Khảo sát về sự tác động của thị trường hóa tiếng anh đối với thái độ của cha mẹ cho trẻ con học tiếng anh​

27 4.1 Marketing strategies used by private education companies to marketize English to young children at primary schools....27 4.2 Parents‘ attitudes towards children‘s learning English

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES *****************

ĐỖ THỊ HUYỀN

A SURVEY ON THE IMPACT OF THE MARKETIZATION OF ENGLISH ON PARENTS'ATITUDES TOWARD THEIR YOUNG

CHILDREN LEARNING ENGLISH

(KHẢO SÁT VỀ SỰ TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA THỊ TRƯỜNG HÓA TIẾNG ANHĐỐI VỚI THÁI ĐỘ CỦA CHA MẸ CHO TRẺ CON HỌC TIẾNG ANH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Hanoi – 2020

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES *****************

ĐỖ THỊ HUYỀN

A SURVEY ON THE IMPACT OF THE MARKETIZATION OF ENGLISH ON PARENTS'ATITUDES TOWARD THEIR YOUNG

CHILDREN LEARNING ENGLISH

(KHẢO SÁT VỀ SỰ TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA THỊ TRƯỜNG HÓA TIẾNG ANHĐỐI VỚI THÁI ĐỘ CỦA CHA MẸ CHO TRẺ CON HỌC TIẾNG ANH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor : Mr Le Van Canh, Assoc Prof.

Hanoi – 2020

I, Do Thi Huyen, hereby certify that my thesis entitled A survey on the impact of the marketization of english on parents'atitudes toward their young children learning english

( Khảo sát về sự tác động của thị trường hóa tiếng Anh đối với thái độ vủa cha

mẹ cho trẻ con học tiếng Anh) submitted to the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies,

University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

is my own work I have not submitted this thesis for assessment in any other traininginstitutions and documented references have been fully provided

Hanoi, 2020

Do Thi Huyen

I would like to express my special and sincere thanks to my supervisor, Mr

Le Van Canh, PhD, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me

through the stages of , and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions haveinspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

I also want to express my profound gratitude to all the doctors, lecturers andstaff members of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of ForeignLanguages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for theirvaluable lectures and useful advice that is of a great help for me to fulfill the thesis

I would also like to send my deep sense of thanks to all enthusiastic parents

as well as the principles at some surveyed primary schools for their cooperation andthe valuable information they provided in my research field Without theirpassionate participation and input, the validation survey could not have beensuccessfully conducted

Last but not least, I must express my very profound gratitude to my familymembers and to my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuousencouragement throughout my years of study and through the process ofresearching and writing this thesis This accomplishment would not have beenpossible without them

This study investigated the parents' attitudes towards their children' Englishlanguage learning under the impact of marketization of English at some Primaryschools in Khoai Chau district, Hung Yen province A questionnaire survey wasconducted by google.form and only 115 reponses of 350 parents were sent back Inaddition, the author had four interviews through Zoom with four primary schoolleaders of different primary schools located in Hung Yen province and all thesewere recorded fully and exactly Beside the data was collected by means of thequestionnaire and interviewing, various information from advertisements on posters,leaflets, mass media such as facebook, websites, etc., was also collected asreferences of English training private companies‘ marketing strategies The results

of the study showed the marketing strategies of these companies/centers had somepositive and negative impacts on the parents‘ attitudes but the positive onesoverweigh the drawbacks And from the findings, some implications are also drawn

to school managers, parents as well as private education companies‘ managers

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: The parental interest comes from poster advertisement 27

Figure 4.2: The parental interest come from advertisement details 28

Figure 4.3: The parental interest comes from various resources of multi-media 29

Figure 4.4: The mental factors affecting parents 31

Figure 4.5: The parental reasons of applying for optional English program 33

Figure 4.6: Parental ideas about the first time to learn English 34

Figure 4.7: Parental ideas about the first grade to learn English at school 34

Figure 4.8: Parental ideas about English lessons per week 35

Figure 4.9: Parental ideas on choosing English program 36

Figure 4.10: The most attractive factors on material for parents 38

Figure 4.11: The most outstanding features in the English teaching programs 39

TABLE OF CONTENTS

D

ECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

LIST OF FIGURES

ABBREVIATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims and objectives of the study

3 Research questions

4 Scope of the study

5 Method of the study

6 Significance of research

7 Organization of the thesis

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW .

2.1 Review of theoretical background

2.1.1 The spread of English to young learners

2.1.2 Neoliberalism in English language teaching

2.1.3 The marketization and marketing strategies

2.1.4 Teaching English for young learners

2.1.5 Attitudes of parents and their impact on young learners‘ learning English

2.2 Review of previous studies

2.2.1 Previous studies overseas

2.2.2 Previous studies in Viet Nam

2.2.3 Summary

CHARPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .

3.1 Research methodology

3.2 Setting

3.3 Participants 23

3.4 Data collection 24

3.5 Data collection instruments 25

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 27

4.1 Marketing strategies used by private education companies to marketize English to young children at primary schools 27

4.2 Parents‘ attitudes towards children‘s learning English at primary schools 32

4.2.1 Parents‘ awareness of English important role 33

4.2.2 English teaching program‘s vital role 36

4.2.3 English learning environment 38

4.2.4 Real achievements in English are highly appreciated 39

4.3 Impacts of those strategies on parents' attitudes towards students' English language learning 41

4.3.1 Parents have positive attitudes 41

4.3.2 Parents have negative attitudes 42

4.4 School managers‘ attitudes towards the services of these private English language training providers 43

4.4.1 Data analysis from 4 interviews 43

4.4.2 Positive attitudes towards the services of these private English language training providers 45

4.4.3 Dissatisfied attitudes towards the services of these private English language training providers 46

4.5 Summary 47

CONCLUSION 48

REFERENCES 51

APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 VII APPENDIX 3

VIII

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Although there are only 360 million native speakers in the world but it has1.6 billion people use English as the first, second or third language Over thecenturies, English has become a "bridge language" developing along with globaltrade, diplomacy and culture And despite the remarkable number of Chinese andSpanish users - two of the most used languages in the world in terms of number ofnative speakers, very few signs suggest that these two languages can challengeEnglish as "lingua franca" around the world

