Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society (한국산학기술학회논문지)

The Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society (한국산학기술학회)
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A prospective study on early English education and Korean children's English proficiency: When cognitive, personality and parental factors are controlled

조기영어학습이 유아의 영어능력에 미치는 영향: 인지, 성격, 부모요인을 통제한 전향적 연구

  • Received : 2016.08.05
  • Accepted : 2016.11.10
  • Published : 2016.11.30
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Abstract

Although a number of studies have been conducted in Korea since 2000 on the impact of early English education, their interpretation is still not conclusive, due to their lack of control groups and failure to control for third factors and use valid measurements. The present study was designed to examine the effect of an English education program on young children's English proficiency after 8 months using the most well-known official English proficiency measure, the WIDA for kindergarteners. In addition, the children's Korean language proficiency, cognitive abilities, personality, parents' SES, and parents' attitudinal variables before the education were measured and controlled. The results indicated that the intervention group performed better than the control group in both listening and speaking skills, even when all relevant factors were considered. This effect, however, was only found in the item-level analyses.

조기 영어교육이 필요한 것인지, 그리고 효과가 있는 것인지에 대해서는 2000년대 이후 많은 연구들이 실시되어 왔으나, 상당수 연구들은 통제집단의 부재, 관련변인 통제의 실패, 혹은 간이검사의 사용 등으로 인해 해석의 어려움이 존재했다. 본 연구는 8개월간의 영어학습 프로그램이 유아의 영어능력에 유의미한 효과를 미치는 지를 알아보기 위해 미국에서 공식 언어검사로 가장 많이 사용되고 있는 WIDA검사를 사용하여 개입집단과 통제집단의 영어능력치를 3회에 걸쳐 측정하였다. 또 영어학습이 본격화 되기 이전의 아동의 한국어 능력, 지능, 성격변인, 그리고 부모의 사회경제적 변인 및 영어교육에 대한 태도를 측정하고 이를 통제하여 영어학습만의 고유효과를 알아보고자 하였다. 3차 검사를 완료한 39명의 유아들의 영어능력을 분석한 결과, 개입집단은 수용언어 발달과 표현언어 발달에 있어 관련변인의 효과를 통제한 후에도 여전히 통제집단 유아에 비해 우수하였다. 하지만 이러한 효과는 영어검사의 정답문항 수에 근거하였을 때에만 유의미하였으며, 집단간 질적인 측면에서 유의미한 변화는 발견되지 않았다. 본 연구의 결과는 단순 노출교육이라 하더라도 조기영어교육은 최소한 단기간 효과가 있음을 시사한다.

Keywords

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