This study explores young learners’ intelligibility of English vocabulary for young learners in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context using Digital Books vs Printed Books which focus on ...listening and pronunciation skills. The intelligibility was measured from listening tests. The research is an experimental study with a pretest–posttest control group design. Sixty-one out of 156 elementary level from grade 4th were taken randomly thirty students belonged to the control group while another thirty belonged to the experimental group. This study applied the Mann-Whitney Test. The result showed that young learners with digital books outperformed listening and pronunciation for young learners in the EFL context. In short, digital books with listening and pronunciation are very beneficial for young learners in acquiring EFL vocabulary.
English has become the most commonly spoken language in the modern era. English should be taught in every primary school because it is widely used. The most important skill to master when studying ...the English language is vocabulary. Hence, before learning any language skill, such as reading, writing, or listening, students must first learn vocabulary. Flashcards are a visually appealing medium that can help students understand vocabulary. This study aimed to improve the vocabulary of sixth-grade pupils at an elementary school in Lam Awee, Aceh Besar, using flashcards. The sample was taken from the sixth grade which consisted of 6 students. The data was collected using a vocabulary matching test consisting of questions covering parts of body, family, color, and fruit. The data were analyzed by testing the hypothesis at the significance level of 0.05. The results showed that the student vocabulary score improved significantly after learning the language using flashcards. Therefore, it is recommended for teachers to use flashcards to provide a basic vocabulary to beginners because it helps boost students’ motivation to learn new English vocabulary.
English teachers in rural schools face many challenges. The difficulties encountered in English learning in rural schools are related to the condition of the students, the environment, and the ...English teacher's competence. This study aims to explore the challenge that arises in English language learning in rural schools. This study used a qualitative method design with four English teachers from four different schools as respondents. The results of this study show that there are still many obstacles encountered in teaching English to young learners in rural schools. English language learning for young learners in rural areas needs to be improved for several reasons. Including low student interest in English lessons, lack of support for English learning, such as support from parents and the surrounding environment, and the quality of English teachers, who are considered low.
The implementation of L2-medium education, exemplified by Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), is becoming increasingly popular in primary schools (García Mayo, 2021). While previous ...research highlights CLIL's positive impact on linguistic competence (Jiménez-Catalán & Ruiz de Zarobe, 2009), differences in linguistic achievement are often associated with varying exposure hours (Pladevall-Ballester & Vallbona, 2016). Despite CLIL's growing popularity, studies examining linguistic achievement in varying-intensity CLIL programs remain scant. We address this gap by comparing low and high-intensity CLIL programs, alongside a standard English as a foreign language (EFL) program in primary schools. Focused on 11-year-olds' receptive skills, our results show that high-intensity programs significantly enhance proficiency in listening and reading when compared to their lower-intensity counterparts. Distinctions between low-intensity and EFL programs are non-significant. These findings underscore the critical role of the intensity of exposure in shaping the effectiveness of CLIL programs and contribute insights for refining CLIL program design guidelines.
•High L2 writing performance on integrated skills and email task.•Grade 7 students do better on Listen-Write and Email tasks than Grade 6 students.•Significant effect of cognitive factors is found ...only for academic editing task.•Meaningful but not significant effect for Grade 7 students on the Listen-Write task.•Younger learners with high WM showed more consistent performance across tasks.
This study investigated the role of working memory (WM) in the second language (L2) writing performance of young English language learners. It also examined how L2 writing achievement relates to task type and grade level and whether the effect of cognitive abilities varies across different task types and grade level. The participants were 94 young learners (Grades 6 and 7) in Hungary, who performed four writing task types as part of the TOEFL® Junior™ Comprehensive test-battery and completed cognitive tests that assessed their WM functions. Participants scored high on the email writing and integrated Listen-Write tasks. Irrespective of WM functions, on average learners in Grade 7 outperformed those in Grade 6 on the Listen-Write task and the Email task. Students gained lower scores on the non-academic version of an editing task than on most other types of tasks. WM functions had no significant relationship with L2 writing scores, except for the academic editing task. In Grade 7, the effect of WM was not significant on the integrated Listen-Write task, but it resulted in the change of expected score. Learners with high working memory in Grade 6 showed somewhat more consistent performance across tasks than did learners with low working memory.
