Teachers Perception towards Practices in Teaching English as a Second Language

Research Proposal-Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction

There seems to be existence of strong relationship between practices used in teaching English as a second language to primary learners with students achievements. There also researches that investigates the problem and the practice of English language teaching and learning in Malaysia. The aim of the paper is to identify the factors that contribute to low or limited English literacy achievement among Malaysian learners and identify the best practice that can be implemented to improve primary students achievement.

There are some general points of good practice that helpful in almost all situations when teachers are teaching English as a second language. Some suggest teachers need to plan ahead, ask for and welcoming feedback, start and finish on time, respect students and maintain a sense of humour. There are also suggestions about the use of teaching aids, pictures, realia and of course ICT might help to enhance students interest in learning English. Using teaching aids can be

considered a good technique to deal with language teaching, as it involves real life factors into classroom environment. Teaching aids, including visual aids, audio aids

and audio-visual aids (To, H. Nguyen, TM. Nguyen, HM. Nguyen, & Luong, 2009) have a real and important place in the process of teaching and learning English. Some also suggest teachers should treat English learners with respect, not judgement, and try to build personal relationships with students, their families and communities which will allow a door of trusts. Then, teachers can use the information to develop lessons and activities.

Meyer, 2000, suggested that, teachers can use strategies based on social interactionist theory, such as that Vygotsky, to create classroom conditions that foster learning by modelling, scaffolding and helping students to construct understanding, with the eventual goal of becoming independent thinkers and problem solvers.

1.2 Background of the Study As our students are not English native speakers, they are facing a lot of problems in understanding and enjoy English lessons. Because of lack of vocabulary and low proficiency level there are facing challenges to adapt each English lesson in classroom and this will affect their confidence level. But, we believe that appropriate approaches or methods practised by teachers would help to solve the problems. So, this study will focus on teachers perceptions toward practices in teaching English for primary students. From the response we can identify the best practice and suggest it to other teachers.

1.3 Statement of the Problem The condition which happens in class is the students feel afraid of English as one of their subject. It is because they think that English is too difficult to learn. In English classroom, there are a lot of approaches practised by teachers to help students to understand the lessons. Teachers need to consider appropriate activities and at this instance, we may ask what are the best methods and practices to teach English to primary students. Most common practices used in teaching English shared among the teachers. Through this study, we will investigate what are teachers perceptions about practices that they use in teaching English. Are they happy with their practises? How do they measure either the practices are effective or less effective?

1.4 Purposes and Objectives of the Study The main purpose of this study is to investigate and examine teachers perception towards practices used in teaching English for primary students. Specifically, the objective of this study is to find the best practices that can be used in teaching English to primary students and divided as follows: i.) To determine how far the practices used might help to enhance pupils interest and skills in learning English; ii.) To verify the relationship between the most preferred skill practices in teaching English classroom and students achievement; iii.) To identify the best practices in teaching English as a second language.

1.5 Research questions The fundamental questions addressed in this study are: i.) What are the teachers perceptions towards their practices in teaching English in primary classroom? ii.) What are the students attitudes towards methodology or approaches used by teachers in English class? iii.) What are the techniques or approaches used by the teachers in English primary classroom? iv.) What is (are) the best practice(s) that can enhance students skills and interest in learning English?

1.6 Significance of the Study As far as all these questioning are concerned, the study look into the matters and hope that the findings of it; i.) Enable the teachers to choose the best and effective practices in teaching language as a second language. ii.) Help the teachers to improve their approaches in teaching English to primary students. iii.) Enable school administrators to prepare a complete resource centre with suitable material in order to give choices to teachers in using varieties of approaches in teaching English for primary students.

iv.)

Enable the school administrators to equip the teachers with relevant knowledge and skills.

1.7 Scope and Limitations This research involves English teachers from various schools in Shah Alam and Subang Jaya who are required to answer survey questions (questionnaires) regarding their perception towards practices they used in teaching English. There are several limitations to this research. These include: a.) Sampling and location This study will be conducted in Shah Alam and Subang Jaya. Most of the students have quite good English background. The schools are located in rural area, so the samples are not representing teachers from rural are. So that, we cannot see the best approaches or methods used in schools in rural area.

b.) Skills focused This study will provide results for listening and speaking only.

c.) Respondents Respondents are English teachers from Shah Alam and Subang Jaya area only. The perceptions are limit to the importance of prior knowledge and the teachers practices in English classroom.

1.8 Definition of Terms Perception refers to how we perceive things. Perceptions vary from person to person. Different people perceive different things about the same situation. But more than that, we assign different meanings to what we perceive. And the meanings might change for a certain person. One might change one's perspective or simply make things mean something else. Practices refer to methods used by teachers in teaching and learning session. There are many different practices could be implemented in teaching English as a second language and it based on the teachers skills and knowledge, as well as students ability and proficiency.