The current state of early English education and its more desirable direction

조기 영어교육의 실태와 바람직한 방향 -우리나라 초등학교 영어교육을 중심으로-

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.