Difficulites and some suggested solutions in teaching english to grade one students in hadong district, hanoi

LIST OF CHARTSChart 1: The most difficult skills to teach Chart 2: Feasibility of teaching English to 1st grade students Chart 3: Children's favorite skills Chart 4: The most difficult s

ĐỖ THỊ PHƯƠNG THÚY

DIFFICULTIES AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO GRADE ONE STUDENTS IN HADONG DISTRICT, HANOI.

Những khó khăn và một số giải pháp trong việc dạy tiếng Anh

cho học sinh lớp một, quận Hà Đông, Hà Nội

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Hanoi – 2012

ĐỖ THỊ PHƯƠNG THÚY

DIFFICULTIES AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO GRADE ONE STUDENTS IN HADONG DISTRICT, HANOI.

Những khó khăn và một số giải pháp trong việc dạy tiếng Anh

cho học sinh lớp một, quận Hà Đông, Hà Nội

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Vu Thuy Quynh, M A.

Hanoi - 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ……… ……… i

Abstract……….……… ii

Table of contents……… ……… iv

List of abbreviations……… ……… vii

List of charts……….……… viii

List of tables ……….……… ix

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1.1 Rationale ……….……… 1

1.2 The aims of the study ……… ……… 1

1.3 The scope of the study ……… …….……… 1

1.4 The methods of the study ……… 2

1.5 The design of the thesis ……….…… ……… 3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ……… … 3

2.1 Children’s characteristics ……… 3

2.2 Children’s stages of development ……….……… ……… 4

2.2.1 Socio-emotional Development ………….……… ……… 4

2.2.2 Physical Development ……… ….… ….………… 4

2.2.3 Intellectual Development ……….…….… ………….…… 5

2.2.4 Individual Differences ……… …… … ……… 5

2.3 Children’s learning styles ……… ….…… … ………… 5

2.3.1 Spatial visual style ……… … … ……… 5

2.3.2 Kinetic style ……….…… … …….……… 6

2.3.3 Language- oriented style ……… …….…… … ……… 6

2.3.4 Logical style ……… … ….……….… 6

2.4 An overview of English teaching methods for young learners … … ……… 6

2.4.1 Listening skill ……… … ……… …… 6

2.4.2 Speaking skill ……… … ……….…….……….……… 7

2.4.3 Reading skill ……… … ……….……… 8

2.4.4 Writing skill………… … ……….………… … 8

2.4.5 Teaching pronunciation ……… … ……… ……… 9

2.4.6 Teaching vocabulary……… ……… … ……….……… 9

2.5 Classroom management……… … ……… ……… 10

2.5.1 Organizing the classroom and planning the lesson ………… … ….……… 10

2.5.2 Preventive approaches to classroom behavior problems …… … …… … 10

2.5.3 Keeping proper and flexible moving space of lessons……… … …….…… 11

2.5.4 Solutions to inappropriate behaviors in classroom …….…… … ………… 11

2.5.5 Teacher- learner reference ……….………… … ……… 12

2.5.6 Proper punishment ……… ……… … … ……… 12

2.5.7 The factors outside the classroom, which influence the classroom 12 management ……….…………

2.6 Summary ……… … ……… 14

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ……… 15

3.1 The setting of the study ……… … ……… ………

3.1.1 Teaching materials ……… … ……… ……… 15

3.1.2 Teaching facilities ……… … ……….……… 15

3.2 Subjects ……… …… … ……….………… 16

3.2.1 Teachers ……… … ……….……… 16

3.2.2 The school students ……… … ……….….….……… 16

3.3 Instruments for collecting data ….… ……… … ……… 16

3.4 Data collecting procedure ………… ……… … ………… ………… ……… 17

3.5 The methods of analyzing data ……… … ……… 17

3.5 Summary ……… … ……….… 17

CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA ………… 18

4.1 Presentation and analysis of data ……… … ……… 18

4.1.1 Teachers’ opinions towards English teaching to 1st grade - students … … 18

4.1.2 Children’s attitudes on learning English ………… … ……… 19

4.1.3 Teachers' English teaching methods to 1st grade students……… … … … 20

4.1.4 Professional training courses for teachers….……… … ……… 24

4.1.5 Classroom management ……….……… …… … ……… 26

4.1.6 Teaching curriculum ………….……… … ……… 28

4.1.7 Teaching materials and teaching aids……… 30

4.1.8 Teaching conditions ……….……… … ….……… 32

4.2 Findings ……… … ……… … 33

4.3 Summary ……… … ……….… 36

CHAPER FIVE: SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS ……….………… 37

5.1 For teachers ……… … ……… 37

5.1.1 Improving teachers' English proficiency……… … ……… 37

5.1.2 Strengthening teachers' teaching methodology for young learners ………… 38

5.1.3 Equipping classroom management methods to teachers……… … …… 41

5.2 For stake-holders……… … ……… 43

5.3 Summary……… … ……… 44

CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS……….……… 45

6.1 Conclusions……… … ……… … 45

6.2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies……… … ……… 46

References……… … ……… 47 Appendix

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

First languageSecond languageNumber of teachersCommunicative Language Teaching

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: The most difficult skills to teach

