Teach My Children English: Why Parents Want English
Teaching for Their Children
Patrisius Istiarto Djiwandono
The paper describes parents'
reasons for sending their children to English language courses, their
expectations from the English Language instruction, and the disadvantages they
perceive in getting their children to learn English at their early ages. A
small-scale exploratory survey using questionnaires was conducted among 50
parents whose children learn English at a private course. The results indicate
that the majority of the parents are generally aware of the practical values of
providing English instruction for their children and hardly perceive any
disadvantages in this early English learning. Also, they expect English instruction
to enable their children to perform the four language skills. Implications for
the young learners' first language as well as the teaching of young learners
are then presented. These may offer teachers, parents, and other researchers
some important points to consider.
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Djiwandono,
P. I.
(2004, February). Teach my children English: Why parents want English
teaching for their children. Paper presented at the national conference on
Teaching English to Young Learners: Why and How, Bandung,
Indonesia.
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