• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.3557-3563
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• 2014

Korean National Level Kindergarten Curriculum does not include English education in regular class time. On the other hand, more than 90% kindergarteners are taught English. This study examined the Native English Teachers' (NETs') cultural aspects of their teaching at regular kindergartens in Korea. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with four NETs who were working at regular kindergartens in Korea, their partner Local English Teachers (LETs) and kindergarten principals. All interview data was transcribed and categorized based on the grounded theory method. The results showed that NETs are not required to be culturally prepared to teach in Korean kindergartens. Consequently, most of them do not consider the students' culture in their teaching activities. Moreover, Korean kindergartens, where research participants work, are not prepared well to invite NETs into their regular curriculum. These results will have significant implications on Korean kindergarten's English education practice.

• 한국생활과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.195-196
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• 2009

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.985-994
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• 2009

This research is exploratory in considering the unique socio-cultural context of South Korea, where the present government is responding to the demand for English language training. The study asked the question: What do mothers experience when sending their young children to a private English institute, so called English kindergarten, instead of a regular preschool? A qualitative approach was used to analyze the in-depth interviews with 19 mothers who sent their young child to an English kindergarten. Mothers stated that their young child needs to be a competent English speaker. The mothers expected that an English kindergarten would prepare their child better for the elementary school English curriculum than a regular preschool. The study revealed that English kindergartens symbolized the precedence and the privileges of the elite because of their high tuition fees, native-speaker teachers, and small class sizes. The mothers showed a sense of pride and vicarious satisfaction from sending their child to an English kindergarten. However, the mothers recognized that English kindergartens put more emphasis on cognitive learning instead of the social development of children. It was almost impossible for mothers to communicate with the native-speaker teachers about their child. The mothers seemed to overlook their child's struggle to adapt to an English Kindergarten. The findings of the study raise issues concerning the boom of teaching young children English in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.299-313
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• 2001

This study examines the current state of English education in private kindergartens in Korea. Among 1700 kindergarten teachers surveyed for this research, 680 replied that their institutions provided English lessons for children. Analyses of the data collected from these 680 teachers showed : 1) They started to teach English not because of educational considerations but because of pressure from children's parents or kindergarten principals; 2) Most of the English teachers were part-time instructors specially recruited for English lessons. Generally, English lessons were given two or three times a week, with one session lasting for about 20 minutes. A variety of teaching methods and materials were used for the lessons given to children aged three to five. Focus of the lessons was given to listening and speaking words and sentences; 3) Most of the teachers considered the scarcity of qualified English instructors as the most serious problem for providing English education in kindergartens, and they did not want to teach English themselves. They evaluated positively the performance and role of Korean part-time English instructors. The evaluations were generally poor as to native speakers serving as kindergarten English teachers.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.473-491
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• 2016

This study was aimed at researching the current condition of differentiated education on gifted infants and a demand for support in an educational institution for gifted infants. The survey was conducted on teachers and principals in infant education institutions including kindergartens, day care centers and other institutions(English kindergartens and playing school) in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon and total 309 questionnaires were collected. Result first, infant educational institutions like kindergartens, day care centers and others lacked infra for differentiated education for gifted infants. Especially in 'the experience of differentiated education' for gifted infants, the three institutions showed a lower level than the normal level. Second, the teacher's demand for differentiated education for gifted infants in educational institutions were remarkably lower than the required level in all three institutions. The study expects that it could be used as the basic standards to seek for the direction of realization of customized and differentiated education that meet the developmental characteristics and educational demands for gifted infants in regular infant educational institutions.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.81-101
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• 2009