Chart 2: Feasibility of teaching English to 1st grade students

Chart 3: Children's favorite skills

Chart 4: The most difficult skills to learn

Chart 5: Teaching methods

Chart 6 : Teachers' using English in classroom

Chart 7: Needed - to - be - trained skills

Chart 8: Number of students in one class

Chart 9: Students' work in classroom

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students' attitudes on learning English

Table 2: Professional training courses for teachersTable 3: Teaching curriculum

Table 4: Teaching materials and teaching aids

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, English is an international language and it has been widely used in manycountries in the world It is also an international language in diplomacy, business, science,technology, banking, computing, medicine, aviation, armed forces, engineering, tourism, and

so on Most countries in the world teach English as compulsory subject in their schools InVietnam, English is also considered the most important foreign language and taught as acompulsory subject in many schools through out the country Especially, Vietnam Ministry ofEducation and Training has issued the Decision No 1400- QD- TTg dated on September 30th

2008 which targets to totally changing English teaching and learning in the national educationsystem, carrying out teaching and learning English in all levels from elementary schools tocolleges To aim these objectives, it is very necessary for our educational system to teachEnglish from elementary school, especially right from 1st grade In Hadong where I live,English is chosen as an optional subject to teach for 1st grade students in the whole district As

a result, this emerges a big challenge because most of the teachers in our country in generaland in Hadong in particular are not trained to teach English for young learners as such

For all these reasons, it is necessary to find out difficulties in teaching English forgrade one children in Hadong district and suggest some possible solutions to this problems.This urges the author to carry on a study named ―Difficulties in teaching English for 1stgrade primary school students in Hadong district, Hanoi city.‖ Once difficulties are identified,some solutions to cope with them will be suggested

1.2 The aims of the study

This study aims at:

- Investigating the areas of difficulty that the teachers in Hadong primary schools are coping with in their daily teaching to grade one students

- Suggesting some solutions to help teachers overcome these difficulties

It is hoped that the findings from the study will bring some benefits to teachers of 1st grade at Hadong primary schools

1.3 The scope of the study

This study limits to:

- The 1st grade children in Hadong district

- The teachers of English of grade one in primary schools in Hadong district

- English for grade one children

1.4 The methods of the study

With the aims of finding out the difficulties in teaching English for grade one atprimary schools in Hadong district, this study adopts quantitative and qualitative methods Toachieve the above aims, the study has been carried out with the data collected fromquestionnaires for teachers of grade one and observations to investigate their currentdifficulties that they meet in everyday teaching classes for 1st grade students

1.5 The design of the thesis

The study is organized into six chapters:

Chapter one: Introduction This chapter includes rationale, aims, methods, scope of thestudy, and design of the thesis

Chapter two: Literaturer review This chapter consists of theoretical background which

is relevant to the purpose of the study

Chapter three: Reseach methodology This chapter presents an introduction on thecontext of the primary schools in Hadong district, the subjects of the study, the instruments,the procedure for collecting data and also the methods of data analysis

Chapter four: Presentation and analysis of data This chapter presents and analyze thedata which have been collected and concluded the findings of the study

Chapter five: Suggested solutions This chapter deals with some suggested solutions tothe problems in the findings

Chapter six: Conclusions Summary, limitations as well as suggestions for furtherstudies and reference of the study are included in this chapter

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides relevant literature which is needed to form the theoretical andconceptual framework for the study First, an overview on children’s characteristics, stages ofdevelopment and learning styles is mentioned because it is very important for teachers and theeducators to make better teaching and learning if they have a comprehensive look on children.Second, English teaching methods on listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, andpronunciation review are revealed Next, a variety of elements related to the classroommanagement is identified such as, organizing the classroom and planning the lesson,preventive approaches to classroom behaviors problems, keeping proper and flexible movingspace of lessons, other basic recommendations, solutions to inappropriate behaviors inclassroom, teacher- learner references, proper punishment, and the factors outside theclassrooms which influence the classroom management

2.1 Children’s characteristics

In a very well known book named ―Teaching English to Children‖, the authorshighlight some of the splendid characteristics of children such as they are always willing toexpress their feelings about what they are doing, what they have done or heard, they can arguefor something and tell you why they think what they think Moreover, they can use logicalreasoning and vivid imaginations Especially, they can use the wide range of intonationpatterns not only in their mother tongue but also in second language They have very shortattention and concentrations span, their own understanding comes through hands, eyes andears (Scott and Ytreberg, 1991)

Young children sometimes have difficulty in working out what is fact and what isfiction The dividing line between the real world and the imaginary world is not clear to them.The young children love to play and learn best when they are enjoying themselves But theyalso take themselves seriously and like to think that what they are doing is ―real‖ work(Sharon & Woolley, 2004) It is often said that children are very self- centered up to the age ofsix or seven and they can not see things from someone else’s point of view This may well betrue, but sometimes pupils do not want to work together because they do not see the point.They do not always understand what others want them to do But they will seldom admit thatthey do not know something either

Young children are enthusiastic and positive about learning We all thrive ondoing well and being praised for what we do and this is especial true for young children It isimportant to praise them if they are to keep their enthusiasm and feel successful from thebeginning ―If we label children failures, then they believe us‖ (Pyles and Algae, 1970:56).

