Investigating Global Practices In Teaching English To .

ELT Research Papers 11– 01Investigating Global Practices inTeaching English to Young LearnersSue Garton, Fiona Copland, Anne Burns

ELT Research Papers 11–01Investigating Global Practices inTeaching English to Young LearnersSue Garton, Fiona Copland, Anne Burns

ISBN 978-086355-667-8 British Council 2011 Brand and Design / B09410 Spring GardensLondon SW1A 2BN, UKwww.britishcouncil.orgThis research paper was produced in collaboration with Aston University

About the authorsDr Sue Garton is Senior Lecturer in TESOL andDirector of Postgraduate Programmes in Englishat Aston University, UK. She taught English in Italyfor many years, especially at undergraduate level.Her research interests are in language teachereducation, classroom interaction and languageteaching policy and practice. She has co-edited,with Keith Richards, a collection of papers aboutthe discourses of TESOL entitled ProfessionalEncounters in TESOL: Discourses of Teachers inTeaching. Her latest book, From Knowledge toExperience in ELT is co-authored with Julian Edgeand is part of the Oxford Handbooks for LanguageTeachers series.Dr Fiona Copland is Course Director for MScTESOL Programmes by distance learning at AstonUniversity, UK. She has extensive experience oflanguage teaching and language teacher educationin Nigeria, Hong Kong, Japan and the UK. Fiona hasan MA in Applied Linguistics and a PhD in Education.Her research interests include teaching English toyoung learners and feedback talk.Professor Anne Burns is Professor in LanguageEducation and Director of the Centre for LanguageEducation Research (CLERA) at Aston University,and Professor of TESOL at the University of NewSouth Wales. She is an Honorary Professor at theUniversity of Sydney. She is perhaps best knownfor her publications in action research (Burns, 1999,2005, 2010) and teacher education (Burns andRichards, 2009). Her forthcoming publicationsinclude Tips for Teaching Listening (Burns andRichards. Pearson), Teaching Speaking: A HolisticApproach (Goh and Burns, CUP) and The CambridgeGuide to Pedagogy and Practice (Richards andBurns, CUP).

ContentsAbstract . 21 Introduction . 32 Review of the literature . 42.1 Macro-level factors . 52.2 Micro-level factors . 52.2.1 Approaches to language teaching . 52.2.2 Recruitment and training . 62.2.3 Teachers’ level of English proficiency . 62.2.4 The classroom context . 72.2.5 Examinations and assessment . 72.2.6 Materials and resources . 72.2.7 Learners . 82.3 Summary. 83 Research design . 94 Main findings . 114.1 Profile of a YL teacher . 114.2 Policy/syllabus documents . 114.3 Major pedagogies . 124.4 Teachers’ roles, responsibilities, and challenges . 134.5 Solutions to pedagogical issues . 145 Recommendations . 16Recommendation 1 . 16Recommendation 2 . 16Recommendation 3 . 16Recommendation 4 . 17Recommendation 5 . 17References . 18Appendix – Survey results . 211 Contents

AbstractThis paper reports on the project Investigating GlobalPractices in Teaching English to Young Learners.Its main aims were to: discover what policy/syllabus documents informTEYL practices around the worldinvestigate and map the major pedagogiesthat teachers usebetter understand teachers’ perceptions of theirroles and responsibilities, including the challengesthey faceidentify how local solutions to pedagogicalissues can be effective and how these mayresonate globally.The project was conducted using both quantitativeand qualitative methods. Quantitative data wascollected through a survey that resulted in 4,696responses from 144 countries, with responsesemerging from all continents. Qualitative data wasobtained through five observational classroomcase studies of teaching practices in Colombia,Italy, Korea, Tanzania, and the UAE.The study uncovered a wide range of factorsconcerning the teaching of English to young learnersglobally from the perspective of teachers involvedin implementing these programmes. In particular, itshowed that many of these factors are commonlyexperienced by teachers across different countriesand contexts.2 AbstractFive recommendations are made:1. The pre-service and in-service training providedto teachers of young learners needs to beconsiderably strengthened.2. Greater opportunities need to be found for sharingideas and experiences amongst primary schoolteachers of English both nationally and internationally.3. For a large number of teachers, there is substantialneed for English language development.4. An expanded range of materials for teaching younglearners is needed.5. Educational policy developers should be providedwith advice, based on current research and goodclassroom practice, on effective curriculumdevelopment for young learners to enhancethe learning experience of children.