Since the mid-1990s, foreign investment in Vietnam has increased markedly

In a dynamic and effective working environment, young people in Vietnam arerequired to have a broader understanding of economic, cultural and social issues Toachieve this, foreign language is an important tool; it is a bridge for Vietnameseworkers to succeed in important positions at representative offices and companieswith 100% foreign capital in Vietnam

Recognizing that trend, international education institutions have pioneeredinvestment in Vietnam with the goal of spreading large-scale English and linkinginternational college and university programs These companies have beensuccessful in the past, including the British Council (1993), the Apollo Educationand Training Organization (1994), LanguageLink Vietnam (1996) or AustralianEducation and Training Center - ACET (2002)

In the context of Vietnam's integration into the world, and in particular theestablishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by the end of 2015, the training and capacitybuilding Foreign languages, especially English, are considered a priority (DamXuan Yun, 2015) The Government of Vietnam set a target of "5% of cadres, civilservants and public servants in state agencies with a foreign language level 3 orhigher by 2015 and 30% by 2020" (Decision No 1400 / QD-TTg dated September

30, 2008 of the Prime Minister)

In Hung Yen City and neighboring provinces, the demand for learningforeign languages, especially English, is still very high (Hung Yen Department ofEducation and Training, 2017).

In the context of Vietnam's integration into the ASEAN EconomicCommunity, the need to learn and use foreign languages is very useful and urgent toprovide predictive information on the trends of learning and use Foreign language

in the near future as well as identification of factors influencing the choice offoreign languages to help educators and managers plan the development of teaching,content, and methodology in program design (Jin, Liu, & Zhang, 2015)

As a primary English teacher, the author has witnessed how English hasbecome one of the compulsory subjects in the curriculum, how Vietnameseeducation system appreciates the importance of English learning nowadays,especially at primary school, and the importance of how parents motivate theirchildren‘s learning English is not only subject at school and their own concern, it isalso their parents‘ worry and interest Many studies show that parents play animportant role in maintaining their children‘s ability as well as in participating forsuccess of school and learning Besides, some ways to marketize education alsoaffect their educational attitudes positively or negatively Some gaps,notwithstanding, have not been filled up to meet our curiosity on the impact of themarketization of English on parents‘ attitudes toward their young children learningEnglish Thus, the study reported in this thesis, on investigating the impact ofEnglish marketization towards parents‘ attitudes on their children learning English

at Khoai Chau, Hung Yen Province

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at investigating the impact of the marketization ofEnglish on parents‘ attitudes toward their young children learning English at DongTien Primary School in Khoai Chau, Hung Yen Province This overall aim wasspecified into the following objectives:

- Explore the influence of marketing strategies on the parents‘ attitudes towards their children‘s early English language learning

Investigate the attitudes of the parents towards their children's early English language learning in Khoai Chau, Hung Yen Province.3 Research questions

In order to achieve the above aims, the following research questions areformulated:

(1) What marketing strategies do private education companies use to

marketize English to young children at primary schools?

(2) What are parents‘ attitudes towards children‘s learning English atprimary schools?

(3) What impacts do those strategies have on parents' attitudes towards students' English language learning?

(4) How do the mareketization startegies for English language trainingprograms influence school managers‘ attitudes towards the services of these privateEnglish language training providers?

4 Scope of the study

Due to limitation of time and knowledge, this thesis only focus oninvestigating the impact of marketization on parents' attitudes toward their youngchildren learning English at Dong Tien Primary School, a medium - sized primaryschool of Khoai Chau, Hung Yen, where the researcher is working as Englishforeign language (EFL) teacher

5 Method of the study

Both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted for this study inorder to achieve its aims as stated above An online survey method was adopted tocollect the data The survey data was analyzed quantitatively by means ofdescriptive statistics

In addition to the survey questionnaire for parents, personal interviews wereconducted with five primary school leaders The interview data was analyzedqualitatively

6 Significance of research

Findings of this study contribute to the knowledge of the influence of themarket-economy on English language education through marketization strategiestoward school managers as well as parents Particularly, it adds to the ideology ofthe ‗early the better‘ assumption in the field of English language education.

7 Organization of the thesis

The study is organized 5 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1, INTRODUCTION, presents rationale, objectives, research

questions, scope, methods, significance, and design of the study.

Chapter 2, LITERATURE REVIEW, theoretical background presents relating

to the characteristic of young learners , attitudes , marketization, and parents‘attitudes towards their children‘s EL learning and its impact

Chapter 3, METHODOLOGY, introduces the research context andmethodology of the study including the context, the subject, the data collectioninstruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis

Chapter 4, FIDNDINGS AND DISCUSSION investigates the impact of themarketization of English on parents‘ attitudes toward their young children‘slearning English and suggestions for parents to support their children‘s EL learning

Chapter 5, CONCLUSION, offers a summary of the key findings,implications, limitations, and future directions for further study

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this section, previously studies in the detail fields of the impact ofmarketization to education and attitudes of parents toward young learners‘ learningEnglish will be presented and discussed This must be done in order to place thethesis in the context relevant to the research which will be conducted Furthermore,

it will provide the readers with some basic knowledge of the background andpresent state of this field of research