2.2 Children’s stages of development

According to Pinter (1997), children move through stages of development as theymature The rate of development varies from one child to another Development is influenced

by the experiences children have, as well as by hereditary factors Children may grow rapidly

in one area and more slowly in another The direction of development is from general tospecific, from dependence toward independence and interdependence, and from gross motorcontrol (the ability to make large, general movements such as waving an arm or lifting a leg, itrequires proper coordination and function of muscle, bones, and nerves) toward fine motorcontrol (the coordination of muscles, bones, and nerves to produce small, precise movements

An example of fine motor control is picking up a small item with the index finger and thumb)

2.2.1 Socio-emotional Development

Nunan (1988) noticed that children develop socially and emotionally during the childyears At the beginning of the year, some children may be shy and appear to lack initiative.However, as they come to know the situation, the teachers and peers, they usually gainconfidence and begin to establish friendships and become an active part of the class Otherchildren may be too assertive prior to learning from experience more appropriate ways ofrelating to peers It is a time of testing and exploring social relationships

2.2.2 Physical Development

Physical activity is one common characteristic of children, although children vary agreat deal in the development of physical skills and abilities Some children are slow andcautious about trying new things; others seem to accept any challenge that is presented

Most young children are full of energy, ready to run, swing, climb and jump, and areeager to try their strength by moving big blocks or boxes They are developing a sense ofrhythm, and enjoy such activities as marching, jumping or clapping to music These groupactivities need to be short and allow for more participation than standing Required stillness ismore exhausting and stressful for most children than movement

Sensory development is uneven The coordination of the eyes and other senses are stilldeveloping Physical growth has slowed down It is a time of consolidating gains anddeveloping fine motor control However, over-emphasis on fine motor activities such aswriting, cutting and making discrete visual discriminations may result in tension andfrustration (Pinter, 1997).

2.2.3 Intellectual Development

Wood (1981) stated that children love to talk Their intellectual development is reflected

in the rapid growth of vocabulary and the power to express ideas They are developing visualand auditory memory and the ability to listen to others Their ears are keen but they still needhelp in distinguishing sounds, although they can pick up another language and accuratelyimitate other people's intonations and inflections They are especially keen to acquiring newwords (the names of dinosaurs, for example) and to use such words as "infinity" (the idea ofsomething that has no end) and "trillion" They welcome opportunities to be inventive withlanguage, to play with rhyming, to joke, to explain things to each other and even to argue

2.2.4 Individual Differences

Descriptions of general characteristics are helpful in understanding children However,such normative statements do not provide the information teachers need about particularchildren because each one differs from one another As a result, the teacher's systematicobservations of children provide the information needed for appropriate planning (Pinter,1997)

2.3 Children’s learning styles

Armstrong (2000) shows that learning styles are simply different approaches or ways

of learning Psychologists, academics, and other theoreticians have developed any numbers ofideas and theories about the ways children learn They groups learning styles into four, majorcategories - spatial visual, kinetic or movement, language-oriented, and logical/analytical

2.3.1 Spatial visual style

Children with this learning style needs and likes to visualize things, learn throughimages, enjoys arts and drawing, read charts, maps and diagrams as well They are fascinatedwith machines and inventions, playing with legos; also they like mazes and puzzles.Especially, they are often accused of being daydreamers in class So the motivating tips are:

Using board games and memory devices to create visual patterns In reading, suggest visualclues, offer picture book of all types When they read chapter books together, encouragevisualization of story and scenes at intervals, promote writing via colored pens, computers ordrawing.

2.3.2 Kinetic style

The learners with kinetic learning style processes knowledge through physicalsensations, are highly active and not able to sit too long They usually communicate with bodylanguage and gestures They prefer showing to telling They need to touch and feel the worldand are good at mimicking others Children with this style like scary amusement rides,naturally athletic and enjoy sports As the result, physical action is the key ingredient tosimulate this child While reading, let the child chew gum, walk around, rock or ride stationarybicycle Use numerous hands- on activities and experiments, art projects, natural walk or actout stories

2.3.3 Language- oriented style

Children think in words, verbalize concepts, spin tales and jokes; especially they spellwords accurately and easily They can be good readers or prefer the spoken word more Thesekinds of children have excellent memory for names, dates and trivia They like word games,enjoy using tape recorders and often musically talented There for the motivating tips areencouraging own word problems, having child dictate a story to others, reading aloud togetherand tape session for later playback

2.3.4 Logical style

Children think conceptually, like to explore patterns and relationships They enjoypuzzles and seeing how things work; constantly question and wonder They are capable ofhighly abstract forms of logical thinking at early age; math problems are computed quickly intheir head Strategy games, computers and experiments with purposes, creating own designs tobuild with blocks/logos are all of these kinds of children’s favors