This study analyzed a total of 37 studies about bi-lingulism and English education as a foreign language published in 8 academic journals in early childhood education or child development fields. Research topics, participants, methods, and variables in the studies were categorized and descriptively analyzed. The research findings which had been statistically investigated were also summarized. The most frequently studied research topics were children's development and English education program exposure, actual conditions of English education in preschool settings and effectiveness of specific English programs for preschool children. However, children's home characteristics were seldom included as research variables and no research investigated so called English preschools. Several studies reported that bi-lingual children may have different language development paths from mono-lingual children but they eventually have comparable language abilities to mono-lingual children. Also some studies reported that, when learning English as a foreign language in school settings, older children can handle more information regarding English than younger children, resulting in better outcomes of older children. Exposure to two languages in early childhood seems to contribute to young children's meta linguistic awareness but the long term effect of English education in early childhood should be further studied. Several English education programs for preschool settings were developed and the effectiveness were investigated. Even though most of them reported that their programs were effective to children's English ability or interests, the results should be carefully interpreted because their research designs and methods were not rigorous.

• 한국정보교육학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.01a
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• pp.343-346
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• 2010

최근 지능형 교육서비스로봇을 이용한 교육적 효과가 입증되면서, 유치원에 상용화가 시작되었으며, 2010년에는 초등학교 방과후 학교 영어수업을 위한 기술 개발과 필드 적용 연구가 진행되어 로봇보조학습, 즉 서비스로봇에 의한 r-Learning 패러다임의 본격적인 도래를 예고하고 있다. 이에 본 연구에서는 교육용 로봇의 개념과 종류를 정의하고, 관련 연구 동향을 살펴보았다.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.57-81
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine the balanced English approach program on five-year-old children's English reading and writing ability. For this study, two classes consisting of five-year-old children in HATBEAT kindergarten in D city were selected. One class was designated as the experimental group and the other as the control group. The balanced English approach program was performed on the experimental group but not on the control group. The balanced English approach program was carried out for 8 weeks. The experimental procedures were in the order of pre-test, the experimental treatment, and post-test. The result of the experiment was evaluated by comparing the pre-test and post-test results. Analysis of data was performed by ANCOVA. The result of the study are as follows. First, in the English reading ability, the experimental group was more enhanced than the control group. Also, for sub-factors of English reading such as alphabet and English word reading ability, the experimental group was more enhanced than the control group. However, in the English book reading ability as a sub- factor of the English reading, there was not much difference in the result between the experimental group and the control group. Second, in the English writing ability, the experimental group were more enhanced than the control group.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.409-417
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• 2019

Recently, English education of educational institutions is gradually invigorated as the importance of English education for preschooler is increasing. Role-play, in particular, is known as an effective way to learn English for children because it promotes children's interest in language and naturally encounters English-speaking culture. Therefore, in this paper, we tried to find out how to effectively use UCC in role-playing for English education for preschoolers. First of all, questionnaires for pre and post-test were conducted for preschoolers. The results are analyzed by SPSS to find out children's understanding of UCC, interest in English, interest in role-playing, and interest in acting. As a result of the analysis, most children knew UCC well and showed strong interest in watching and producing UCC. Also, the more interested in English and role-playing, the more they wanted to show more advanced English and acting through the feedback of the contents they produced. Therefore, even in preschool children's English education, the development of language and acting can be shown by producing UCC through role-playing under the teacher's control and receiving feedback on it. The results of this study are expected to be effectively used when planning English education through role-playing in daycare centers or kindergartens.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.235-241
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• 2017

The Effects of the Story Character Phonics on Preschoolers' Early Reading Abilities and Affective Domains The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the story character phonics on preschoolers' early reading abilities (phonemic awareness and phonics abilities) and their affective domains. 24 participants in the present study were seven years old, and they were divided into two different groups at S kindergarten in Chungnam. There were 12 preschoolers in the experimental group with the story character phonics, and 12 preschoolers in the control group learned English by the story phonics focusing on phonemic awareness and vocabulary for 6 weeks. The results were as follows: First, the story character phonics was more effective in improving the preschoolers' early reading abilities than using the story phonics. Secondly, the story character phonics had some positive effects on the preschoolers' affective domains. This study proved that practicing with the story character phonics is more effective for preschoolers to develop their early reading abilities of English and their affective domains.