2.1 Review of theoretical background

2.1.1 The spread of English to young learners

The widespread introduction of languages in primary schools has beendescribed by Johnstone (2009) as ―possibly the world‘s biggest policy development ineducation‖ (p 33), with English being the language most commonly introduced Thereare several reasons for this trend First, it is often assumed that it is better to beginlearning languages early (Y Hu, 2007; Nunan, 2003) Second, economic globalisationhas resulted in the widespread use of English and many governments believe it isessential to have an English speaking workforce in order to compete (Enever& Moon,2009; Gimenez, 2009; Y Hu, 2007) Third, parents want their children to developEnglish skills to benefit from new world orders and put pressure on governments tointroduce English to younger children (Enever& Moon, 2009; Gimenez, 2009) Inparallel with this expansion, there has been increasing criticism of the growth ofEnglish as a global lingua franca, in particular thepolitical and social implications.Publications by Block, Gray, and Hol-borow (2012), Coleman (2011), Edge (2006), andKumaravadivelu(2011) have all challenged understandings of the place of English,how

it has reached its current level of popularity, whose interests therise of English serves,and the status of different world Englishes Suchdiscussions call into question theunderlying premises on which theintroduction of learning English at an early age arepredicated (seealso Pillar & Cho, 2013) Edge (2006) and Kumaravadivelu (2011)inparticular are also highly critical of wholesale adoption of Westernapproaches tolanguage teaching

which support the spread of English while ensuring Western countries continue tobenefit from it Againstthis background, teachers of young learners around theworld mustdaily fulfill the tasks of instructing their students, often being requiredtouse a pedagogic approach which is alien to many, and having to persuade theirstudents of the value of learning English It can be sais that the introduction ofEnglish in primary education curricula is a phenomenon occurring in many non-English-speaking countries in Asia, including Vietnam Recently, the Ministry ofEducation and Training (MOET) in Vietnam issued guidelines for the piloting of anEnglish as a foreign language (EFL) primary curriculum in which English is taught

as a compulsory subject from Grade 3; however, there is limited research on thepractices required to successfully implement this policy

2.1.2 Neoliberalism in English language teaching

2.1.2.1 Neoliberalism definition

Neoliberalism has been difficult to define owning to the complexity,elasticity, inconsistency of its meaning, the apparent gaps between theory andpractices of its advocates ( Block, Gary, &Holborow, 2012) Generally speaking, theterm ―Neoliberalism‖ refer to the philosophy of economic and socialtransformation taking place according to the logic of free market doctrines thatdictate the way and society function These free market doctrines are ―rooted inmuch deeper structural and systemic changes in our conception of the politics andthe practices of governing‖ ( Oksala, 2013, P53)

2.1.2.2 Neoliberalism in English education

Over the reality of neoliberal globalization has placed different demands oneducation and brought about changes to the very concept of education in both Westernand non-English-speaking countries One of the most noticeable changes in the field ofeducation in the twenty-first century is the emergence of contested concepts such as the

― knowledge (based) economy‖ and ―knowledge as intellectual capital‖ ( Jones, 1999) Roberts and Peters(2008) in their book entiled Neoliberalism , HigherEducation and Research further argue ― the most significant material changeunderpinning neoliberalism in the 21st century is the rise in the

Burton-importance of knowledge as intellectual capital‖ ― If transformation in knowledgeproduction entails a rethinking of economic fundamentals, the shift to a knowledgeeconomy also requires a profound rethinking of education as emerging forms ofknowledge capitalism, involving knowledge creation, acquisition, transmission andorganization‖( pp.17-18) And according to Down ( 2009, p.52), within this marketframework, education is being conceived as a source of knowledge and skillcontributing to economic growth, and ― the role of schools is to prepare students asenterprising workers and citizens with the prerequisite skills, knowledge and values

to survive in a volatile and competitive global labour market‖ This is exactly whatBall( 1999, p.198) is referring to when he argues that, under the neoliberalglobalization of education, ― schools become more like business and morebusiness-like‖ These movements towards a knowledge economy have necessitated arethinking of education systems both in Western and non- English-speakingcountries And there are also other ways in which the policies of neoliberaleconomic globalization have resulted in converting education into business

Regarding English, neoliberal thinking postulates that English is linked toeconomic benefits Specifically, English is promoted as key to future economicsuccesses such as good jobs, good opportunities for social upward movement, etc

So, it spreads the myth that without proficiency in English, young people are likely

to be disadvantaged or even marginalized It is this myth that motivatesgovernments to implement the ‗younger the better‘ or the ‗earlier the better‘ policy

in English language teaching and learning Parents, on their part, are persuaded toinvest heavily in their children‘ learning English even without the clear purposes ofusing English Education businesses take full advantage of this to make profits, andthe market for English is ever being expanded

2.1.2.3 English language market in Vietnam

With a population of nearly 100 million, Vietnam has become an attractor toprivate international and domestic English language training providers In reality, it

is no exaggeration to say that English language centers in Vietnam mushroomedeverywhere, first in big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, then to the

rural areas In addition to big international education groups such as Apollo,Cambridge Education Group, Language Link, etc, there are numerous domesticgroups, big and small The rapid mushrooming of these ‗English Language Centers‘shows that English is a profitable commodity By using different strategies, theseEnglish language training providers have managed to convince parents thatinvestment in their children‘s learning English is an investment for the future This

is not to say that these businesses find all means to convince school leadership tohost their English programs

In short, neoliberalism in English education grows all over the world and

English language market in Vietnam is increasingly developing so it is said that it is

an opportunity for private companies on English language training to grow.However, how successful they can achieve depends on their own marketization andmarketing strategies

2.1.3 The marketization and marketing strategies

2.1.3.1 The definition of the marketization

According to Raffe and Croxford (2013), the theory of marketizationprovides a good foundation to nations in introducing the aspects of choices,competition, and public accountability, which are essential in enhancing the quality

of products or services under production Evidently, the theory of marketizationhelps in eliminating different economic problems and concepts such as unfavorablemarket competition, inefficiencies in markets, and the lack of players and marketforces that are likely to influence the production process From the perspective ofthe marketization theory, a number of economies across the globe are calling uponfor the deregulation of institutions of higher learning with the aim of making themmore competitive within the global market