2.4 An overview of English teaching methods for young learners

2.4.1 Listening skill

Listening is the language skill which learners usually find the most difficult This often

is because they feel under unnecessary pressure to understand every word To achieve theaims related to this skill, the teacher plays an important role that is defined in the followingsteps by Vale and Feunteun (1995):

 ―It is important to help pupils prepare for the listening task well before they hear thetext itself First of all the teacher must ensure that the pupils understand the language they need tocomplete the task and are fully aware of exactly what is expected of them Reassure the pupilsthat they do not need to understand every word they hear

 The next important step is to encourage pupils to anticipate what they are going to hear

In everyday life, the situation, the speaker, and visual clues all help us to decode oral messages Away to make things a bit easier to the pupils is to present the listening activity within the context

of the topic of a teaching unit This in itself will help pupils to predict what the answers might be.The teacher can help them further by asking questions and using the illustrations to encouragepupils to guess the answers even before they hear the text

 During the listening, the pupils should be able to concentrate on understanding themessage so make sure they are not trying to read, draw, and write at the same time Always give asecond chance to listen to the text to provide a new opportunity to those who were not able to dothe task

 Finally, when pupils have completed the activity, invite answers from the whole class.Try not to put individual pupils under undue pressure Rather than confirming whether an answer

is correct or not, play the cassette again and allow pupils to listen again for confirmation Youmay be given a variety of answers, in which case list them all on the board and play the textagain, so that the class can listen and choose the correct one Even if the pupils all appear to havecompleted the task successfully, always encourage them to listen to

the text once more and check their answers for themselves.‖ (Monica & Roger, 1983: 45)

2.4.2 Speaking skill

In the book ―Beginning English with young children‖ the authors express that we musttake into account that the level of language input (listening) must be higher than the level oflanguage production expected of the pupils So we have many speaking activities used in the firstlevels that enable pupils to participate with a minimal verbal response However, in the

last levels, pupils are encouraged to begin to manipulate language and express themselves in amuch more personal way (Monica and Roger, 1983).

In primary schools, two main types of speaking activities are used The first typeencourages pupils to mimic the model such as, songs, chants, and poems, they hear on thecassette This helps pupils to master the sounds, rhythms, and intonation of the Englishlanguage through simple reproduction The games and pair work activities on the other hand,although always based on a given model, encourage the pupils to begin to manipulate thelanguage by presenting them with a certain amount of choice, albeit within a fairly controlledsituation

Once the activity begins, the teacher tries to help the children speak as much English aspossible without interfering to correct the mistakes that they will probably make Try to treaterrors casually by praising the utterance and simply repeating it correctly without necessarilyhighlighting the errors And finally, always offer praise for effort regardless of the accuracy ofthe English produced (Vale and Feunteun, 1995)

2.4.3 Reading skill

―When choosing texts we should consider not only their difficulty level, but also theirinterest or their humor so that children will want to read for the same reasons they read in theirown language: to be entertained or to find out something they do not already know‖ (Slatteryand Willis, 2001: 121)

It is important to spend time preparing for the task by using the illustrations (a usualfeature in reading activities for children), pupils' own knowledge about the subject matter, andkey vocabulary to help the pupils to predict the general content of the text Discuss the subjectand ask questions to elicit language and to stimulate the pupils' interest in the text before theybegin reading Also make sure that the pupils understand the essential vocabulary they need tocomplete the task before they begin to read

2.4.4 Writing skill

In primary schools, EFL pupils progress from writing isolated words and phrases, toshort paragraphs about themselves or about very familiar topics (family, home, hobbies,friends, food, etc.)

Since many pupils at this level are not yet capable either linguistically or intellectually

of creating a piece of written text from scratch, it is important that time is spent building upthe language they will need and providing a model on which they can then base their ownefforts The writing activities should therefore be based on a parallel text and guide the pupils,using simple cues These writing activities generally appear towards the end of a unit so thatpupils have had plenty of exposure to the language and practice of the main structures andvocabulary they need

At this stage, the pupils' work will invariably contain mistakes The teacher should try

to be sensitive in his/her correction and not necessarily insist on every error being highlighted

A piece of written work covered in red pen is demoralizing and generally counter-productive.Where possible, encourage pupils to correct their own mistakes as they work If there is time,encourage pupils to decorate their written work and where feasible display their efforts in theclassroom (Monica and Roger, 1983)

2.4.5 Teaching pronunciation

Juel (2003) shows that teaching English pronunciation is an area of language teachingthat many English teachers avoid While there are many textbooks and instruction manualsavailable, as well as books on the theories and methodologies of language teaching there iscomparatively little on learning pronunciation

Certainly, we need to teach pronunciation When teaching any language as a foreign or secondlanguage, our first goal for our students is basic communication, and that cannot happen if noone can understand what they are saying

Elley (1989) stated that when teachers decide to focus on pronunciation practice many

of them make the mistake of trying to teach pronunciation along with introducing vocabulary.This can work with students who have "good ears," or who perhaps speak a related language.However, it can be hit and miss with students whose mother tongue has no relation to thetarget language

2.4.6 Teaching vocabulary

Templeton (2004) strongly shows that because vocabulary knowledge is critical toreading comprehension, it is important that those working with young readers help foster theirdevelopment of a large ―word bank‖ and effective vocabulary learning strategies There are

several effective explicit (intentional, planned instruction) and implicit (spontaneousinstruction as a child comes to new words in a text) strategies that adults can employ withreaders of any age.