1IntroductionEnglish is being introduced to ever more and everyounger children and in many countries around theworld English is now compulsory in primary education(Nikolov, 2009a; Pinter, 2006). However, curricula andpractices are often being developed in an ad hoc waybecause there is little appropriate research to informfundamental policy decisions. As Enever and Moon(2009:5) note:‘ . . . we have yet to clarify the prioritiesfor formulating effective language policies,for designing appropriate programmes ofimplementation and for meeting the very realchallenge of ensuring that policy is effectivelyand sustainably implemented within the dailypractice of classrooms.’Moreover, knowledge and understanding ofteaching practices in the field of young learnersis, at best, sketchy. There are a number of booksthat bring together worthwhile studies of smallresearch projects, often led by local universityresearchers (see Moon and Nikolov, 2000; Nikolov,2009a; Rixon, 1999) but these studies often focuson how young learners acquire particular systems,such as vocabulary (for example: Orosz, 2009) orskills, such as reading (for example: Samo, 2009).Other books recommend best practice in teachingyoung learners in the light of available researchfindings, informing and guiding both teaching andteacher education (for example: Cameron, 2001;Pinter, 2006; Slattery and Willis, 2001). However,there are no studies, as far as we are aware, thatexamine how teachers around the world go abouttheir everyday practice of teaching English to younglearners, their attitudes to this teaching, and thechallenges they face. Nor is there any research whichprovides a detailed description, on a case-by-casebasis, of how expert teachers in local contexts ‘do’English language teaching, where this teaching isnot part of a programme of innovation and change(cf. Graddol, 2006).3 IntroductionThe overall aim of this project was, therefore, toinvestigate global practices in Teaching Englishto Young Learners (TEYL) aged 7 11 from macroand micro perspectives. The chief aims were to: discover what policy/syllabus documents informTEYL practices around the worldinvestigate and map the major pedagogies thatteachers usebetter understand teachers’ perceptions of theirroles and responsibilities, including the challengesthey faceidentify how local solutions to pedagogicalissues can be effective and how these mayresonate globally.This report first reviews some of the existing literatureon policy and practice in TEYL as this relates to theproject. We then describe the research design and thedata collected before summarising the major findings.Finally, we present our recommendations for futureaction to support teaching English to young learners.

2Review of the literatureThe widespread introduction of English in primaryschools has been described by Johnstone (2009:33)as ‘possibly the world’s biggest policy development ineducation’. Even in countries such as Poland, Hungaryand Croatia, where a choice of foreign languages isoffered at primary level, English is overwhelmingly thefirst choice (Enever and Moon, 2009; Nikolov, 2009b).There are a number of reasons for this trend:1. The widespread assumption that earlier languagelearning is better (Y. Hu, 2007; Nunan, 2003).2. The response to the ever-increasing demand forEnglish as a result of economic globalisation(Enever and Moon, 2009; Gimenez, 2009; Hu,Y., 2007). Such a demand leads to pressure ongovernments from international economic forcesto ensure there is an English-speaking workforce.3. The pressure from parents in the national contextwho want their children to benefit socially andeconomically from learning English (Brock-Utneand Holmarsdottir, 2004; Enever and Moon, 2009;Gimenez, 2009).The growth in teaching English to young learnershas not been universally endorsed, however.The assumed benefits of an early start are4 Review of the literaturecontroversial (see, for example, Nikolov and MihaljevićDjigunović, 2006; Pinter, 2006), especially in situationsof minimal input, rather than language immersion(Larson-Hall, 2008). There has also been widespreadcriticism of policies that are generally imposed ina top-down manner and often without sufficientpreparation (Enever and Moon, 2009; Gimenez, 2009;Y. Hu, 2007; Lee, 2009). As Gorsuch (2000) pointsout, national curriculum decisions and policies areessentially political and address curriculum content,but often fail to explain how such content should beimplemented (see also Nunan, 2003). In other words,the pace of change has outrun the planning requiredto ensure the change is successful.Previous studies have described the consequencesand outcomes of the early introduction of Englishinto primary schools, particularly in terms of thegap between policy and implementation (Ho, 2003;Martin and Abdullah, 2003; Pandian, 2003), both atmacro- and micro-level. Some of the issues seem tobe common across countries while others are morelocal. This review focuses on the policy and practiceissues most closely linked to the aims of the currentstudy (but see the chapters in Enever, Moon, andRaman, 2009; Ho and Wong, 2003a for details aboutindividual countries).