TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages Statement of Authorship .8 Table of Contents. 1 List of Tables.5 List of Abbreviations. 6 List of Appendices. Background of the Research.
Reasons for the Research. Purposes of the Research. Scope of the Research. Significance of the Research.7 Organization of the Research.
14 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .The Nature of Speaking and Learning Speaking. Definition of speaking. Oral communication in the classroom. Nature of Oral Communicative Activities in the Classroom.
Reasons for Teaching Speaking to children. Methods and Techniques in Teaching Speaking. Methods in Teaching Speaking. Audio lingual methods.
Techniques in Teaching Speaking. Tag team role plays. Characteristics of young language learners. Children's ability to grasp meaning.
Children's creative use of limited language resources. Children's capability for indirect learning. Children's instinct for play and fun. The role of imagination.
The instinct for interaction and talk. Principles of Teaching Children. Valuing children and their work. Principles of Organizing Activities Suitable to Children.
Process and product. Competition and cooperation. Stir and settle. Involve and occupy.
Language development and whole development. Key learning principles. Data Collection Procedures. 43 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
The reality of teaching spoken English to children. The teacher's perception of the importance of teaching speaking skill to children. Evaluation of teachers on students' current speaking ability. Types of mistakes young learners often make.
Type of activities the teachers commonly use. The real difficulties that teachers think their young learners might have in learning speaking skills. Some difficulties teachers often encounter in teaching speaking skills to young learners. Solutions to partly reduce or eliminate the difficulties faced by young Learners.
Teachers' suggestions for a better result. How teachers usually prepare for a class. How teachers usually teach a speaking class. The favorable conditions for teachers' teaching spoken English classes.
Summary of the Chapter .64 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. The Summary of the findings. The Reality of young English learners at some centers in Hue City. The Reality of teaching Spoken English.
Some difficulties in teaching and learning Spoken English. Learners Difficulties in learning spoken English. Teachers Difficulties in teaching spoken English. The Language Teacher.
The Authorities Concerned. Recommendations for Further Studies. 72 APPENDICES 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: The teacher's perception of the importance of teaching speaking skill to children Table 4.2: Evaluation of teachers on students' current speaking ability Table 4.3: Types of mistakes young learners often make Table 4.4: Type of activities the teachers commonly use Table 4.5: The real difficulties that teachers think their young learners might have in learning speaking skills Table 4.6: The ranking of difficulties that teachers think their young learners might have in learning speaking skills Table 4.7: Some difficulties teachers often encounter in teaching speaking skills to young learners Table 4.8: Solutions to partly reduce or eliminate the difficulties faced by young learners Table 4.9: Teachers' suggestions for a better result Table 4.10: How teachers usually prepare for a class Table 4.11: Teaching aids and facilities Table 4.12: How teachers usually teach a speaking class Table 4.13: The favorable conditions for teachers' teaching spoken English classes Table 4.14: Language use 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATION CLT Communicative language teaching MOET Ministry of Education and Training ESL English as a second language EFL English as a foreign language 6 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Survey for Teachers of English (English version) Appendix 2: The class observation sheet Appendix 3: The summary of teacher survey Appendix 4: The summary of teacher interview Appendix 5: The checklist of interviewing teachers 7 ABSTRACT This research studied how spoken, English has been taught to children in English classes at some centers in Hue city. The result may improve learners' involvements in the speaking class and improve the teaching effectiveness.
The information was collected in the form of questionnaires, class observations and interviews, which mainly focused on the following points: the teaching of spoken English to children at some centers in Hue city, children‟s attitudes towards their teacher‟s methods of teaching speaking and favorable conditions and challenges the teachers have in teaching Speaking and their suggestions to better the teaching of Speaking in English classes for children. The data was analyzed according to the statistical frequency and percentage. They were presented in tables and charts to make the research livelier. The result revealed that teaching spoken English to children was supposed to be very important because it helped children to communicate with each other and to get to know more about the world around.
The result also revealed that there were different techniques and activities which had been applied into the teaching of spoken English to children. From the careful discussions, some implications were made in order to help solve teachers' difficulties in teaching spoken English to children in English classes at some centers in Hue city as well as young learners' difficulties in learning English spoken. Background of the Research In this competitive world, where a communication in a global society is a must to ensure our survival, the ability to use an international lingua franca- English – is indeed vital, especially in business, sciences and technology many enterprises and factories offer job vacancies to those applicants who are capable in English both written and spoken. They promise good positions and better prospects.