Marketing and marketization are not the same However, it is nor a simpletask to disentangle one from the other At one end of the distribution of meaning,marketing may be taken to be about the provision of information to help peoplemake decisions, while at the other end of distribution, marketization challenges

stakeholders with radical change encompassing issues of power, funding, labour,markets, and complexity Nor is this a comprehensive list.(see, e.g., Hemsley-Brown

& Oplarka, 2006)

2.1.3.2 The main marketing strategies

Julie Chance (2020), 8 Keys to a Strong Marketing Strategy;

https://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/blocks.htm showed that the key isdeveloping a marketing strategy that forms a solid foundation for your promotionalefforts ― Implementing promotional activities such as advertising, direct mail oreven networking and one-to-one sales efforts without a marketing strategy is likebuying curtains for a house you are building before you have an architectural plan.‖

A company can develop a strong marketing foundation by:

1. Defining the product or service clearly which company provides customer

2. Identifying the target market: The ideal customer should be defined interms of income, age, geographic area, number of employees, revenues, industry, etcbecause the time or money to market them would not be wasted

3. Knowing the competition: Even if there are no direct competitors for thecompany service, there is always competition of some kind Something besides itsproduct is competing for the potential client‘s money

4. Finding a niche: A niche strategy should be focused with marketing effortsand dominating the market, even if company is a small player

5. Developing awareness: It is difficult for a potential client to buy a product

or service if they don‘t even know or remember its exist Generally a potentialcustomer will have to be exposed to a product 5 to 15 times before they are likely tothink of that product when the need arises Needs often arise unexpectedly so theproduct must be appeared in front of potential clients consistently if they are going

to remember it when that need arises

6. Building credibility: Not only must clients be aware of a product orservice, they also must have a positive disposition toward it Potential customersmust trust it Especially with large or risky purchases, you need to give them the

opportunity to ―sample‖, ―touch‖, or ―taste‖ the product in some way.

7. Being consistent: Be consistent in every way and in everything you do, whichincludes the look of your collateral materials, the message you deliver, the level ofcustomer service, and the quality of the product Being consistent is more importantthan having the ―best‖ product This in part is the reason for the success of chains

8. Maintaining focus: Focus allows for more effective utilization of the scarceresources of time and money Your promotional budget will bring you greater return ifyou use it to promote a single product to a narrowly defined target market and if youpromote that same product to that same target market over a continuous period of time

In the other useful link, marketing-tips.html showed that there are some useful and outstanding marketingtips on English education First of all, in a competitive market, and wherecompetition is global in the online world, the company may need to adjust thepricing, or give additional benefits to the program to attract enrollments In somecase the program price may need to be reduced In other cases increase them As analternative to a price reduction company may increase the value of courses byadding extra components that the competitors do not have The second strategy isthe importance of good teachers ―The teachers are your ambassadors that willincrease your likelihood for students to recommend your language school so don‘tunderestimate their influence for your students to enjoy their learning experience Ingeneral worldwide, teachers often change schools Retaining good teachers in yourschool is more likely if they can still be part of your school when they move toanother location‖ In addition, it is focusing on the students the center has If it hasfewer students, it can focus on giving them top-notch service It is necessary tomake sure that the students currently enrolled get the best quality program theycould possibly have from the center Each and every student is a prospective referralfor center No-cost or low-cost ways to focus on students include things like havingevery person who works in the program learn the names of each and every student.Personalized letters of congratulation to each student from the director at the end of

https://www.learncube.com/language-school-the program is anohttps://www.learncube.com/language-school-ther idea Last but not least, https://www.learncube.com/language-school-the center should take time toregroup, re-organize and even celebrate some interesting events, which remindeveryone that while these may not be the best of times, things will get better It can

be necessary to clean out the teachers' offices, resource rooms, filing cabinets,cupboards and bookshelves, organize a second-hand book sale of any old textbooks

or resources which are not needed Especially, it is very useful to use the money totake the students on a field trip or buy pizza for the staff on a Friday afternoon,which can be a huge emotional investment in the mental health of staffs andpotential students

To put it in a nutshell, these above strategies are rather useful for the author

to follow and with this research the author hopes to explore the marketing strategies

of some English training companies if they are affecting on parental attitudestoward their children‘s English learning program

2.1.4 Teaching English for young learners

To achieve success in teaching English in primary schools; it is veryimportant to know the characteristics of student Teachers should understand younglearners instincts, interests, cognizance, emotional aspects an especially theircharacteristics There issues play a crucial role in how teachers plan a lesson, makesure that the young learners are interested in and fully engaged in the whole process

of learning

2.1.4.1 Characteristics of young learners\

Regarding learning foreign language, the characteristics of young learnersare mentioned by many famous linguistics such as Sadler (1974); Cameron (2001),Brown (2001), Scott (1990) and Mustafa (2003), Pinter (2006) and Hammer (2007)

In this study, the author firstly focused the main characteristics mentioned byHammer (2007) and teachers should know to teach them effectively Thesecharacteristics include as followings:

- They respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual words:

In other words, learning will come from the real experience from the children‘s life

- They often learn indirectly rather than directly - that is they take in

information from all sides, learning from everything around them rather than only focusing on the precise topic they are being taught.

