26

3.5.1 Teachers’ experience of English teaching at primary school level.27 3.5.2 Teachers’ self-judgement of training workshops they have attended 27

3.5.3 Teachers’ advantages in teaching 28

3.5.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching at primary schools 28

3.5.5 Teachers’ solutions to their difficulties 30

3.5.6 Teachers’ proposal 31

3.5.7 Teachers’ performance in the classroom 32

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 39

REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX

(iii) The pressure from parents in the national context who want their children to benefit socially and economically from learning English (Brock-Utne

& Holmarsdottir, 2004; Enever & Moon, 2009; Gimenez, 2009)

In an effort to become more competitive in the global market, Vietnam, as many other countries in South Asia, has declared English the dominant foreign language to be taught in schools across the country As a result, in the last 10 years, the government has launched out the project teaching and learning foreign languages – Project 2020, in the 3321 decision, the primary curriculum has been revised and emphasis has been given on learning English English is being taught in almost primary schools from grade 3 all over the country The main objectives of teaching English in primary level education in Viet Nam are to enable students to understand simple commands, requests and instructions in English and carry them out The students can speak and converse in simple English and also can read to comprehend the textbooks set for their age group and level They also write words, simple sentences, passages, paragraphs, informal letters and numbers according to their age group and level

Unfortunately many students, especially students of the rural primary schools are unable to attain the primary English language competencies due to prevailing challenges in our education system A survey is intended to do at primary schools in a province to find out: challenges that teachers, students encounters; what strategies they use to deal with those challenges and how effective they are

Teaching English to primary children did not receive little concern in Vietnam, it was introduced to grade 3 students National and local education professionals, now, have a more serious look at the situation Teaching English

to primary children is by nature far different from teaching to other groups of learner Thus, if teachers are not qualified to work with primary children, they may not be able to motivate the children to study, or to use appropriate, effective tasks to develop students’ communicative competence

As a foreign language specialist in a Provincial Department of Education and Training, the author saw a great number of challenges of teaching English to primary children in her province To successfully manage the English teaching-learning throughout the province, the researcher feels the urge to study the challenges perceived by the teachers so that some feasible solutions to the problems can be employed

2 Significance of the study

Since this study is concerned the researcher hope that it will contribute to the province’s duty people a general review of difficulties in teaching English at primary schools after some years to do the Decision 3321, therefore there will be policies to help to solve the problems

For the researcher: With the deputy of English Specialist in Teaching

English to primary school students of the province, the researcher can have better understanding about the difficulties of teaching, learning English in

primary schools and can be the consultant for teachers, for schools, can propose some methods to have better out come

For the teacher: This study can support the teacher to develop their

teaching abilities They can adjust strategies to teach the students In order students will be interested in learning process

For the students: New teaching strategies can help to motivate students to

learn English better

This study points out challenges of teaching English at primary schools Although the survey was conducted in one province, the author believes the challenges are similar in other provinces throughout the country Thus, the results of the study will be of some contribution to education management regarding teacher development and language policy implementation

Professionally, the findings and comments of this study are believed to be relevant to improving the primary English teachers’ quality in Vietnam in general and in the province in particular The study may be of great suggestions for the enhancement of primary English education in Vietnam

3 Aims of the study

This study aims to investigate challenges of teaching English at primary schools as perceived by the teachers To be more specific, the objectives of this study are:

- To find out the challenges that English teachers at primary schools are facing with

- To explore the challenges in learning English that children at primary schools are encountered

- To suggest solutions to reduce the problems and challenges of teaching English at primary schools

These aims are formulated into 2 following research questions:

1 What challenges are teachers facing when teaching English at primary schools?

2 What challenges do children at primary schools have in learning English?

4 Research methods

This study is a survey study Three main instruments of data collection are:

- Questionnaire administers to 100 teachers of English from 100 primary schools within the province to find out the challenges they are faced with as well

as the strategies they use to deal with those challenges

- Interviews with selected teachers to gain more in-depth information about issues raised in the questionnaires responses

- Classroom observations to find out the challenges learners have in learning English

5 Participants

Participants are 100 teachers from 100 primary schools throughout the province and their students Data collected from questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively Data from interviews and class observation were qualitatively analyzed into corresponding topics for triangulation and for answering questions

