A home-based intervention towards preschoolers’ EFL sentence development

Abstract

Research has shown that the initial few years of children’s lives are the best times for language to develop at a rapid pace, the first language (L1) or a foreign language (FL) may be acquired these times. Researches on preschoolers FL acquisition with home-based intervention (HBI) have not been studied extensively under the L1 environment. This study aims to examine the results of HBI on the development of the acquisition of Indonesian preschoolers’ English as a Foreign Language (EFL) sentences. This research is a case study with naturalistic observation design, where data were obtained from logbooks and interview. The research subjects were 2 preschoolers about 36 months. The study’s duration was 24 months from the 13th until the 36th month with HBI, namely parents-based and authentic/semi authentic-media intervention. The data were the children’s English sentences taken at 24th to 36th months at their own homes. The Owens’ acquisition of sentence forms measured the English sentences’ development of in the respondents’ conversation and self-narration. This research found that at about 36th month, these Indonesian preschoolers were able to communicate in English in various sentences such as declarative, negative, interrogative, imperative, embedded and conjoining.
 HIGHLIGHTS:
 
 Simultaneous foreign language learning and first language acquisition for children is tangible advantage.
 Authentic input and active interaction act as the language environment substitute in foreign language learning.
 Intensive learning makes preschoolers speak a foreign language earlier.

Indonesian Children English Development through Home And School Learning

“…By living in Indonesia and with Indonesian families, these two children experienced to obtain EFL together with Indonesian as their first language. So that their learning and/or acquiring EFL was actually an intervention on their L1 acquisition (Ratnadewi & Wijaya, 2021), and it turns out that both of them got good gains in English as a Foreign Language. The achievements of these children can be illustrated in Figure 1 Figure 1 describes the MLU achievements of the two research subjects on Data 1 and 2.…”

“…Parents' own EFL teaching at home grows to be an alternative, because their involvement in children's English learning may foster engagement, motivation and self-efficacy (Sumanti & Muljani, 2021). Yet, this is quite a challenge because even though this is an informal home learning, a well-planned, consistent program and parents' good command of English needs to be considered (Ratnadewi & Wijaya, 2021).…”

“…A research by Helton (Helton et al, 2018) found that home routine activities have a positive psychological impact on children and give a good impact on English mastery (Susanty et al, 2021) beside that home activity like watching animated films to introduce EFL has succeeded in making them able to speak English spontaneously (Scheffler, 2015). Home support like an open parenting style has a positive impact on children's English performance (Butler & Le, 2017) and routine activities at home that is programmed, directed and consistent is an effective input and interaction for non-English speaker children in a non-English speaking country (Ratnadewi & Wijaya, 2021).…”