- Their understanding comes not just from explanation, but also from what they see, hear and, crucially, have a chance to touch and interact with

- They find abstract concepts such as grammar rules difficult to grasp.Therefore, teacher should avoid teaching abstract concepts and focus on concreteitems that children understand and relate to In addition to, teacher can use media indelivering the materials in order that the students are able to understand easily

- They generally display an enthusiasm for learning and a curiosity about the world around them

- They have a need for individual attention and approval from the teacher

- They are keen to talk about themselves and respond well to learning that usesthemselves and their own lives as main topics in the classroom This means thatchildren have a tendency to relate what they are learning to what they are doing bythemselves They love learning something having relation to their daily life For thispurpose teacher should be able to choose learning material related to their ‗world‘

In general, young learners have their own characteristics according to threelevels which were mentioned above so teachers should consider them to prepare thespeaking teaching lessons effectively and attractively

2.1.4.2 Essential principles of how to facilitate young learners learn English as

a foreign language

How to facilitate children learning English as a foreign language is anotheraspect that young learners‘ teachers should notice Hammer (2007) gave various anddetail principles which were found in many famous experts‘ view such as Cameron

2001, Moon (2000) Mustafa (2003) and Shin (2007) and so on And their essentialprinciples were proposed by as follows:

Use English more frequent to provide exposure to the language Young

learners need to be exposed to a variety of uses English around them, both spokenand written (Moon, 2000) To help students acquire English, the teachers should

speak English from the beginning of each English lesson ( Slatery and Wills, 2001).Using English more frequent than young learners‘ native language does not onlyprovide an element of indirect learning in that the children are not concentrating onlearning what they are listening to but also the brain is processing it The otheradvantage is the English language used in the classroom confirms the idea that it issomething they actually use for real and not just something they do exercise andgames in And another advantage is that it increases the amount of exposure theyoung learners get to the language.

Use activity-based teaching-learning techniques (e.g TPR, games, objects).

Learning language will be effective if teachers are able to choose appropriateteaching- learning techniques to be implemented in their classroom There arevarious activities-based teaching-learning techniques that teachers can apply inteaching English such as TPR, games, object, and the like These techniques canhelp young learners to be active, enthusiastic, and motivated because those are funenjoyable for them Total Physical Response (TPR) is effective method ofintroducing children to a foreign language It is based on the idea that the naturalresponse to understanding a command is a physical response (Mustafa, 2008).Regarding this Philips (2004) explains that TPR is a useful and adaptable teachingtechnique especially for primary students Philip Using this method, young learnerscan listen to their teacher telling them what to do and they do it In addition, thismethod can also give some enjoyment and fun for young learners

Another technique that teachers can apply in English classroom for younglearners is games Games are so useful and so important It is not just because theyare fun but partly because the fun element creates a desire to communicate andpartly because games can create unpredictability Games are also effectiveopportunity for indirect learning (Halliwel, 1992)

Use various techniques for short periods of time It is important for teachers

to vary the types of learning activities since young learners lose interest morequickly (Cameron, 2001) Variety is the key and with the very young, lots of short,

simple, activities are best suited to their attention span Keep the learning aims verysimple and build in plenty of child-friendly practice tasks to allow them to practiceyour target language again and again Providing them activities with lots of brightlycolored visuals is one way to take their attention and to keep them engaged inactivities Young learners usually only concentrate for short periods of time thusmake sure that teachers stop or change activity when they are bored or restless Thismight be after only a few minutes.

Focus on functional English for vocabulary development, and for immediate fulfillment of communicative needs of the learners With the purpose of building students‘ vocabularies teachers should focus on language function like, „what a beautiful day‟, „May I borrow your pen?‟, „Do you know what I mean?‟.

„What‟s your hobby?‟ etc Teachers should be able to choose teaching strategy that help young learners figure out the meaning on their own In other words teachers

should teach vocabularies in contextual meaning Besides, it is quite useful to teachvocabularies to young learners by repeating the words so that it will make themfamiliar with the vocabulary item

Reiterate often to ensure the acquisition of English In order to make the

students acquire the language in optimum way, the teacher should repeat thepronunciation of the words often He or she can reiterate the words in their context;

so that students are able to recognize the context where the words moreappropriately used It must be remembered that since teachers are probably the onlymodel the young learners may be exposed to, teachers should improve theirpronunciation if they have problem with it In addition, young learners needopportunities to use and repeat the new language that they are studying in order tohave more the acquisition of the language

Provide useful, acquisition-promoting routines Young learners function well

within a structured environment and enjoy repetition of certain routines andactivities Having basic routines in the classroom can help to manage young learners(Shin, 2007) Young learners need to repeat language items many times to get them

to ‗stick‘ so don't be afraid to repeat games or do several different activities withthe same language topic or set of words Young learners often love to repeat thesame song or story as it gives them a sense of confidence and familiarity Routinesalso help children relax and not worry about being able to follow the sequences ofevents and activities in the classroom.

Provide print-rich environment in English In order to create English

environment teachers should design condition that enables young learners tobecome accustomed to English words or sentences Teachers can put some printssuch as the rules in the classroom, list of vocabularies, or pictures such as thepicture of part of body, picture of animals and the like in the classroom By this waychildren will be familiar and have descriptions about those words or pictures Thiscan also make them memorize the words because they always see or read the wordsand pictures when they are in the classroom In addition, the words or picturesdesigned with colorful or interesting art will attract students‘ interest and motivatethem in learning

These characteristics of young learners are diversified and complex and quitedifferent from adults Therefore, people who are working with young learnersincluding teachers and parents should spend time discovering their characteristicsand following some essential principles to facilitate children in their learningclassroom

2.1.5 Attitudes of parents and their impact on young learners’ learning English

2.1.5.1 Parental attitudes in education

According to S Kalimuthu (2018), attitude is an expression of an individual

or group towards an object, an act of behavior, a system of norms, etc., based on theexperience learned or communicated Since attitude is not a trait, it is subject tochange depending upon the environment, situation, interaction, and perception ofthe object An attitude is a positive, negative, or mixed evaluation of an object that

is expressed at some level of intensity

Parents‘ attitudes like support, pressure, and anxiety have a great impact on

decisions that have implications for the future, such as choice of career and parents‘pressure concerning career There are obvious forms of pressure like parents‘holding financial strings over a child‘s head while expecting them to follow aspecific career path and there are mere subtle forms of pressure as well asdiscouraging a child from taking a certain career direction instead of listening towhat they want.