6 Scope of the study

Dealing with challenges of all types is too broad for a study of this size Therefore, the focus of this study is to investigate some challenges relating to professional supports that primary teachers receive from local and national level

in their teaching of English at primary schools

7 Organization of the thesis

This minor thesis consists of four chapters

The first part is the introduction which reveals the rationale, significance,

aims, methods, participants, scope and organization of the study

The second part includes chapters Chapter 1 is the literature review

centering on Teaching English to primary school children as a global phenomenon, challenges in teaching English to primary school learners, how

do young learners learn English, challenges on the part of teachers, privious study on primary school English teaching in Viet Nam and a brief introduction of teaching English to primary students in Vietnam context

Chapter 2 provides information about the research context which is the

teaching of English to primary school children in one province

Chapter 3 presents the information about the study including the research

methodology, participants and research procedures, research findings and the discussion of those findings

Chapter 4 is the conclusion

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Teaching English to primary school children as a global phenomenon

With the belief that foreign languages prepare today’s youth for tomorrow’s opportunities by supporting basic skills instruction, developing cross cultural understanding and preparing the youth to enter the global market place, English has become a worldwide language and is used as the medium of international communication and is the language of professional advancement It has become the number one foreign language to be taught both inside and outside the formal educational systems of many countries The fact is that in most countries, children are learning English at younger and younger ages In many countries, English is a compulsory subject in the early primary grades (Nikolov, 2009; Pinter, 2006) In a recent survey of EYL teachers from 55 countries around the world, Shin and Crandall (2011) 3 1 Teaching English to Young Learners found that more than 50 percent of these countries introduced compulsory English language courses by third grade Even in countries where families may choose the foreign language for their children to study, English is “overwhelmingly the first choice” (Garton, Copland, & Burns, 2011, p 5) The growing demand for English, plus parents’ belief that English skills provide their children with a better education and better employment opportunities, have led to an increase in the number of EYL programs (Enever & Moon, 2009; Gimenez, 2009) As English becomes the world’s lingua franca, countries all over the world have adopted English language instruction as part of their education system Many countries begin at the primary level, and students are studying the language at younger and younger ages (Jenkins, 2009)

1.2 Challenges in teaching English to primary school learners

Moon (2000) argues that children are capable of learning foreign language from any age providing that the right conditions are in place to enable young

learners to be successful Some of the most important conditions are:

(1) Realistic aims/expectation and expected outcome

(2) Well-trained teachers fluent in English

(3) Age appropriate curricula and materials

(4) Appropriate assessment and monitoring

(5) Enough time

(6) Continuity and Transfer to secondary level

Concerning the effectiveness of language learning at primary level, Isabel

& Elisabeth (1997, p 23) emphasized the following factors which are considered to be of great importance for successful early language learning: (1) Well-trained teachers (language competence and methodological skills) (2) Well-organized in-service training

(3) Well-structured curriculum with adequate timetable

(4) Suitable and motivating materials

(5) Continuity of language learning within the primary school and from primary to secondary stage

(6) Quality assurance measures

Considering all the above factors helps to identify the challenges For over a decade, a number of studies investigating early language programmer have been conducted in various countries Nikolov M and Curtain H (2000) summarized a number of issues relating to teaching English to primary children around the world Through their collection, a concrete picture of teaching English to primary children was formed with a number of similar issues among which the most popular ones are related to teachers’ quality and continuity of the programmer

1.3 How do young learners learn English?

With regard to primary school children, it is necessary to first specify that children have both features of new beginners and the peculiar characteristics of their age group, children have their own characteristics in learning foreign languages To achieve success in teaching English in primary schools, it is very important to know the characteristics of students Teachers should understand young learners’ instincts, interests, cognizance, emotional aspects and especially their characteristics These issues play a crucial role in guiding teachers’ planning a lesson in an attempt to make sure that the young learners are interested in and fully engaged in the whole process of learning

According to Paradowski (2007, pp 52-247) young learners possess the following features:

Involuntary attention

Children do not pay attention to the language system They

have involuntary attention and memory, which means that their mind will be

engaged with the semantics - the task, topic, or situation, but will not focus on the linguistic code

