THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

FOR YLE IN PRIVATE LANGUAGE CENTERS IN HANOI

Tran My Linh; HANU PG43
Key words: young learners, YLE, language teaching, grammar teaching
Abstract
In the English classroom for young learners, there are several factors which have an impact
on the process of teaching and acquiring this language. In this research paper, I observed and
analyzed the subjects (young learners aged from 5 to 12) and the methods teachers have
currently been applying during the teaching process, to be more specifically, the abstract
taught here is English grammar.
Introduction
The main subjects are minors in Hanoi, especially those approached English as a foreign
language since their very early age, this research’s goal is to figure out the issues that students
are currently experiencing during their process of obtaining grammar structure, as well as the
methodology that teachers who work at private language centers have complimented during
their courses’ hours to get youngsters to get used to properly utilize grammar structures in
their writing tasks. While this topic is very promising, and considerable, the common
approach of teaching English are, unfortunately, not so up to standard with the demand and
ability of Vietnamese students. Utilizing this research, future further analysis should be
carried out in order to reveal further improvisation and improvement.
Review of relevant literature
1. Definitions
of key terms
Young children, minors belong to the age group ranged from five to ten, their process of
learning differs from that of more matured youngsters, and adults. They tend to be very
responsive, very eager to learn from anything around them, and very capable of
understanding not solely from what being explained but also from what they see, hear, touch
and interact with. However, they present limited period of attention, consequently, it is
something compulsory that instructors give adequate individual attention and activities to
help them engage in the lesson as much as possible. Moreover, this group of subjects is still
hindered by several abstract concepts such as grammar rules which are difficult to grasp.
English grammar can be somehow related to the mechanism which positions words within a
clause, and to the variety of those words under certain circumstances. Understanding
grammatical rules can be achieved when learners are able to skillfully tell how different
grammatical elements can be strung together to create a meaningful, and properly impactful
clause. With YLE, grammatical rules conveying can be deemed more difficult since their
knowhow acquisition process is wholly different from subjects belong to other age group.
There are several ways for teachers to exploit to introduce grammar skills such as showing
students grammar evidences and ask them to work out for themselves how the language is
constructed. Engaging activities is also a requirement in each grammar lesson.
At this early stage, young learners can acquire English grammar from basic to pre-
intermediate level. The topics could be listed as below:
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
•
•
The integration of vocabulary building is also an essential when teaching grammar to YLE.
Below is the thematic vocabulary list (Cambridge Assessment English, 2018):
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •

2. Findings of
relevant study on the factors affecting teaching and learning English grammar

2
a. Learners’
English language proficiency
From the very start of a child’s language skills acquiring journey, they start to be exposed to
basics of English. The common categories ranks of skillfulness are Pre A1, A1 and A2. At
this stage, they are entirely encouraged to practice written and spoken English every day and
to gain confidence and fluency in English.
English grammatical study in this stage does not belong to the spotlight as much as English
colloquial communication. Therefore, our main subjects are preferably encouraged to learn
how to tell a story, or to describe phenomena using merely simple grammatical structures, for
example utilization of singular/plural nouns, making of simple clauses with a subject and a
verb.
b. The way teachers teach English grammar
Teaching grammar explicitly requires the learner to think about language abstractly.
Children learn best by playing, singing, and using language in real situations and for fun, not
by explanation. At this age, it is considered to be difficult for young learners if they learn
English grammar rules in the traditional way such as grammar translation.
A grammar lesson should include as many related activities as possible to engage students in
the lesson and have scaffold meaning in order to facilitate students through stages.
However, teachers who work at educational institutions in Vietnam are not always trained
with enough teaching skills, also affected by the traditional way when they were at school, so
that’s can be how they bring traditional methods into classrooms when teaching grammar,
which may lead to a gap in learning English grammar and other communicative skills. And
sometimes teachers still have to follow the traditional way like giving students grammar
structure and advise them to follow because games and activities do not always work.
c. Social and family factors
One big issue is the current testing system in Vietnam, which are grammar-dominated exams.
Vietnamese schools have focused on English grammar and reading comprehension, so exams
have had to be set this way.
On the one hand, parents always want their children to pass all the exams at school with high
scores, and most of those tests’ format focus on grammar, but just a little on communicative
English. Even though some children are already capable of communicating effectively in
English, their English scores at school are not perfectly achieved. Thus, parents consider their

3
English is not that good and they demand English centers to teach their children more
grammar and improve their scores at school. The knowledge acquired, if not being used in an
effective way, will be only useful for these examinations but not for flexible daily
communication in English.
Furthermore, not every parent could spend time and have enough teaching skills to support
their children in learning at home, whereas it’s a compulsory condition if students want to
make further progress in learning English.
Those studies can provide an overall view of teaching grammar for young learners and also
give the theory/methodology in integrating grammar and writing. Furthermore, there are
some examples from those countries where English is being studied as a foreign language,
which are the same as Vietnam, the object country in this study.
d. Target of private language institutions
While the aim of teachers who work at those language institutions is to provide fully
instruction of how to use English grammar correctly in all English language skills, some
businesses focus on sales and marketing to approach more customers along with maintain low
financial budget but forget to improve the quality of facilities or even the qualifications of
teachers.
Some teachers did not receive enough training or major in language teaching, therefore, they
are not qualified to properly give learners easy-to-understand grammatical structure and
instructions to apply correctly in their studies.
Conclusion
There has been not many studies about young learners being taught grammar in some private
English centers in Hanoi nowadays. The methodology still follows the tradition and might not
resolve the existing problems of young learners studying grammar. Apparently, the
methodology has been updating continuously (for example with technology) since teachers
are being trained more thoroughly and the demand for young leaners taking English exams
(which requires writing using correct grammar) is increasing so this study focuses on those
points. The topic is very promising, and considerable, the common approach of teaching
English are, unfortunately, not so up to standard with the demand and ability of Vietnamese
students. Utilizing this research, future further analysis should be carried out in order to
reveal further improvisation and improvement.

4
References:
The Practice of English Language Teaching, Jeremy Harmer, 2015.
https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/helping-your-child/how-young-children-learn-
english-another-language)
https://opencourses.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/ENL4/Instructional
%20Package/PDF/ELT_methods_Dendrinos_teyl_gramar.pdf
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/editorrachael/how-teach-grammar)
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED527862.pdf)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/tesq.148)
https://tuoitrenews.vn/education/8231/english-teaching-in-vietnam-teacher-reeducation