In educational settings students teachers and parents, all are most responsible forthe success of children education However, parents‘ attitude is playing a major role instrengthening students with self-confidence and motivation towards academic success

In this aspect, the parents are to change their attitude with a positive manner whilehandling their children in their academic activities which help them to have a positiveattitude towards their academic streams It is no doubt that the learning orientation ofthe students depends upon the attitude of their parents Because of the parents is to beconsidered as a key for motivating their children towards the betterment of academicsuccess In the light of the above, there is a positive relationship between parents‘attitude and learning orientation among students studying at school

2.1.5.2 The impact of parents‟ involvement in and attitude toward their young learners‟ learning English

Researchers Carol Hammer, Barbara Rodriquez, Frank Lawrence and AdeleMiccio (2007) performed a qualitative research study examining parenting beliefsand literacy practices of mothers of Puerto Rican descent, and to determine if acorrelation could be determined between the mothers' beliefs and practices Thestudy revealed that Puerto Rican mothers had both traditional and progressivebeliefs concerning education That is, mothers believed that schools have theprimary responsibility to educate their children At the same time the study revealsthat the participating mothers believe that they should teach their children newskills Dr Hammer and her research team (2007) discovered that children withhome English communication were taught various early literacy skills multipletimes per week, while children with school English communication were only

taught these skills once a week by their mothers The results of their researchillustrated that the Puerto Rican mothers in the study considered school to be theprimary source for facilitating the education of their children of education (Hammer,Rodriquez, Lawrence &Miccio 2007).

According to the findings of the research ―the effect of parents‘involvement in and attitude toward their children‘s foreign language programs forlearning English in Iran‖ by Vida Hosseinpour , Maryam Sherkatolabbasi andMojgannYarahmadi( 2015), the results revealed, the students whose parents havehigh level of involvement in and positive attitude toward their children‘s Englishlanguage programs learn and achieve more in the programs In other words, theparents who have high level of involvement in and positive attitude toward theirchildren‘s English language programs caused their children‘s and higher level ofachievement in the language program First of all, there is a significant differencebetween parents‘ knowledge of English and their involvement in and attitudetoward their children‘s English language programs Their knowledge of Englishleads to their higher involvement level and more positive attitude Secondly, there isnot a significant difference between parents‘ gender and their involvement in andattitude toward their children‘s English language programs In other words, theparents‘ gender does not affect their level of involvement and strength of attitude.Next, there is a significant difference between parents‘ level of educationalbackground and their involvement in and attitude toward their children‘s Englishlanguage programs The more they are educated, the higher is their level ofinvolvement and the more positive attitude they have toward their children‘sEnglish language programs Last but not least, there is a significant differencebetween parents‘ level of income and their involvement in and attitude toward theirchildren‘s English language programs The higher their income level is, the higherlevel of involvement and strength attitude they have toward their children‘s Englishlanguage programs

In summary, parents‘ attitudes play a vital role in their children‘s learning

English, not only because of their own decision-making but also their courseevaluation when they choose which course their children apply.

2.2 Review of previous studies

The topic of parent attitudes and involvement on children‘s educationachievement as well as the impact of marketization to higher education have beenreceived interests and attentions of many researchers and studies However, theimpact of the marketization of English on parents‘ attitudes toward their youngchildren learning English, especially in Vietnam, has not been explored thoroughly.This part briefly reviews some studies relating my thesis in both Viet Nam andOverseas

2.2.1 Previous studies overseas

In this part, the researcher shows that the studies conducted in somecountries where English is taught as a foreign language

Timkey (2015) explored the influence differing levels of parent involvementand parent attitudes regarding education has on student literacy achievement It isevident that parent-teacher and student-teacher relationships are an important aspect

of student achievement Positive parent-teacher relationships not only benefitparents and teachers, but are helpful to children as well The collaboration betweenteachers and parents benefits children; teachers bring expertise based on theories ofchild development and experiences with children in school settings; and parentsbring their unique perspectives on the individual needs of children Havingarelationship between parents and teachers encourages parents to become moreactively involved in their child‘s academic success

M Teresa Fleta Guillén (2015) suggested that there are a number of aspects to beconsidered for successful language learning with pre-primary children These aspectsinclude factors affecting the language development (starting age, learning context andamounts of input); the holistic learning (auditory and oral capacities, gross-motor controlskills and fine skills); the teaching techniques(asking questions, recasting, expansion,explicit correction, elicitation, repetition and wait time) and the practices that

foster the aural and oral skills (observing the presence or absence of sounds,recognizing the speech sounds from non-language/environmental sounds, attending

to sounds, attaching meaning to sounds making sounds with parts of the body orwith instruments, singing, chanting or rhyming, music, language and movement,daily routines, transitional times, formulaic language and circle time In order tocreate a conducive EFL learning context in preprimary classrooms, curricularplanning to support the aural and oral skills should be a priority

As we know, different research method and different research context result

in different findings And we can recognize that there are many factors affectingparental attitude toward their children ‗s learning English One of the mostimportant factors may be caused by marketing strategies of English foreignlanguage companies

2.2.2 Previous studies in Viet Nam

The parents‘ attitude toward their children‘s English learning programs aswell as marketization‘s impacts toward education are not new for researchers in theworld as well as in Viet Nam Some domestic studies have been selected anddiscussed here:

Hien Nguyen, Michelle Nilson and Allan MacKinnon (2010) found thatVietnam‘s national marketization policies have been accepted and implementedthoroughly at VNU-Hanoi The market strategies employed by the University werenot only to explore additional non-state financial resources but also to improveperformance and effectiveness of the University Some common characteristics ofmarketization were displayed clearly at the University, including diversified incomestrategies, cost-effective operations, institutional autonomy and a corporate culture.Although the leaders and administrators of the University are still not comfortablewith the term ―marketization‖ or are not aware of what ―marketization‖ reallymeans Yet the prominence of tuition fees, the commercialization of researchactivities, the expansion of student enrolment, the consulting services anduniversity-industry partnerships, as well as the adoption of corporate culture have

clearly demonstrated that VNU-Hanoi has been experiencing the process ofmarketization.

