A study on Vietnamese teachers' perceptions on teaching English as a foreign language to preschool children = Nghiên cứu về nhận thức của giáo viên Việt Nam về việc dạy tiếng Anh như một ngoại ngữ cho trẻ mầm non

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

LÊ VÂN ANH

A STUDY ON

VIETNAMESE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON

TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

TO PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

Code: 8140111

Supervisor: Assoc-Prof. Ton Nu My Nhat

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

LÊ VÂN ANH

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VIỆT NAM

VỀ VIỆC DẠY TIẾNG ANH NHƢ MỘT NGOẠI NGỮ

CHO TRẺ MẦM NON

Ngành: Lý luận và phƣơng pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh

Mã số: 8140111

Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: PGS.TS. Tôn Nữ Mỹ Nhật

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I would like to express my gratitude to the English teachers to

young learners in Binh Dinh province and other provinces in Vietnam who

participated in this study. Without their participation, this study would not

have been accomplished.

I am enormously grateful to my supervisor, Assoc-Prof. Ton Nu My

Nhat, for her excellent guidance, support, patience, and her invaluable

assistance. She has always been available to support me not only

academically but also spiritually.

I would also like to thank the lecturers of English, Department of

Pedagogy, Quy Nhon University, for their support and guidance throughout

the research process.

The writing of this thesis owes a great deal to the support of others. I

would like to thank to Mr. Le Phu Nguyen, Mr. Truong Minh Vuong, Ms

Huynh Thi Hong Gam, Ms. Dao Nguyen Huong and Ms. Huynh Thi Kim

Hoa for their emotional support and companionship.

I dedicate this thesis to my father Mr. Le Phi Van, my mother Mrs. Pham

Thi Tuyet Suong, my brother Mr. Van Chinh, my aunt Ms. Pham Thi Suong

Sa and the other members of my extended family, who have always been

there and prayed for me. I cherish them more than anything.

Le Van Anh

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. ii

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iv

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................... vi

LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................ vii

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................... 1

1.1. Rationale .............................................................................................. 1

1.2. Aims and objectives ............................................................................... 2

1.2.1. Aim................................................................................................... 2

1.2.2. Objectives......................................................................................... 2

1.3. Research question................................................................................... 3

1.4. Significance of the study...................................................................... 3

1.5. Scope of the study................................................................................ 3

1.6. Design of the study................................................................................. 4

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................... 5

2.1. Theoretical background.......................................................................... 5

2.1.1. Learning a foreign language at an early age .................................... 5

2.1.2. The characteristics of children as young learners of EFL................ 8

2.1.3. TEFL to young learners.................................................................... 9

2.1.4. The challenges of TEFL to YLs..................................................... 16

2.2. Previous studies relevant to the present study...................................... 18

CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................ 23

3.1. Research design.................................................................................... 23

3.2. Participants........................................................................................... 24

3.3. Data collection..................................................................................... 26

iii

3.3.1 The questionnaire ............................................................................ 26

3.3.2. The interview.................................................................................. 28

3.4. Data analysis...................................................................................... 269

SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 29

CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION............................................ 31

4.1. The necessity for EFL to be taught to preschool children.................... 31

4.2. Benefits of TEFL to YLs...................................................................... 37

4.3. The challenges faced by teachers face in teaching EFL to children..... 40

4.4. The teachers‟ suggestions..................................................................... 44

SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 48

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ................................ 50

5.1. Summary of findings............................................................................ 50

5.2. Implications.......................................................................................... 52

5.4. Limitations and suggestions for further studies ................................... 53

REFERENCES............................................................................................... 55

APPENDIXES

iv

ABSTRACT

It has been nearly a decade since English was officially taught to third

graders in primary schools in Vietnam. This decision has indirectly impacted

the unstoppable trend of having the preschool children learn this foreign

language at kindergartens or/and foreign language centers as a head-start.

This study sought to capture the teachers' perceptions of teaching English as a

foreign language to preschool children. The specific research questions are:

(1) To what extent is it necessary to teach English to very young learners in

the context of Vietnam? (2) What are the benefits of teaching EFL to very

young learners in the context of Vietnam? (3) What are the challenges faced

by the teachers when teaching EFL to very young learners in the context of

Vietnam? and (4) What suggestions can be made on improving the

effectiveness of teaching English to very young learners in the context of

Vietnam? To address the questions aimed at, this study employed the mixed

methods research design: the quantitative data was obtained through the

questionnaires and the qualitative data was obtained through the open-ended

focused interviews. The participants were forty-three teachers of English at

the kindergartens in Binh Dinh and other provinces in Vietnam. The results

showed that the teachers generally agreed with the idea of introducing

children to English at an early age. Their agreement with the actual

curriculum used for that purpose was considerably weaker. The benefits

articulated were mostly in agreement with those in literature; however, the

challenges mentioned showed features constrained by the social and

educational background of Vietnam. Based on the results, a number of

practical implications were drawn.

v

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 The participants‟ background information.

Table 3.2 Description of the questionnaire in term of clusters.

Table 4.1 Teachers‟ perceptions on the necessity of TEFL to YLs.

Table 4.2 Teachers‟ perceptions on the benefits of TEFL to YLs

Table 4.3 Challenges faced by English teachers to YLs

vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language

YLs: Young Learners

VYLs: Very Young Learners

ELT: English Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language