UNDERGRADUATE PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TO VIETNAMESE YOUNG LEARNERS

Abstract

Teachers’ beliefs about teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to young learners may influence teaching effectiveness, and understanding beliefs of EFL teachers in a context like Vietnam is useful for EFL teacher educators. The current study, therefore, aims to investigate undergraduate preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching English to young learners. The study was conducted at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology with the participation of 133 undergraduate preservice teachers. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through the employment of the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews; for data analysis, descriptive statistics and content analysis were employed. The findings of the study revealed that most of the participants held common beliefs about young learners’ EFL learning, teaching methods and techniques, and themselves. The study highlights the importance of beliefs in EFL teaching and learning and provides meaningful contributions to undergraduate preservice teachers, teachers and teacher educators to enhance the quality of teaching EFL to young learners in Vietnam in particular, and in other EFL contexts in general.