Le Pham Hoai Huong ( 2013) discussed the game activities that were used inprimary English classes in a center in a city in Vietnam Video recording the classesand interviewing the teachers showed that various play activities, for example,bingo, miming, hangman, and TPR (Total Physical Response) activities wereemployed in these classes The paper reported the findings of a small scale studywhich could not be generalized Under those circumstances, the suggestions werealso offered regarding kinds of game activities to be employed and how to use them

to target certain skills and language areas in primary English classes Different fromthat, the roles of teachers in the center were not made clear NESTs and NNESTs

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh (2015) confirmed the parental attitude to theirchildren‘s English learning program They recognized the importance of English fortheir children‘s current learning as well as for their future career Besides, theyexpressed their expectations to have well- equipped environment for their childrenlearning well Lastly, they would like to help children study at home although thispositive attitude was not appreciated by the author The research only revealed theattitude of parents toward their children‘s learning English

As an English teacher at a primary school, the author realizes that many foreignlanguage training companies are growing like mushrooms Beside their teachingactivities at company head office, they have some marketing strategies to primaryschools and sign cooperation contract for teaching at primary schools The authorwonders whether these strategies have positive or negative impacts on parental attitudesand whether commercial features of them may affect school managers And the authorhopes that findings of this research will reveal issues clearly

2.2.3 Summary

In the light of the studies above, it can be said that parental attitudes have ahuge effect on students‘ learning methods and motivation Besides, some ways tomarketize education also affect their educational attitudes positively or negatively

Some gaps, notwithstanding, have not been filled up to meet our curiosity on theimpact of the marketization of English on parents‘ attitudes toward their youngchildren learning English In this thesis, the author will hopefully fill out the crucialrole of this topic.

CHARPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research methodology

The aim of this study is to approach the influence of the strategies thatprivate English language training providers use to market their training programs onthe parents‘ attitudes towards their children‘ learning English The study wasconducted in one rural area near Hanoi To achieve this purpose, a survey methodwas employed

Survey research is a quantitative approach that features the use of self-reportmeasures on selected samples (Dörnyei , 2003) Data was collected from threedifferent sources: the questionnaire for parents, interviews with selected schoolmangers, and the advertisements by the private English language training providers

3.2 Setting

The study was conducted at Dong Tien Primary School, which is located inKhoai Chau district, Hung Yen province Dong Tien is a state-owned standardprimary school of the district with 10 classes and 350 students that is the reasonwhy it is ranked the smallest public primary one in the district The teaching staffs

of the school are well-qualified, enthusiastic and creative ones who have enoughability and knowledge to teach students there The school equipment is wellsupplied with modern facilities which help to facilitate the teaching as well as thelearning Especially, the school has an English lab equipped with a TV, coursebooks, loudspeaker, and colorful pictures provided by English language center,which supports students to study in English lessons Whenever students haveEnglish lessons, they can study there Although a number of English training centershave ever tried to cooperate with school on English training, the current partner ischosen at last One of the most attractive factors of that English center is that theyactively support the school on English learning equipment and teaching materials.Besides, they usually organize English training programs for official teachers atschool or share model lesson‘s clips In addition, they also host English

contests which encourage young learners‘ effort and passion on English and fromthat the talent students are selected, fostered and they are samples of both schooland center Moreover, they also support some gifts for English talent students at theend of school year, which encourage not only students but also their parents onattitude of English learning Last but not least, English teachers at school also feeleager because they can get some benefits such as teaching some extra Englishlessons of the center, being trained without paying fee regularly and their incomecan be improved.

Relating to teaching English language, the school‘s young learners have beenfollowing two kinds of English training program: a compulsory English program ofthe Ministry of Education and Training (4 lessons a week) and an optional Englishprogram (2 lessons a week).It can be seen that the students of grade 3,4,5 can learn

6 English lessons per week but ones of grade 1, 2 only study 2 optional lessons aweek at school In order to attending optional English lessons, parents have to pay

250 000 VND per a term or 450 000 VND per 2 terms and most of them arecompletely eager to pay that fee because their children can improve English fromvarious styles and knowledge of Vietnamese and foreign teachers

3.3 Participants

The participants for this study were 115 parents of the students at Dong Tienprimary school, Khoai Chau, Hung Yen Only 18.40 % of fathers sent responsewhile 81.6% of mothers did it It can be simply explained that mothers always takescare of their children‘s education activities so they feel interested in answering thequestionnaires Moreover, most of them are at the age from 30 to 35 (accounting for60.89%) and at this age, their career as well as their social position can be said tostable and they spend more time on children Most of them all declared that theirincome is between 5-10 million a month (58.4%) which is a medium income tosupport their life The percentage of 10-15 million is not high (19.5%) and only16.8% is under 5 million Relating to their jobs, parents who are teachers involvedthe survey actively, then workers, state officers and office staffs

It can be understood that the career of these parents at Dong Tien primary school isrevealed correctly and it also proves their real need in practice These parents werechosen on the basis of their willingness to share their experiences, beliefs, andattitude to their children‘s English learning at school Dong Tien Primary Schoolwas conveniently chosen for this study in the sense that the researcher as an EFLteacher at the school, was able to get access to it Furthermore, the school is located

in the region which encompasses aspects of both urban and rural areas This ishoped to draw up a general picture of primary English language education

Besides, the researcher also interviewed two principals and two viceprincipals from four primary schools in this district They were interviewed andanswered frankly and enthusiastically, which helped the research to be morepractical and useful

3.4 Data collection

Data collection was accomplished by giving survey questionnaires to get responses and noting down information from direct interviews with participants who are the distinguished leaders of some primary schools and some enthusiastic parents.

Questionnaires were designed in both Vietnamese and English including 22 questions asking about personal information, the parental attitude toward their children‘s learning English at school and the most important factors that affect parental attitude to choose English program for their children.

Researcher has designed a 22-question survey on google form and sent the link to parents in Dong Tien primary school Parents do not have to reveal their personal information such as name, email or phone number and they only spent 15 minutes to complete the survey questionnaires And after 3 days, 114 responses have appeared on author‘s google drive With high technology of information analysis on google form, all the data was analyzed

and shown on charts clearly so the author can easily investigate interesting information behind them.