2.5 Classroom management.

2.5.1 Organizing the classroom and planning the lesson.

Teachers have many roles in the classroom; two of the most important are planning thelesson and organizing the classroom in the way that facilitates learning The following stepsare offered for teachers who are trying to get a successful classroom management

 Try and achieve a warm, friendly, relaxed atmosphere in which young learners feel comfortable, competent and most important secure

 The physical organization of the classroom is quite important In an ideal world, theclassroom would have an area of easily removable desks and chairs, an open space for actionssongs and games, a quiet corner for reading or self – study Such ideal conditions are rarelyfound in the real world, but if all possible arrange the tables and chairs so that the young learnerscan work in pairs or groups, and there should be a space for them to come out to the board and tomove around the classroom Often the five or ten minutes spent on reorganizing tables and chairsare well worth it to help an activity work well It is a good way to display the

learners’ work and relevant posters on the wall and try to keep the display up to date

 Create a stress free English learning environment for the young learners Neitherteachers nor parents should push the young learners too hard The young learners’ English

teachers should encourage them and their attempts to speak English words or sentences Whenthey are hesitant, you need to be patient and show great interest Do not blame them if theymake a mistake Crucially, if they perform well, give them praise or a certain reward If theteacher responds with interest, they will try again because ―reward behavior is usuallyrepeated and become a habit‖ (Machado, 1985: 101)

2.5.2 Preventive approaches to classroom behavior problems

Setting rules to keep discipline: effective management requires teachers to define theirexpectations for their students at the beginning of the school year Discipline is the mainpreoccupation of the teacher and the young learners (1) Establish the list during the first fewclass meeting (2) Keep the list short and clear (3) Focus on learners behaviors needed to

achieve lesson goal (4) State the consequences for breaking the rules and rewards forfollowing them (Kounin, 1970)

2.5.3 Keeping proper and flexible moving space of lessons

Kounin (1970) also found that the best classroom managers were careful to keep thelesson moving at a brisk pace Inappropriate learner behaviors increase when the lessonbecomes boring, so try to use topics and activities that you think will be interesting andenjoyable

He also suggests some other basic suggestions to have better classroom management asfollow:

 Keep and eyes on different groups at the same time

 Be able to be aware of events’ occurring based on observation

 Use both verbal and nonverbal skills such as voice control and eye contact

 Plan lesson and include varied activities and interactions that keep the learners busy

 Motivate the learners by focusing on what they do satisfactorily or well more than what they do badly

 Try to create a sense of community in the group

 Be fair to all learners, never favoring some over others (Kounin, 1970)

2.5.4 Solutions to student's inappropriate behaviors in classroom

Most teachers talk too much because of the responsibility for maintaining and guidingclass interaction But silence can be effective to discipline the learners Think of a lesson inwhich the teachers are always talking, learners’ attentions decrease and they begin to talk witheach other; when the teachers are suddenly stop speaking to start to speak softly with a lowvoice, learners’ attention will be raised to the teachers and the lesson because they want toknow what is happening (Archer & Smith, 1999)

 Proximity control

During the lesson, if the teacher moves closer to a certain learner, it will have differentmeaning First, it means, ―I am standing close to you‖, second ―I don’t like your company‖,and the last, ―we have something in common‖ With this approach, the teacher can control the

learners with inappropriate behaviors because the distance between the teacher and thelearners is very short (Scott (1970).

2.5.5 Teacher- learner reference

The learner who does not change his or her inappropriate behaviors in class may havereasons In order to solve the problem, a teacher- learner reference after class is a good way(Smith, 1995) The success of the reference depends on the manner in which it is conducted.The teacher should be positive and calm instead of showing authority so that goodcommunication with the learner can be made, which helps the learner make behavioralprogress

2.5.6 Proper punishment

According to Loannou and Pavlou (2000), sometimes teacher may need to use somekind of punishment for a trouble maker in the classroom But never give a punishment that ishumiliating or unreasonable and always reintegrate learners into the group after they havereceived a reprimand or punishment This is important not just for the learner involved, butalso for the teacher’s standing with the group The following two kinds of punishment may beeffective

Temporary isolation: It means that the misbehaving learner is removed for a short timefrom the class activities The place used for the isolation should be dull and simple But thetime should not be long, often five or ten minutes will be enough Moreover, it must not beforgotten that the isolation should not be used to frighten the learner

