A home-based intervention towards preschoolers’ EFL sentence development: A case study

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.
Keywords: home-based intervention; preschoolers; EFL; sentences; development