Teachers' Understanding of EYL Principles and Their Ability To Apply the Principles in Teaching Practices:

A qualitative study at elementary schools in Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

The study reported here concerned EYL teachers’ understanding of EYL teaching and learning principles and their ability to apply those principles in classroom practices. Closely related to teachers’ understanding and ability, methods and techniques of teaching were elaborated. The reseacher involved participants from state Elementary Schools. Teachers’ understanding of EYL principles, teachers’ ability in applying those principles, and methods and techniques of teaching were the three main questions addressed in this study. The data were collected through class observations, interviews, questionnaires, and field notes. Analysis on corpus data revealed that (1) the participants posed various degrees of understanding of EYL principles and ability in applying the principles; some of which shared by all participants, some by a number of participants, and some by none. (2), The findings also discovered that educational background and the length of teaching experience did not say much to make a participant’s performance better than the others’, but professional development. Those who actively developed themselves professionally performed better than those who did not. The study recomends that all aspects relatable to EYL instruction provides rooms for EYL teachers’ professional development. EYL instruction calls for careful anticipation and execution, otherwise it may spoil the innitially intended objective of early English instruction in elementary school.