Response cost: It means the removal of the quantity of reinforces related to a response.For example, a teacher can take a learner’s water paints away from his desk because he waspainting his desk mate’s hands Within the classroom environment, typical response cost may

be loss of tokens or privileges as part of a classroom management system Many younglearners’ teachers agree that the response cost is a very effective way to reduce inappropriatebehaviors

―It is also useful to develop your sense of humor, which is usually appreciated byothers and can help you face small and sometimes large problems.‖ (Hill, 1985:332)

2.5.7 The factors outside the classroom, which influence the classroom management

The graduation paper by Do, Thi Mai Chi (2008) mentioning factors outside the classroom which influence the classroom management as follow:

 Peer relations: Peers play an important role in a young learner’s schooling Peers serve

as reinforce be giving or drawing attention and approval They also serve as models and basisfor social comparisons Peer relations contribute to the young learner’s perception of theirsuccess Positive peer relations can reduce social isolation and improve social academicabilities Poor peer relations can result in isolation and even psychological problems Theyoung learners who are accepted by their peers are willing to take part in classroom activities.Those who are rejected by their peers often feel anxious and have less confidence In addition,peer prejudice is often a catalyst for misbehavior Teachers should help them build positiverelationships by enhancing classroom interaction, cooperation and conversation

 Teacher’s attention: Educationists emphasize the relationship between teachers andstudents because the relation socializes attitudes, values, and abilities of the students.Teacher’s positive comments on and attention to the young learners can promote theirperformance in the classroom

 Parents’ care and encouragement: Parents’ attitudes towards young learners’performance play a quite important role in their classroom management So regular teacher-parents conference often take place in most primary schools to serve the purpose

2.6 Summary

Having a look at related literature urges the author to investigate the difficulties inteaching English for children in Hadong district since there has never been any investigationinto this topic Also, it is very important for teachers and educators to make better teachingand learning if they have a comprehensive look on children It is considered the collation forthe next chapters

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the setting of this study, that is twenty primary schools in Hadong,the real situation of English teaching for children, the different types of text books, availableaids for teaching, the teachers and the school students in Hadong It also reveals theinstruments for collecting data and data collecting procedure which are the basements for thefollowing chapters

3.1 The setting of the study

For the time being, Hadong district has twenty primary schools with more than seventyteachers of English aged from twenty-three to forty in their teaching currency And thenumber of 1st grade classes is over ninety Recently Hadong has been in its primary expands

so that by the year 2020 there will have been more than ten primary schools putting intooperation Hadong Education and Training Department has given favorable conditions to allprimary schools to get access to English teaching from 1st grade by giving nongovernmentalorganizations permissions to launch English program for 1st and 2nd grades As a result, most

of the teachers have been teaching English in an unprofessional way because they were nottrained to teach English for young learners

3.1.1 Teaching materials

For the time being in Hadong, there are 4 text books being used in grade one, they are:

Let’s learn, Phonics, Next Stop, and Family and Friends They are all foreign books except Let’s Learn published by Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training (2003) Thus, the

syllabus for each book is different For example, Next Stop book by Macmillan publisher(2007) has four units, each unit has ten lessons All these books are at starter levels, each book

is designed with many colorful pictures to attract young children

3.1.2 Teaching facilities

Teaching facilities also play an important role in teaching English and may affect theteaching process positively or negatively In Hadong in particular and Hanoi in general, theissue of teaching facilities has been a hot topic for a long time and the answer is still pending

According to Mr Pham Xuan Tien (2010), Head of Primary Education Department,Ministry of Education and Training, the basic facilities needed are laboratory, CD player,

cassettes, teaching aids and so on However, many English classes at many primary schoolsincluding state and private schools are short of teaching facilities.

3.2 Subjects

In order to achieve the aims of the thesis, the main subjects of the study include fortyteachers in twenty primary schools in Hadong district They have at least five year-experienceteaching English, and they are all female teachers

In addition, English for 1st grade is still new for them because they have been teachingEnglish for grade three to five, and English has been taught to grade one and two for two years

up to now However the teachers have not been trained to teach young learners as such Thismay be one of the reasons teachers find it very difficult to teach English for grade one

The thing is that most of the teachers in Hadong has pronunciation problems Theirpronunciation is not good and standard There are about fifty out of seventy teachers havetrouble with pronouncing the words in a correct way

3.2.2 The school students

All 1st grade school students in Hadong are six years old and the English is very newfor them In fact, this is the first time they start study a foreign language As the result, theyare very interested in studying English; this may be a favorable condition for teachers after alot of difficulties They are from all classes of society However, no matter where the childrenare from, teachers always put the children’s study into a focus

3.3 Instruments for collecting data

In this study, questionnaires and classroom observation are chosen as main tools forcollecting information because of some advantages Firstly, these methods give the neededdata in quantitative form Secondly, all informants have chance of expressing their attitudes

As a result, the study will be more objective with accurate data

The set of questionnaires was administered to get information concerning these

following aspects:

 Teachers’ attitudes towards English teaching for young learners

 Student’s attitudes towards learning English

 English teaching methods to children in Hadong

 Professional training courses for teachers

3.4 Data collecting procedure

The procedure of collecting data is as follow:

