subject since 1981, the 2001-2002 state policy gives English greater weighting in its 30-year education plan. In Singapore, the new English language curriculum
created in 2001 puts more emphasis on the multiple effects of language use. In Thailand, the National Education Act in 1997 appeals for language education to
advance towards a more learner-centred mode. In Vietnam, the Ministry of Education and Training obtained finance from US companies to produce a
program known as English for Vietnam. It was completed in March 2006 with educational animated TV series being broadcast nationwide.
Moon 2000 states that younger children tend to be influenced by their feelings for their teacher, the general learning atmosphere in the classroom, the
methods used and by their parents’ opinions. The seven to eight-year-old pupils may be too young to feel any need for English. Their attitude toward English is
more affected by whether they like the teacher, the way English lessons are taught, their parents’ views, and what their friends feel about English.
5. Teaching English to Children in Indonesia
Indonesia is a developing country that its society realizes the importance of English. It is very useful in some aspects such as business, politics, education
and media. Therefore, parents try some efforts to prepare their children to learn English as early as possible. One of them is by sending their children to join an
English course. Moreover, English is also taught at school. English becomes one of the some subjects taught at school starting from elementary to senior high
school. In fact, some kindergartens teach English to their students. For junior and
senior high school students it is very important to learn English since it determines whether they can pass to the next level of education or not.
English has a role as a foreign language in Indonesia. Mastering this language is a must since it is a global language and the government is keen on
encouraging the citizens to master it well. Brewster et al.2002:3 point out some reasons for starting to learn a foreign language several years earlier at age six or
nine instead of eleven or twelve. The first reason is that to increase the total number of years spent learning the language. Next, teachers should take account
of the methods and the pace of primary school teaching. Another reason is young children seem to have a greater facility for understanding and imitating. For those
reasons, it is important to learn English since early age. English at elementary school had been introduced since 1994. At that time,
the provision for that subject was as a local content subject. Some schools decided that English was a local content subject that had to be taught; therefore they hired
English teachers to teach their students. Some schools who can support the learning of English can conduct the
teaching and learning process well. On the other hand, Nury 2012:161 mentions the case is quite different for the children of the less privileged areas where access
to qualified teachers, appropriate materials and fun learning is almost impossible. These children have to be content with teachers with no English or child teaching
background who are hired because only them who are available. These will endanger the future of the child to the attitude in learning English.
