This study is an attempt to understand the actual condition of early-childhood English education by analyzing the present status and to assess parents' recognition by analyzing the survey research. Through the basic analysis based on the observed recognition that parents have on the primary English education, this study is an attempt to determine the soundness of parents' perceptions of primary English education, and also to discover ways to further develop primary English education.
This study was conducted with 171 questionnaires concerning primary English education from parents of primary schools in the Busan area and each one of the questions in the collected data was analyzed through a conversion to Frequency and Percentage. The results are summarized as follows:
First, parents generally have an understanding on of primary English curriculums and most parents approve and see the necessity of early-childhood English education. Most parents support early English language study because they want their children to acquire English naturally and have increased exposure. This strongly suggests that parents are favorable to and often expect expanded applications of English education within the public education system.
Second, parents prefer Korean teachers who are fluent in English to native speaking teachers as instructors who will be in charge of their children's primary English education. And, they want teachers to speak both Korean and English as a class language when they teach in a class. Even if parents look for English-centered classes, the survey has found that parents hope for a Korean teacher who can understand learners and who can communicate in fluent English without any clash of cultures because of the learners age.
Third, the majority of parents consider listening and speaking abilities most important in the first and second grades in primary school. Due to this, recent English education changes have emphasized the importance of phonetic language communicative competence, whereas the former English education focused on written language irrespective of communicative competence.
Forth, children's English education generally begins after the age of 5. Here, it is necessary to consider the effect of children being exposed to private English education before starting regular courses in a primary school.
Fifth, the study result show that more than 70% of parents have their children receive private education despite the heavy cost of private education. The reason why parents do this is based upon dissatisfaction with the efficacy of public education. Therefore, the public education system feels the need to absorb private education into public education in order for parents to reduce the financial burden of their children's education and to have more opportunities to attend English classes for learners who haven't had private tutoring.
In order for primary English education to be effective, the educational system for our current English education should be structured to provide better educational opportunities for children. First of all, it is necessary to train excellent teachers in charge of early-childhood English education and the qualitative effectiveness of English education should be enhanced for learners to participate more in classes by developing various activities and methods of teaching. Moreover, it is important that an environment should be offered to learners to naturally acquire English.