First, the teachers in Hadong are given a set of questionnaires with a clear purposesprovided by the researcher in break - time Then they are all explained the benefits of thisresearch for their teaching; this helps to encourage the teachers to complete the questionnaires.Finally, the researcher collects all the questionnaires right after the teachers have finished

In order to make the result of the questionnaire more reliable, during 10 weeks, theauthor conducts the observations in ten primary schools with ten teachers of English To havefair comparisions, the author observes teaching vocabulary lesson in all ten schools

3.5 The method of analyzing the data

In this study, quantitative and qualitative methods are used to analyze data.Particularly, charts and tables are employed to present data collected from questionnaires andclassroom observations

3.6 Summary

In conclusion, this chapter provides the current situations in primary schools in Hadongsuch as, teaching materials, teaching facilities, teachers, school students, as well asinstruments for collecting data, data collected procedure and method of analyzing the datawhich helps us have a deep look on primary schools and the methods to approach to this study.Also, it is the foundation for the following chapter

CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

This chapter brings about the detailed analysis on questionnaires and classroomobservation Using questionnaires and classroom observations as the main tools to collect data,this chapter works on the data collected which result in the findings and possible suggestions

In this chapter, the collected data will be illustrated on tables and charts Each table orchart is followed by an analysis of the data

4.1 Presentation and analysis of data

4.1.1 Teachers’ opinions towards English teaching to 1st grade - students

Although many researchers share the same opinions about the vital role of classroommanagement which is "the most important factor because children's self - control ability is verypoor" (Ly & Wu, 1999:223), it can be said that "the effective classroom management in younglearners English teaching means successful teaching and learning" (Campbell, 1990:98), theresult of the first question is rather different Twenty one out of forty teachers express that it isteaching method, not classroom management, which is the most difficult However, thenumber of teachers expressing classroom management - the biggest problem - is not small.Sixteen teachers which accounts for forty percent facing the problem Knowledge of major,teacher’s manner and use of English are three biggest problems of the rest three teachers Thus,the biggest problems teachers are coping with are English teaching method and classroommanagement

Speaking

Listening Story telling Phonics learning

Vocab learning

Chart 1: The most difficult skills to teach

The diagram shows the answer of thequestion 2 the most difficult skill inteaching English for grade one Thereason is that speaking, story telling andvocabulary require teachers to combinedifferent kinds of teaching methods andstudents have some certain background

knowledge, but here the students are in grade one So, no matter how hard the teachers try,they hardly ever reach teaching aims The different figures in question 3 show the variousopinions of the teachers on the feasibility of teaching English for grade one

Feasible

Not feasible 92.5

Only 7.5 percent of the teachers thinkthat it is not feasible

Their reason mostly is that students at this age are too small They cannot write, read or evenspeak full sentences, so how they can learn a foreign language well In my opinion, teachingEnglish to young learners is feasible if there is suitable program which focuses on whatchildren are good at, for example pronunciation and speaking

4.1.2 Children’s attitudes on learning English

With very small students at the age of six, adding the number of 100 percent of thestudents do not learn English at preschools; in fact, it is the first time experience in acquiring aforeign language This puts a burden on primary teachers’ shoulders because they have toinvest more time and energy for their students However, the figures from question numberfive and seven is a good signal from students’ attitudes towards the textbook because they allhave positive attitude towards the textbook and studying English

Answers

o

5 How do the children like the textbook? 24 60 16 40

a Really b Rather c A little d Not

at all

studying English?

a Not at all b A little c Really d Quite

Table 1: Students' attitudes on learning English

Table 1 shows that most of the students really like the books because they are coloredbooks with a lot of colorful pictures; Sharing the same opinion with this idea, Amstrong (2000)emphases that visual imagery plays an important role in the student's learning process Theindividual is processing primarily in pictures rather than words, ideas are interconnected Thus,children will like to explore whatever attracts their attentions.

Because of the spatial visual style (Amstrong, 2000), children like to learn throughpictures, vocabulary learning is the skill that they like to learn the most Besides vocabulary,story telling is also their favorite skill Chart 3 below shows details about the children'sfavorite skills:

Chart 3: Children's favorite skills

Sharing the reason for the fact that nostudent likes to study speaking and listening,many teachers say because students do nothave much vocabulary and grammarstructures to build sentences or hear thewords, so when they study speaking andlistening, it seems to be boring to them

Luckily, most of the students seem to have positive attitudes towards English study (80 %).This is good news for the teachers for once the students love English they will be eager to takepart in any learning process and activities

Chart 4 below presents students’ most difficult learning skills, 42.5% of teachers thinkthat story telling is the most difficult because most of the stories are a little bit long and havemany new words that are confused the students As a result, this causes negative attitudes.Then 40 percent of teachers agree that listening is the skill that puts students into trouble themost Their reason is that in English, words and sentences have stress and intonation, which isnot flat like Vietnamese This is the first time they get familiar to English, so it is difficult tocatch the words and sentences' sounds

