• 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.