VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES ----------------------- VUÕ AN NHÖ ENGLISH FOR CHILDREN: EVALUATION OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AT VIETNAM-USA SOCIETY ENGLISH TRAINING SERVICE CENTER A thesis in TESOL Code number: 5.02 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL Supervisor: ÑOAØN HUEÄ DUNG, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY - 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: ENGLISH FOR CHILDREN: EVALUATION OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AT VIETNAM-USA SOCIETY ENGLISH TRAINING SERVICE CENTER in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee. Ho Chi Minh City, October 17, 2005 VUÕ AN NHÖ i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, VUÕ AN NHÖ, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the University Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the University library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses.
Ho Chi Minh City, October 17, 2005 VUÕ AN NHÖ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was on its first step in late 2003 but it has not been finished until two years later. A lot of difficulties and problems have occurred during that time, among which the uncooperative attitudes of the institution under evaluation and the worrying deterioration in health of several members in my family and of myself during the year 2004 have been the most discouragement. In that gloomy picture of my family’s future, the sympathetic understanding, patience and generosity together with the constructive and valuable suggestions of my supervisor, Dr. Ñoaøn Hueä Dung, have been a great help and motivation for me to continue working on the last steps to finish my thesis.
For that reason, I would like to let her know that I owe her a great debt of gratitude. I also owe a great deal to all my teachers for their helpful instruction during the course. In addition, I would like to express my thanks to the teachers, the students and students’ parents at Vietnam-USA Society English Training Service Center who had allowed themselves to be interviewed and agreed to be a part of the questionnaires. Similar thanks must go to all of my friends and classmates who have given me a lot of encouragement to overcome the difficulties mentioned above.
Finally, I wish to send many thanks to my family, especially my mother and father for the eternal love, the continual practical as well as moral support and the special care and patience they have offered to me. iii ABSTRACT With the rapid development of English schools and English teaching programs for children as it is in Vietnam nowadays, there is a constant necessity for all concerned to investigate the effectiveness of those programs. This study aims to evaluate the Superkids program for teaching English to children of 6 to 12 years of age at Vietnam-USA Society English Training Service Center (VUS-ETSC). Results were obtained through 2 questionnaires sent to 100 students from 4 Movers 2 classes and to 15 teachers including 10 Vietnamese teachers and 5 foreign teachers at VUS-ETSC.
Together with the questionnaires, interviews were conducted with 30 parents of 30 students from the 4 Movers 2 classes and with the 15 teachers above to provide further details about the program evaluation. The researcher’s experience as a teacher of the Superkids program as well as the students’ test results and the reenrollment rate also made valuable contributions towards giving a closer investigation of the program. The findings from the survey were to point out that the Superkids program is generally a successful one in helping Vietnamese children at the elementary level to develop both their language competence and performance. With interesting methods of teaching, good students’ progress and useful instructional materials, the language program can be seen as one more convincing evidence added to the argument for teaching foreign languages to learners at an early age.
A balanced activities approach together with the improvement of the current co-teaching system and other related matters are recommended to apply in the classroom so that better achievements can be obtained. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CUP : Cambridge University Press ESOL : English for Speakers of Other Languages L1 : First Language L2 : Second Language OUP : Oxford University Press SLA : Second Language Acquisition VUS-ETSC : Vietnam-USA Society English Training Service Center ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY.i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS .iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. THE AIM OF THE THESIS.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THESIS. OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS.4 CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY. DESCRIPTION OF VUS-ETSC’S SUPERKIDS PROGRAM. SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE .13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
EVALUATION OF A LANGUAGE PROGRAM OR CURRICULUM. What is a language program?. Why do we evaluate a language program or curriculum?. How do we evaluate a language program?.
The role and evaluation of instructional materials. The role of instructional materials. Criteria for textbook evaluation. LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS.
Comparisons between children and adults in language learning.Why should we teach a foreign language to young children?. Disadvantages of children learning a foreign language. Humanistic education and experiential learning. Some characteristics of young children.
A balanced activities approach. Learning through games. The benefits of team teaching. The problems of team teaching.
Subjects of the study. Questionnaires for students. Questionnaires for teachers.42 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Students’ evaluation of the MOVERS 1 course.
Evaluation of the teaching method. Evaluation of the students’ progress. Evaluation of the material used. Students’ responses of their difficulties.
Teachers’ evaluation of the Movers 1 course. Evaluation on students’ achievement. Evaluation on material used. Evaluation on teaching method.
Evaluation on teaching facilities. Interview with 15 teachers at VUS-ETSC. Interview about students’ achievement. Interview about the co-teaching system.