Weak memory

Children cannot control what they are taught; the younger the learner, the

patchier storage and recall, which again makes recycling activities necessary,

whereas age improves language capacity Memory consists of three phases: registering, storing (based on repetition, which may be passive) and recalling (based on active repetition) In order to be able to say that we have learnt a given item successfully, all three stages must be available (actually, the learners who progress most rapidly may be adolescents, as they may have better memories than adults)

Limited experience

Children have limited life and learning experience Adults, in comparison, bring

in a wealth of background knowledge and a long history of learning experiences on which the teacher can effectively capitalize to facilitate their learning; especially as

they are all already masters of one language, frequently having the additional invaluable experience of learning another (Pratt-Johnson 2006, p.14)

is based on mechanical, short-term memory (the memory for rhyme and rhythm,

which relies on frequent exposure and repetition, the earliest type of memory and

therefore predominant in young children), grammar is based on logical, long-term

memory – a memory for patterns, which develops very slowly (between around 11 and 14 years of age, in conjunction with abstract thinking tied to biological development) and does not reach full competence until around puberty (except dyslexic children, whose semantic memory comes first, but the mechanical one must be trained) Learners under the age of 12-13 can ably repeat and memorize long words and expressions, but are not able to analyze them as logical memory is not well developed yet

Undeveloped interactional skills

It is also conceivable that, as Krashen (1992) speculated, in as much as older learners are prone to be more involved in sustaining a conversation, they will progress more rapidly than younger ones (After all, few children display fascination with the meaning expressed through the exhaling noises produced by another person, while lengthy debates of intellectual and other nature form our daily bread.)

In addition, Halliwel (1992 pp.3-5) clarified the characteristics of children which are special characteristics that differentiate them from adult learners He said that children are already very good in interpreting meaning without

necessarily understanding the individual word They already have great skill in using limited language creativity Children tend to frequently learn indirectly rather than directly For example, they remember new words on their favourite cartoons far better than which are taught by teachers

One more outstanding characteristic of children is taking good pleasure in finding and creating fun in what they do They also obtain a ready imagination, children’s words are full of imagination and fantasy, and it is more than simply matter of enjoyment

Furthermore, the characteristics of young learners were mentioned by Clark (1990 pp.6-8):

Children are developing conceptually: they develop their way of thinking

from the concrete to the abstract thing

Children have no real linguistics: Different from the adult learners who

already have a certain purpose in learning a language, for instance, to have a better job, children rarely have such needs in learning a foreign language They learn a foreign language just as a subject that the school provides for them

Children are still developing: they are developing common skills such as

turn talking and the use of body language

Young children very egocentric: they tend to resolve around themselves Children get bored easily: Children have no choice to attend school The

lack of the choice means that class activities need to be as fun, interesting and exciting as possible by setting up the interesting activities

These characteristics of young learners are diversified and complex and quite different from adults Therefore, people who are working with young learners including teachers and parents should spend time discovering their characteristics to get higher results in learning English

Mary Slattery and Jane Willis (2001: 4-5) pointed out 12 characteristics as follow:

1 Children learn through seeing, listening, copying and doing

2 Children are unable to understand an explanation of grammar rules, for example, rules of using tenses of verbs

3 Children can understand the meaning partly through non-verbal communication activities

4 Copying exactly

5 Love playing and using their own imagination

6 Short attention, so changes needed

7 Curiosity

8 Enjoy repetition of activities

9 Independent thinking is being developed

10 Ability to distinct between reality and imagination

11 Ability to organize the best to implement any activity

12 Teamwork

There is evidence that children have sensitivity to pronunciation and are good at imitating and picking up whole phrases of language, but if their teachers lack fluency or have difficulties with pronunciation, then children will not be able to make use of that particular instinct

Therefore, it is noticeable to identify what should be done in the classroom Carol Read (2003) proposes some of the optimal conditions for helping young learners to learn:

- learning is natural

- learning is contextualized and part of real

event

- learning builds on things the child knows

- learning makes sense to the child

- learning is multi-sensory

- learning is interesting and enjoyable

- learning is social

- learning atmosphere is relaxed and warm

-learning takes account of multiple

intelligences

- the child wants to learn

- learning belongs to the child and for the child

- learning is memorable - learning is part of a coherent whole

- learning is active and experiential -learning allows for personal, divergent responses