10 0 7.5 Speaking

Listening Story telling Phonic learning

learning Chart 4: The most difficult skills to

learn

On the contrary, vocabulary receives

no idea on this issue This is becausewhen teaching vocabulary teachersuse many teaching aids likeflashcards, CDs, VCDs, ect Childrenare very eager to learn with funnyclips or pictures So, vocabulary isnot difficult for them to learn

Scovel (1999:213) said "children are the world's best imitators", they can learn a new languagevery well Thus, phonics learning and speaking are not the difficult skills

4.1.3 English teaching methods to children of primary school teachers

According to Richard and Rogers (1986), there are four main language teachingmethods: direct method, grammar-translation method, audio-lingual method andcommunicative language teaching method Chart 5 below reveals the number of teachers inpercent of using each method:

CLT Audio-lingual

Direct

Chart 5: Teaching methods

Apparently, more than half ofthe teachers (57.5%) use CLT method toteach, 22.5 percent of them use grammar-translation method the rest 25% use thedirect and audio-lingual methods Throughthe above figures, we can see that thecommunicative approach receives mostteachers’ attentions because according tothem, they let students use the language agreat deal

through communicative activities such as games, role- plays, songs, and problem solvingtasks On the contrary, the results of the survey questionnaire, when observing classes, theresult is a little bit different 7 teachers use Vietnamese in the class most of the time about 80percent except some imperative sentences such as, stand up, sit down, be quite, comein….However, they translate it into Vietnamese right after they say it in English while they

totally can say and do some gestures so that students can understand the teacher’s By thisway, teachers do not need to translate into Vietnamese because ―their own understandingcomes through hands, eyes and ears‖, Ytreberg (1991: 32) Translation is the old method andnowadays teacher should avoid, instead of that teacher can use realia, actions, and gestures toteach the new words Another example of using translation method is in Kien Hung PrimarySchool She shows pictures of the objects and ask children ―tell me what it is?‖ Students willanswer in L1 After that, teacher sticks the picture and its English as well as Vietnamese wordsnext to the picture Their reason is that they feel the need to explain everything intoVietnamese They worry about their students' misunderstanding Therefore, they useVietnamese with a great deal of time in the class This makes it easy to understand the result

of question number ten

On the other hand, teacher in Doan Ket primary school uses communicative method toteach children Particularly, she presents vocabulary by using realia, picture and drawings,gestures and so on As the result, students are enthusiastic to study due to they have chance toexperience different kinds of approaches and more important, ―they can use their vividimaginations‖, Ytreberg (1991: 32)

Question 10 indicates the time distribution in one period Most of the teachers inHadong have rather good time distributions for each activity For instant, time allotted forwarm- up activity is five minutes, for presentation is fifteen minutes, for practice is tenminutes and for production is five minutes The reasons of this may come from the form of thelesson plan According to the teachers, they all use the lesson plan form that the HadongDepartment of Education requires in which the time for each activity is fixed In additon, interms of using variety of activities, Amstrong (2000) says children usually communicate withbody language and gestures They will get bored with just one or two activities In one periodteachers use only one or two activities such as, ―slap the board‖, ―Chinese whisper‖ or ―hotseat‖ They use these activities again and again without adopting the new ones or adapting theold ones Besides, the ways of presenting vocabulary are not variable Instead of usingpictures, realia, puppets, miming, they just use one of those methods to present vocabulary inthe whole teaching period

From the result of question 11, only 8 teachers use English to teach at the level of 60percent to 80 percent And the rest 32 teachers use English at the level of 30 percent to 50percent.

Chart 6 : Teachers' using English in

in the class most of the time Moreover, their EL is not so good to speak, especially theirpronunciation That's why they do not prefer speaking English in the class

Being aware of the fact that "music can provide a relaxed lesson on a hot boring day Itcan also form the basis for many lessons" (Slattery & Willis, 2001: 33) When observing, 7teachers usually teach English through games and songs However, there are still 3 teachers donot apply games and songs into teaching Especially in the warm-up, a very important stepwhich helps to motivate students and prepare their good mood to get into the new lesson

―For young learners, the warm- up activities should be songs and games that can best createthe exciting atmosphere in class‖ (Pinter, 1997: 232) However, one teacher does not have thisopening activity He goes straight forwards to the new lesson Another use questions to reviewthe previous lesson in the warm up, it sounds pretty boring to young children They feelnervous, for if they cannot remember the previous lesson, teacher will probably punish them.Thus, this really de-motivates students On the contrary, 7 teachers have games and songs intheir warm- up step As a result, children are eager to start the lesson Some of the studentssaid, ―Teacher, what is our game today?‖ In Le Loi primary school, when teacher enter theclass, students shout out eagerly, ―we like to sing the song yesterday you gave us ―head,shoulder, knees and toes; so teacher, can you play that song now?‖ The reasons for thesituation, according to many teachers, is that when they have students play games or chant,they make a lot of noise and this makes difficult for the teacher to control the class