Besides, 4 principals who agreed to take part in the group interview were invited to join the author‘s zoom Before the interview started, the author introduced herself and explained concisely and clearly the purpose and procedure to the participants The structured interviews were conducted in Vietnamese and through Zoom chat which made both interviewers and interviewee felt comfortable All interviews took place in a friendly, cooperative, and objective environment and the time was arranged after school time so it did not affect their daily life All the dialogs were recorded then the author played them again and took notes for references There were 6 interview questions and all of interviewees answered them fully In general, there were many common ideas because they all followed standard principles

of the Education and Training Ministry, however, some distinguished opinions mentioned in their speech were noted down and evaluated carefully In summary, the information the author got from 4 interviews are very useful and practical so it will be used for detailed purposes in this research.

3.5 Data collection instruments

Three different instruments were used to obtain the data These are thequestionnaire administered to the parents, who were chosen to answer thequestionnaire on the basis of their willingness Interviews were conducted withsome school principals and vice-principals In addition to these two instruments,advertisements on English language programs by private providers were collectedand analyzed in an attempt to identify the strategies they used

The questionnaire

Dornyei (2003, quoting Brown, 2001) defines a questionnaire as "any writteninstruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements towhich they react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among

existing answers." (p 6) Dornyei (op cit.) believes that questionnaires are especiallyvaluable because they are efficient "in terms of (a) researcher time, (b), researchereffort, and (c), financial resources." (p 9) He also examines the major drawbacks ofquestionnaires: the simplicity of answers yielded, the problem of respondents whoare unmotivated or unreliable, the famous halo effect, the acquiescence and prestigebiases, issues concerning self-deception and respondent literacy, and the effect offatigue in cases where the questionnaire is long The full questionnaire can be seen

in Appendix A The questionnaire was distributed to the parents online Parents didnot have to reveal their personal information such as name, email or phone numberand they only spent 15 minutes to complete the survey questionnaires And after 3days, 115 responses were received online

The interviews

Four principals who agreed to take part in the group interview were invited

to join the interview via zoom because that period was affected by Virus corona

19. Both interviewer and interviewee felt comfortable during the interview so theinformation was got from interview can be said to be exact and reliable Allinterviews were recorded clearly and carefully as an useful reference of theresearch (see the interview questions in Appendix B)

The advertisements by private English language training providers

The advertisements on the English language training programs for younglearners distributed by the private English language training providers to the parentswere collected These advertisements were analyzed in terms the language used topersuade parents to register for their children in the programs The purpose is toidentify the strategies these providers used to highlight the linguistic effect of theseadvertisements on parents‘ attitudes towards their children‘ learning English and to their decisions to pay for their children‘ learning

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

4.1 Marketing strategies used by private education companies to marketize English to young children at primary schools.

As Julie Chance (2020) said that ― Implementing promotional activities

such as advertising, direct mail or even networking and one-to-one sales effortswithout a marketing strategy is like buying curtains for a house you are buildingbefore you have an architectural plan.‖ And many private companies/centers ontraining English are implement their marketing strategies successfully anddifferently Their marketing strategies used by private education companies play avital role to attract parents‘ and school managers‘ attention Generally, they usuallyuse posters as a popular advertisement way

12

47,3

40,7

Attracted Not attracted

No idea

Figure 4.1: The parental interest comes from poster advertisement

Relating to parental attitudes toward posters advertising about Englishprogram, 47,3% of parents expressed their interest on colorful posters whichincludes a visual design, images, colors and copy of English programs However,the people choosing ― unattracted‖ is not much lower than it, accounting for 40.7%.From this data, it can be supposed that marketing by posters is only one simple way

to introduce information about English programs to parents

Besides advertising English learning program on posters, leaflet, signboard,advertising videos and introduction about English programs are also used tomarketize English to children and their parents What make parents attracted whenlooking at them is mentioned in questionnaires and the responses are rather suitable

as follows:

15,3 2,3

Illustrating images 38,2

Voiceover, introduction on advertising

Color of the advertisement

Voice of MC on promotional videos

44,2

Figure 4.2: The parental interest come from advertisement details

The pie chart has the biggest percentage of advertising voiceover andintroduction (accounting for 44.2%) and illustrating images‘ rate ranks the second at38.2% Last ranking is voice of MC on promotional videos From those numbers, itcan be explained that parents are mostly interested in real content, activities ofEnglish learning programs With logically and understandably illustrating imagesand useful voiceover and introduction, they can save time and quickly choose thebest English learning programs for their children Those can be the reasons why52,3% of parents thought that leaflets and video trailers can affect them on choosingEnglish learning programs for their children

When to be asked how parents knew about English language programs, therewas a large range to be selected

Figure 4.3: The parental interest comes from various resources of multi-media

Facebook has become more and more popular and cannot deny its benefits

on entertainment and information There are plenty of businesses using Facebookfor advertising (and spending a pretty penny to do so) But lots of businesses usingFacebook to advertise is not the same as all—or even most—of those businessesseeing a positive return on their investment Looking at the graph, the percentage ofpeople choosing ―facebook advertisement‖ is the highest with 53.10% The nextnotable rates are ― friend‖ (43.40%), ―teachers in primary school‖ (46%) andleaflets (30.10%) In the contrast, traditional media like television, magazine, eventhough modern media like youtube.com were not welcomed and their percentage islimited at 18.60% and 16.80% respectively

Through various resources of multi-media, a common strategy used is thenative-speaker teachers For example, one advertisement writes, ―100% teachers arecertified native-speakers‖ Interestingly, after this statement, the advertisement says thatVietnamese teachers are university graduates and are certified as English languageteachers for foreigners.‖ It seems that there is some problems of credibility here

The next strategy they use is the promotion of innovative teaching methods,which are so ambiguous such as ― Learners are taught with the vision-enhanced