• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1-29
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to present a qualitative case study on teaching English as an international language in Korean context. The researcher investigated the implementation process of the new elementary English program from the government to local schools to find out to what extent the symbolic value of English as an international language affect the implementation process of the elementary English program. The research result showed that the elementary teachers shared the different views of the status of English from those of government and the parents, and their differing perception of the role of English constantly affected their implementation efforts. The research findings also revealed that the public's concern of English dominance in Korean educational system resulted in the government's 'comprised curriculum' by lowering the learning goals of the English program. The findings also indicated that the introduction of the elementary English program accelerated English dominance in both teacher and student culture. The question of how to resolve the conflict between acquiring English proficiency and its negative influence on Korean culture remains a complex issue in implementing the new elementary English program.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.4
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• pp.131-178
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• 1998

English teaching in the elementary school of Korea had been put into practice as an extracurricular activity from 1982 till 1996. But a TEFL program as a regular course in the elementary school of Korea has been practiced since 1997, according to the language policy to establish early English education in all the elementary schools of Korea. The purpose of this study is to identify the current state of English teaching in the elementary school of Korea, to investigate its problems and to suggest some remedies for its improvement. For this purpose this study includes the analysis and result of the survey. The survey result points out that English teaching in the elementary school of Korea is not satisfactory and has some problems in many fields. In this connection the present study suggests some remedies for the improvement of English teaching in the elementary school of Korea.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.395-411
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the elementary English conversation instructors' perception on their professionalism and the needs of teacher training program. The survey data were attained from 136 elementary English conversation instructors. Descriptive statistics were employed to discuss the result of the survey response. The results of this study revealed that the elementary English conversation instructors perceived the need of in-service training program for their professionalism improvement, especially in teaching techniques for four language skills. The result also revealed that the instructors need to be more equipped with the knowledge of elementary learners' developmental psychology and L2 learning process. The study concludes with several suggestions for elementary English conversation instructors' improvement of teaching professionalism and in-service training program.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.153-178
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• 2004

The purpose of the present study is to develop several types of English teaching/learning models in view of cross-curricular approach in Korean elementary school. Brewster(1992)' model is suitable for younger children as well as the 1st or 2nd graders. For 3rd or 4th graders, Halliwel1(1997)' model seems more proper type in Korean EFL situation. There has been studying for cross-curricular approach in elementary English education. Many studies has recently focused the characteristics of elementary students by cognitive and psychological perspectives. Among them, Park(1996)'s research talks about the elementary school students. Han(1996)'s research based on the notion of applied to other subjects. Kim(1999)'s also emphasized the importance of linking other subjects. Kim(2003) argued the need of integrating English with other subjects. The elementary education as the National Common Basic Curriculum(NCBC) has the essence of cross-curricular approach, so the English education will be linked with other subject matters more and more, not just as for Communicative function based English education but as both content and function based subject matter.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.113-137
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• 2001

English has been taught as a compulsory subject at elementary schools since 1997 starting with third graders, to sixth graders. We have seen active research on teaching methods for elementary English, but little has been done from the learners' perspective. It is very proper time for English educators to review what the elementary students think about their English classes. The purpose of the present study is as following. First, we tried to find out how the students' attitude toward and interest in English have changed over the four-year English education. Second we attempted to suggest the ways to promote the students' interests, and to increase understanding and participation in English classes. We also suggest that curriculum developers need to consider the students' lower interests and understanding in English classes as they move to higher grades, and that classroom teachers need to have a better understanding of what their students do and feel in the English classes.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.269-289
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• 2010

The present study reports on a study of the development of customized intensive in-service English teachers training programs (IIETTP) reflecting on the demands of elementary/secondary school English teachers. For the purpose of study, a survey was conducted with 1,033 English teachers at elementary/secondary schools across the country. The results showed by and large no significant differences by school level, albeit some slight differences were revealed such as in training times, training methods, the percentages of teaching English in English (TEE), and other things. Since the two IIETTP models are presented as basic formats, they can be modified and applied according to the contexts of schools and the demands of trainees.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.127-142
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• 2004

This paper examines the relationship between children's English proficiency in grade three and English learning environment and experiences before entering elementary school. In English learning environment and experiences, three influences consisting of children, home environment, and environmental influences of English learning are used to find out which influences contributed to children's English proficiency in grade three of elementary school. The result of this study shows that children with high interest in English have higher proficiency in all language skills reading, writing, listening, and speaking than that of children with low interests. For parents' influences, parents' high interests toward their children's English leaning and high monthly income result in children's high English proficiency. For English environmental influences, children who start at the early age and continue studying English have higher English proficiency.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.3
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• pp.141-183
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• 1997

This paper aims to find out the current state of early English education in the world(including Korea) and to suggest its more desirable direction, with special reference to TEFL in elementary schools of Korea. In fact English teaching in elementary schools of Korea has been put into practice as an extracurricular activity since 1982. But in 1995 the Ministry of Education proclaimed a policy to establish a TEFL program as the regular course in elementary schools of Korea since 1997. In this connection, the writer surveyed several kinds of theories about early English education to verify the necessity and validity of Korea's elementary school English education. The logical result from these theories is that younger children are better equipped to learn foreign languages with efficiency than older children or adults. However, as most studies are based on logical inferences rather than on direct observation or experimental evidence, we are not sure that those theories are right. In this view, the writer put stress on the preparation of educational environments to establish a more desirable direction of early English education in Korea, since Korea's elementary school English education will be practiced under EFL environment, not ESL environment. The writer also pointed out some problems of educational finances, the curriculum development process and its content, teaching materials(textbooks and tapes), English teachers, teaching methods, evaluation, educational facilities. This paper concludes that we have to try to solve these problems to succeed in a TEFL program in elementary schools of Korea and suggests several things for a more desirable direction of Korea's elementary school English education.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.3
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• pp.203-229
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• 1997

This paper is to examine a desirable and promising approach to an effective English teaching in elementary schools. Teachers' understanding English curriculum, teaching methodology, language skills-listening and speaking, and their testing of spoken communication is necessary for students' better learning in their English classes. Thus detailed explanations of English curriculum are presented, and background knowledge of major traditional teaching methods as well as recent trends is discussed. Especially, for the purpose of developing students' English communicative proficiency. classroom teaching and testing techniques of listening and speaking are also discussed with examples.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.261-265
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to improve English communicative competence of elementary school students through an acoustic study For this purpose, this study investigates various postlexical phenomena which can be applied to utterence contents in elementary school English book and analyzes the application of postlexical phenomena through the spectrogram when native speakers and elementary school students speak English. The speech materials were seven sentences which contained various postlexical phenomena. This leads to the conclusion that knowing and pronouncing postlexical phenomena of English is needed for improving English communicative competence successfully.