• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.79-92
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• 2017

This study analyzed the TV documentary titled on early childhood English education through narrative structure analysis (Chatman, 2003). It performed syntagmatic analysis to clarify the story structure with a focus on the development of events, and paradigmatic analysis to understand the semantic structure hidden in the text by binary opposition analysis. The documentary was constructed in the frame of 'balance-confusion-rebalance', and it was explicitly delivered that the English immersion education prohibited in the private elementary schools has stimulated the market of private English education. However, the government's and students' voices were missing, and the group of parents, private elementary school officials, and people involved in private English institutes played as main agents to lead the discourse of English immersion and early childhood English education in the documentary.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.37-62
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to develop an appropriate scale for evaluating early years children's English textbooks and to confirm the validity and reliability for the scale thus developed. The scale was administered to 563 Korean early childhood English teachers. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) of the 24 item scale demonstrated Cronbach' ${\alpha}$ = .94 for internal consistency of the total items. Confimatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported a four-factor structure. Cross-Validation for the retest accepted the four-factors. Those four factors were as follows; Contents & Organization as factor 1, Illustrations & Designs as factor 2, Materials & Topics, as factor 3 and Objectives as factor 4. The author suggests that these afore mentioned factors will prove to be most useful for evaluating the children's English textbooks which are apparently published in an often quite indiscriminant manner.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2014.01a
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• pp.193-197
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• 2014

본고는 광주광역시 남구의 어린이집에 자녀를 보내고 있는 학부모들을 대상으로 초등학교 취학 전 아동의 조기영어교육에 대한 부모의 인식과 실태를 통해 바람직하고 효과적인 조기영어교육을 마련하기 위한 기초적인 자료를 얻는데 목적을 두고 첫째, 광주광역시 남구지역의 조기영어교육에 관한 학부모들의 인식을 조사하여 문제점을 살펴보고 효율적인 방향을 제시한다. 둘째, 현재 조기영어교육이 행해지고 있는 어린이집에 자녀를 보내는 학부모님들에게 설문지를 배포하여 조기영어교육에 관한 인식을 조사했다, 이조사를 바탕으로 조기영어 교육의 올바른 교육방향을 제시하는데 목적이 있다.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-36
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• 2002

Recently, early childhood education in England has experienced a significant level of government intervention including reforms for improving it. This study examines to what extent new Labour government initiatives impact preschool education in England and how effectively the English government implements its preschool education policies. This empirical study uses a combination of methods, including documentary analysis, questionnaire, and observation. Findings show that recent English government policy, especially the introduction of a national preschool curriculum framework combined with an inspection process and funding mechanism, appears to have had a strong influence on preschool practices.

• 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.

• 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 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.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.510-521
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to identify the differences of perspectives toward English education for infants between directors and teachers, and to find out perspectives of directors and teachers toward English education for infants. Research questions were developed as follows. 1. What was the current condition of English education for infants? 2. What were the differences of perspectives toward English education for infants between directors and teachers? The subjects of this study were 108 directors and 241 teachers of day care centers in Busan. The questionnaire consisted of three categories of general background, general perspectives, and conditions of English education in the classroom in charge. The results of this study were as follows: First, it was appeared that more than half of day care centers provided English education for infants, and infants of 24~36 months were mainly taught English for less than 30 minutes once or twice a week based on director's policy. English teachers were mostly Korean majored in English, and songs, finger plays, storytelling, games, repeating sentences based on picture card, picture books, and story books were mostly used teaching methods. Second, both directors and teachers thought that goal of English education for infants was motivation and interests in English, contents of English education were songs and finger plays, and Korean English teachers were appropriate for infants.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.201-228
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• 2013

The research goal of this study is to investigate the realities and difficulties of English education for young children of North Korean refugee mothers. The subjects of this study were 201 North Korean refugee mothers of 3-5-year-old children. They were surveyed and some of them were interviewed on their children's English education. The results of the study are as follows. First, most of the North Korean refugee mothers in this study provided their children with English education since their children were 3 years old. The major reason for the English education was their children's peer group who received English education early in their lives. Their educational interaction periods with their children were less than 10 minutes, and they had their young children study English alone, focusing solely on their assignment. Next, North Korean refugee mothers claimed that the biggest difficulties for teaching English to their children were cost, lack of information, lack of time to teach English, and unsatisfactory English education. They expressed that the cost for English education was a burden on the family to some extent.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.733-738
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• 2013

Background: Breast and cervical cancers are significant causes of mortality and morbidity for Asian women, and poor English-speaking ability is a barrier to cancer prevention practices. Materials and Methods: This project tested relationships among English-speaking ability and early detection practices regarding to breast and cervical cancer among female Chinese immigrants. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was used. Results: 175 female Chinese immigrants completed the survey in the breast cancer prevention section, and 35 of them also completed the cervical cancer prevention section. Some 63% of them had heard about the clinical breast exam (CBE), but only 54% had had a CBE. While 46% of the participants were aware of their need for a Pap smear, only 31% had heard about it and had undergone a pelvic exam. Conclusions: English-speaking ability was strongly associated with immigrant women's knowledge of female cancer early detection. Culturally and linguistic issues should be considered as the first step to access immigrant population in designing future education intervention.