Interview with thirty parents of MOVERS 2 students. Students’ test results. The test results of MOVERS 1 classes at VUS-ETSC. The results of the Cambridge Young Learners English Test.63 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Some suggestions for teaching techniques and procedures. Grouping the students for language practice. The lesson plan .90 LIST OF REFERENCES.114 vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Table 4.1: Students’ enjoyment of the MOVERS 1 course .2: Students’ evaluation of the teaching methods .3: Students’ evaluation of the teachers’ instructions .4: Teachers’ enjoyment of the current co-teaching system at VUS-ETSC .5: Test Results of VIIM.6: Test Results of VIIM.7: Test Results of VIIM.8: Test Results of VIIM.1: Students’ evaluation of their progress through the course .2: Students’ progress through the MOVERS 1 course according to teachers’ opinions.50 viii INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION This thesis aims at investigating the current English learning situation of primary and secondary Vietnamese students at Vietnam-USA Society English Training Service Center (VUS-ETSC) and evaluating the ‘Superkids’ program at VUS-ETSC as well as giving some suggestions for teaching and learning improvement. Five issues are described in this chapter: the problem, the aim and significance of the thesis, the methodology and an overview of the thesis.
THE PROBLEM English, an international language used in many activities and fields of life in the world today, is becoming very important to Vietnamese people. More and more English centers have been opened to meet the growing needs of English studying in the country. In the past, most of the centers’ programs were designed for adults but nowadays, as the amount of children coming to foreign language centers to study English are increasing rapidly, the need of a professional program designed specially for them is indispensable. In that situation, Vietnam-USA Society English Training Service Center (VUS- ETSC) has developed an English teaching program only for children from 6 to 12 years of age, which is called the Superkids program.
The program is put into practice from July 2002 and is still carried out at VUS-ETSC. 1 INTRODUCTION After 3 years of operation, the program has gained certain results. Many students have passed the Cambridge ESOL Young Learners English Tests with high scores and continue their English learning at higher levels after finishing the Superkids program. Several people say that the program has been successful but there are still negative ideas about its effect.
Some teachers think that their students have not learned much from the program as they are too young for the level they are in. The others are not satisfied with the time given for each lesson, the content of the materials, the teaching methods, etc. Thus, whether the program is a successful one in teaching children English remains unanswered. Feeling an urge to investigate the effectiveness of the program, I have decided to carry out this study of one particular course: the MOVERS 1 course with a hope of throwing new light on what and how teachers and students have acquired from it.
THE AIM OF THE THESIS The objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate the current English learning situation of primary and secondary Vietnamese students (age of 6 to 12) at VUS-ETSC through a description of related elements such as the syllabus, materials, teachers’ and students’ performance, and methods of teaching, etc.; (2) to evaluate one particular course in the ‘Superkids’ program at VUS- ETSC based on a questionnaire asking teachers about their judgement of the program, a questionnaire asking the students about their opinions toward the program and the interviews with the VUS teachers and the students’ parents, the Midterm and Final Tests results students get during and after the course; and (3) to give some suggestions for teaching and learning improvement. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THESIS While teaching English to children is not a new area in Vietnam, it is a rather new one at VUS-ETSC. Established in 1997, VUS-ETSC has started its first courses of teaching children English since then. After five years of program modifications, the Superkids program was born in July 2002.
From the day it came into practice, there has not been any research on the effectiveness of its operation. This study, therefore, will be the first one to investigate the application of the Superkids program in learning and teaching at VUS-ETSC. It will serve as a detector for identification of positive as well as negative aspects of the program in use, from which, the institution and the teachers working there can make appropriate changes to improve the quality of the program. METHODOLOGY The subjects who participated in this study are 100 students of 4 Movers 2 classes, 15 teachers at VUS-ETSC including 10 Vietnamese teachers and 5 foreign teachers, and 30 parents of the Movers 2 students.
Two questionnaires were sent to the students and the teachers to investigate the current situation of learning and teaching English for children at VUS-ETSC. Two interviews were also conducted with the teachers and the students’ parents to give more detail about the evaluation of the Superkids program and to find out ways to improve it. Together with the questionnaires and interviews, there were other instruments through which data was collected such as observations, students’ test results and the reenrollment rate. OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS Five main chapters are included in the thesis: Chapter 1 provides the background information of the study.
It gives readers specific information about the Superkids program and the MOVERS 1 course at VUS-ETSC. Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature in two parts: language program evaluation and language teaching methods. Chapter 3 presents the methodology of the study involving the research questions and the research design (subjects of the study and instruments used).