• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.17-36
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• 2007

This study examined educational and career backgrounds of 180 early childhood English teachers and curricula of training courses for early childhood English teachers in continuing education centers across 6 areas in Korea. Data analyses showed that (1) curricula for early childhood English teachers consists of basic practical conversation, English teaching skills, understanding early childhood education and general English knowledge. (2) Most teachers are women between 30 to 40 years of age, university graduates with majors in English literature, English education and/or early childhood education with confidence in speaking in and listening to English. (3) They were satisfied with their retraining courses. (4) English pronunciation skill was not always related to English conversation skill, but clarity of pronunciation influenced teaching confidence.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.223-235
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• 2009

Elementary education in Korea has variously changed and developed during the last thirty years. Among all the progressive changes, the improvement of teaching conditions is considered to be the most fundamental one. The number of students assigned to a class or a teacher has decreased to a considerable extent. Cyber teaching-learning has been peformed at school and home, and English education has been emerged as a significant part of the Korean public education. The research issues constantly considered essential over the past three decades starting in the 1980's are those related to curricula, teaching-learning methods, training of teachers in-service, and education for upright characters. The practical and political issues should be dealt with to revise the three integrated subjects and text books into a sole integrated subject and text book, to double the credential of teachers in terms of professionalism and to decrease the number of students per teacher in Korea to the OECD level.