A research survey on the actual condition, and teachers and parents recognition of preschool early English education in Cheonan city

천안지역 유아교육기관에서의 조기영어교육에 대한 현황분석 및 교사, 학부모 인식도 조사

The purpose of this study is to investigate the actual conditions of preschool English education, and teachers' and parents' recognition of preschool early English education in Cheonan-city. Recently the importance of English education as an essential means for communication in the whole world is emphasized in our society. That atmosphere makes the elementary schools offer English as a subject in their curriculums, and also many preschool education institutes begin to teach English in their education courses. However before we begin to teach English as a subject in the preschool education, we need to survey the actual conditions of preschools and recognition of teachers and parents. The first part of this study is to survey the theoretical foundations of early English education; 1) the definition of early English education. 2) the situation of early foreign language education in foreign countries. 3) the relationship between the language acquisition and the cognitive development. The second part is to analyze the results of the Questionnaire which was distributed among 86 teachers and 103 parents in Cheonan-city preschools. As a conclusion, some suggestions will be given for the development of early English education in the near future.