Another one, the television stations programs, which have never been absent in English entertainment and educational program are presented to those who are eager of improving their English, however, in reality we still find the advancement insignificantly. There are many student know English passively, and even they are not interested in attending the English class seriously. This problem caused by the unsuitable method and the media are used, which may make the students feel boring and frustration in teaching – learning process, especially English speaking. In recent years, the teaching of English as a foreign language has been expanding into primary schools and foreign language centers in Hue.
At the same time course books for children have been published, in which speaking occupies a major part, especially in course books for teens. Along with the growing tendency to learn English in primary schools, methodologies began to be interested in studying on teaching English to children. The proof of this is that a few materials on this matter have come into being, e. "Teaching children foreign languages" by Fincchiaro (1964), "Teaching English in the primary classroom" by Halliwell (1992).
In addition, some other methodologists contributed a number of articles on teaching children, e. "The challenge of teaching children" appearing in "English Teaching Professional" by Read (1998), "Teaching English to Children in an EFL Setting" in "Teacher Development Making The Right Moves" by Kral (1994). These methodologists focused on the matters such as children's characteristics, the challenge of teaching children and how best to teach EFL to children. It is agreed 9 that how the learning of English language can be made most attractive and relevant to children requires a great deal of attention.
First and foremost, let me identify characteristics of young language learners. In Halliwell's view (1992:3), "children are very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words. Furthermore, they have great skill in using limited language creatively. Children also frequently have learned indirectly rather than directly, i.
they seem to notice something out of the corner of their eye and to remember it better then what they were actually supposed to be learning. What is more, children take great pleasure in finding and creating fun in what they do and they especially enjoy a vivid imagination. Another significant characteristic of children is that they take great delight in talking." With such characteristics of children, teachers need to make the most of them. Moreover, teachers of children should bear in mind that the teaching of children and the teaching of adults, both in technique and in attitude, are entirely different, for these kinds of learners, there is a need for more just teaching the language than just one element in a process of helping them to develop as “whole persons”: an educational rather than just a training process.
Generally speaking, the teaching in English classes for children calls for a special pedagogical ability of teachers. The majority of the teachers were, however, trained to teach students at secondary schools. They are, therefore, unfamiliar with teaching children. Developing English proficiency for children is in actually no simple matter if we take into account the limited amount of vocabulary items and structures that the children have learned in an EFL context.
Teachers without special training find it very difficult to develop their speaking skill on the limited vocabulary and sentence patterns. Some differences of teaching a foreign language to children, in contrast to teaching adults are immediately obvious: children are often more enthusiastic and lively as learners. They want to please the teacher rather than their peer group. They will have a go at an activity even when they do not quite understand why or how.
However, they also lose interest more quickly and are less able to keep themselves 10 motivated on tasks they find difficult. Children do not find it as easy to use language to talk about language; in other words, they do not have the same access as older learners to meta-language that teachers can use to explain about grammar or discourse. Children often seem less embarrassed than adults at talking in a new language, and their lack of inhibition seems to help them get a more native-like accent. But these are generalizations which hide the detail of different children, and of the skills involved in teaching them.
We need to unpack the generalizations to find out what lies underneath as characteristic of children as language learners. We will find that important differences do arise from the linguistic, psychological and social development of the learners, and that, as a result, we need to adjust the way we think about the language we teach and the classroom activities we use. Although conventional language teaching terms like `grammar' and `listening' are used in connection with the young learner classroom, understanding of what these mean to the children who are learning them may need to differ from how they are understood in mainstream language teaching. The perception of the difference between the teaching of children and the teaching of adults varies from one teacher to another.
Kral (1994:264) affirms that "the first key thing I have learned and all children's teachers should remember is that the teaching of children and the teaching of adults, both in technique and in attitude, are entirely different propositions". Since it is the world of the adult they tend to teach while it is in the world of the child that the youngsters are learning. Moreover, the last time that teachers were in the classrooms as students themselves was likely in middle or high school as adolescents or even perhaps as adults in college or in service training. For all the above-mentioned reasons, the present researcher carried out this research to investigate how speaking is taught in English classes for children in Hue.
After that, suggestion has be given to contribute some useful ways which teachers of English at primary schools can adapt to their teaching. The present researcher does hope that this methodology research would, to some extent, help teachers of English in classes for children teach speaking successfully. Reasons for the Research This research was carried out for the following reasons: Firstly, speaking is perhaps the most demanding skill for the teacher to teach. In their own language children are able to express emotions, communication, intention and reactions, explore the language and make fun of it, so they expect to be able to do the same in English.