- the child is challenged and supported appropriately

- the child has a sense of achievement

Besides, Read (2005) also suggests an integrated framework called the seven Rs for managing children positively and creating a happy working environment for them:

Relationships - creating and maintaining a positive relationship with

learners is at the heart of establishing a happy learning environment

Rules - establish a limited number of rules and make sure they are clear, as

well as the reasons for having them

Routines - classroom routines make it clear to everyone what is expected

of them and what they should do

Rights and Responsibilities - although these may not be stated explicitly

with very young learners, teachers can model through their own actions which

of these they value

Respect - students who are treated respectfully by the teacher will respond

in a similar way to the teacher If the children feel that the teacher treats them as individuals, they will also respond to the teacher as an individual and not with a collective group mentality

Rewards - reward systems can be an effective way of reinforcing

appropriate behavior e.g using stars, stickers, points, smiley faces, raffle tickets

or marbles in a jar

Children will only be able to sustain their enthusiasm through primary school if they can develop an intrinsic interest in learning English through enjoyable and interesting activities and a good rapport with their teachers If teaching in primary school is overly formal and just another version of what is done in secondary school, it will kill children’s early enthusiasm (Moon, 2005) Teaching English to primary children is much different to teaching English

to the other learners Without being aware of these can threaten the learning implementation in the classroom

teaching-1.4 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

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

1.5 Previous studies on primary school English teaching in Vietnam

In order to find out the effective ways of teaching English to primary school children, some research had been done to explore the use of modern equipments and techniques to raise quality of teaching These researchers identified some problems relating to the current practice of teaching English in the classroom employed by teachers

Vu Thi Luong (2002) and Dang Quang Sang (2007) put an emphasis on using games in teaching English to primary children to meet children’s interests, characteristics and capacity in acquiring a foreign language Such an important part that games play in primary English language teaching, teachers, however, had many different opinions about them as well as difficulties in using them 90% of teachers in the study sample agreed that games are effective to language teaching but almost all teachers complained that they had not got any book or materials including a game collection so they used only some games repeatedly (Vu Thi Luong, 2002) Thus among 70% of the teachers using games in teaching only 20% used games frequently 30% of the teachers had never used games because they thought that the secondary school students were so anxious

to learn English in order to pass the exams so the primary teachers should only focus on vocabulary and grammar and then asked students to do as many exercises as possible (Dang Quang Sang, 2007) Given this, the teachers spent

no time for studying or collecting games for their learners As a result, “games were not used frequently and usefully in teaching English to primary school children” (Vu Thi Luong, 2002, p 23)

Nguyen Minh Ha (2001) conducted a study on Teaching English on Computer to Primary School Children in a school in Hanoi According to her findings, one of the problems with the uses of the computer in TEYL was that

“most teachers are not qualified enough to meet the demands of teaching

English on computer Their major short-comings are poor English, lack of computer skills, inexperience and weak teaching methods.” She showed a fact that many teachers abused computers and became too dependent on computers The teachers had difficulty choosing appropriate programme, setting up a sustainable syllabus or applying techniques relevant to students’ level She provoked a conclusion that “teaching English to children not only fails but puts pressure on children’s attitude towards English language.” (p 27) because most primary teachers considered English a school subject like Maths, Vietnamese so they asked children to learn by heart a list of words and structures

Ta Van Diep (2003) explored the uses of video clips as an effective means

of developing communicative competence for primary school children in Hanoi because “video clips create a natural language environment with the combination of sound and pictures” (p 19) However, the question of using video clips surprised many teachers because they had never considered video clips a means of teaching, instead, a means of entertainment Moreover, most schools in Hanoi were not equipped with video so both the teachers and learners did not have chance to enjoy video clips in English lessons

In an exploratory study on the situation of English Bilingual Education (EBE) in East Asia, To Thi Thu Huong (2010) gave an insightful discussion about the implementation of EBE in Vietnam from preschool to tertiary level

As a response to the pressing need of society, a strong political will be from leaders of the country, “EBE will move very fast in years to come” (p 112) However, introducing EBE at primary level may cause some challenges for Vietnamese language maintenance Moreover, some obstacles to the implementation of EBE are identified as:

- lack of understanding and support from leaders and managers

- teacher quality and professional competence