THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE TEACHING OF

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TO YOUNG LEARNERS IN

PRIVATE LANGUAGE CENTERS IN HANOI
Tran My Linh; HANU PG43
TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................3
Findings of relevant studies on the factors affecting teaching and learning English grammar
.....................................................................................................................................5
METHOD .......................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION..............................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................10

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ABSTRACT
In the English classroom for young learners, several factors 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 specific, the abstract taught here is English
grammar.
Keywords: young learners, YLE, language teaching, grammar teaching, grammar

INTRODUCTION
There are several research papers done by educational experts about teaching grammar to
young learners. They highlight the definition of grammar, the concept of teaching grammar,
ways of teaching grammar and some techniques which have been used in teaching young
learners. However, they haven’t indicated the specific factors affecting the grammar teaching
in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, in which the demand for learning English is increasing day
by day along with the expectation from educators of the society. For that reason, this research
is to figure out those factors which are currently occurring at a small scope - private language
centers in Hanoi. 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 is, unfortunately, not so up to standard with the
demand and ability of Vietnamese students. Utilizing this research, future further analysis
should be carried out to reveal further improvisation and improvement.
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 a limited period of attention, consequently, it is
something compulsory that instructors give adequate individual attention and activities to

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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 can 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 know-how
acquisition process is wholly different from subjects belonging to other age groups. There are
several ways for teachers to exploit to introduce grammar skills such as showing students
grammar evidence and ask them to work out for themselves how the language is constructed.
Engaging activities are 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:

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The integration of vocabulary building is also essential when teaching grammar to YLE.
Below is the thematic vocabulary list (Cambridge Assessment English, 2018):

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 • •
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The primary aim of this study is to figure out different aspects (learners, teachers, and
society) and the research question is addressed: “What are the factors affecting the teaching
of grammar to young learners in private language centers in Hanoi?”

Findings of relevant studies on the factors affecting teaching and learning English
grammar

a. Learners’ English language proficiency

From the very start of a child’s language skills acquiring journey, they start to be exposed to
the 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 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
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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 is 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 focuses 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
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
efficiently, 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 is the same as Vietnam, the object country in this study.

d. The target of private language institutions

While the aim of teachers who work at those language institutions is to provide full
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.

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METHOD
Research design
This study was designed to explore the factors affecting teaching grammar in young learners’
English classes.
Participants
Ten English teachers from Solid English Center (a private language center in Hanoi)
voluntarily participated in the study. The participants aged from 22 to 35 and have at least
one-year experience in teaching English.
The research instrument
The researcher prepared a questionnaire, which was composed of ten questions. The items in
the questionnaire were about the facts and teachers’ experience when teaching primary
classes at the center. Some questions can be answered through a scale, namely ‘strongly
disagree’, ‘disagree’, ‘undecided’, ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’.
Data analyses
The results of the questionnaire were submitted to an online spreadsheet, through which the
researcher can conclude.

RESULTS
The results obtained from the analysis of data are shown in these tables.
Table 1
Students’ learning ability in English grammar class

# Statement Agree Disagree

My students soon get distracted and bored during
1 50% 50%
English grammar lessons.
My students don’t learn much grammar at their
2 33.33% 63.33%
primary school.
My students find it difficult to use the correct
3 100% 0%
grammatical structure in speaking.
My students can’t remember and understand the
4 difficult aspects of grammar (e.g. conditionals or 100% 0%
passive forms)

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The results of these questions show that young learners have most difficulties in English
grammar classroom. Apart from learning grammar at their primary school, (which the class
size is up to 40 students), they also have to learn grammar at private English centers (with a
maximum of 15 students per class). Most of them get distracted soon in grammar lessons and
cannot understand the grammatical definition of complicated aspects; however, these aspects
are sometimes being taught in the center’s programs.

Table 2
Teachers’ ways of teaching English grammar

# Statement Agree Disagree

I find it difficult to teach grammar to students at
1 100% 0%
the primary level.
I give examples to my students before teaching
2 100% 0%
them a new definition of grammar.
I instruct my students by giving them
3 50% 50%
grammatical rules.
I usually give my students some kinds of
exercises such as fill-in-the-gaps or multiple-
4 50% 50%
choice to practice using correct grammatical
structure.
There are not so many games for students in
5 0% 100%
which I can apply the grammatical structure.
I can’t measure my students’ knowledge of
6 0% 100%
grammar when I use games in the classroom.

The results show that there have been some applications of new ways of teaching grammar in
nowadays lesson, which could motivate students more and help them engage in the lesson. In
the past, there was no application of ICT in the classroom; however, teachers now are being
trained and have found different methods to increase students’ interest in the lesson.
Grammar is being taught not only in the way of translation or grammatical rules but also is
applied in different kinds of exercises.

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The primary aim of this study is to figure out the factors affecting the grammar teaching to
young learners in private language centers in Hanoi. Although this paper is carried out on a
small scale, there have 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. 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 gradually. However, young
learners are a special subject with different learning ability features, so there should be more
ideas in how the grammar lessons should be instructed by the teachers interestingly and
effectively. With the advantage of teaching at private English centers, teachers can give
constructive feedback and adjust the lessons using their creativity and methodology.
Moreover, the administrator of these institutions should be aware of maintaining the quality
of teaching instead of just focusing on satisfying parents’ demands and their benefits. After
this study, the researcher could get a vision of what is currently affecting the approaches of
teachers to young learners, therefore give an overall suggestion to improve young learners’
English language competence.

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REFERENCES
The Practice of English Language Teaching, Jeremy Harmer, 2015.
Pham, P. K. M. (2015). Changes in teaching grammar in the world and in `Vietnam.
Gulin Yolageldili, Arda Arikan (2011). Effectiveness of Using Games in Teaching Grammar
to Young Learners.
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

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