Studies investigating L2 English receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge in young learners have shown that English can be picked up through exposure outside the classroom. In this study I ...looked into lexical characteristics of young learners’ writing at the start of formal English lessons in the first year of secondary school (n = 3168). The texts were given a holistic score and several lexical measures were calculated. The results showed large individual differences between learners’ writing. Regression analysis was used to investigate which lexical characteristics predicted proficiency scores. The final model explained 50% of the variance. Similar to what was found in previous research investigating young L2 English learners’ writing I found that a number of broad predictors impacted the proficiency score. These were lexical diversity, word count, total number of spelling errors and percentage of English words used. Additionally, four fine-grained variables predicted the proficiency score: word frequency, trigram frequency, age of acquisition and imageability. The results show the added value of investigating a wide range of variables to shed light on the lexical factors that might impact writing scores, even in beginner and pre-intermediate level L2 writing.
The study was aimed to investigate the English teachers’ perception of the effectiveness of using code-switching to the EFL young learner at SD Lab Undiksha Singaraja, Bali and to find out the ...strategy used by the teachers in using code-switching to teach the EFL young learners. The study used mixed method design with 5 English teachers of SD Lab Undiksha as the participant. A questionnaire with a total of 18 items was distributed and an interview was conducted to collect the data related to the teachers’ perception, which covered the teachers’ perception related to the teachers’ persona, subject access, classroom management, and interpersonal relations. Then, to answer the second research question related to the strategy of code-switching used by the teachers, an interview was conducted. The result showed that there were 50% teachers had positive perception in relation to teachers’ persona, 70% teachers had positive perception in relation to subject access, 84% teachers had positive perception in relation to classroom management, and 80% teachers had positive perception in relation to interpersonal relations. Relating to the strategy, the results revealed that the teachers usually did code-switching whenever they introduced or say English vocabulary that were considered new or difficult for the students. It was done by either inserting the English or Bahasa Indonesia words in between their utterance. This indicated that the perception towards code-switching in teaching English was perceived positively and was implemented in order to ease the students in understanding the target language.
Didi Sukyadi is a Professor at the English Language Education Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia. His research interests include ...linguistics, applied linguistics, and language teaching.
This research aims to investigate the effect of teaching English vocabulary to young learners via Augmented Reality learning media. The subject of this research was 12 students of grade 1 elementary ...school. Due to strict health protocols during COVID-19 outbreak, the testing phase was done in students' respective homes accompanied by their parents using cell phones. Vocabulary illustrated in 30 three-dimensional objects and their written form were generated through cell phone’s scanning. A quiz consisted of 54 multiple choice questions was provided after the interactive learning experience. Both the vocabulary and quiz were refer to Thematic English Exploration for Grade 1 book. The results showed that learning vocabulary using AR application was able to increase the mean evaluation score by 0.77%. This application is effective in helping students improve their English language skills as approved by 76% of parents. The AR application was also approved by 59% of parents that it was easy to use. The AR application is proven to be convenience for students to learn English vocabulary interactively and feasible to be used as learning media.
The popularity of virtual-learning platforms as an alternative for instructional practices during the pandemic is rocketing yet students’ perceptions to the implementation are not optimally gauged ...especially to young learners. This study explores the students’ perception towards learning English using two popular virtual platforms during Covid-19 pandemic. This is a case study involving 30 students in their third-year study at a private primary-school primary school in Tangerang City, Banten. Interviewing and observing all students respectively were conducted to obtain the data needed. Using descriptive analysis, it was found that the students showed negative perceptions towards the online-based learning process. Not only the media but also the whole learning process was negatively impacted. This is a voice that highlights the issue of recent education is facing. Further studies are therefore suggested to delve into effective and feasible solutions to eradicate the negative perception because the best time to return to classroom-situated instructions remains arguable for no-exact time
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