초등학생 자녀의 영어교육에 관한 학부모 인식 연구

Parents’ perceptions about English education for their children: Focus on in-depth interview data

The purpose of this study is to explore parents’ perceptions about English education for their children in Korean contexts. Through in-depth interviews, the researchers collected data from four parents living in the district of Kangnam-gu, Seoul. The interview data designed to ask parents’ perceptions were categorized into three types of questions: why parents placed great emphasis on English education and how many hours children were educated in English, to what extent the external fever of English education was expanded to Korean society, what external consequence is expected from the social fever. Results of the study showed that the parents highly valued globalization and multiple opportunities through communicative English competence. However, they did not want their children to continue to learn about essential tasks of English. They thought that children should prepare for conventional tests, and that they should study grammar and reading skills to acquire test-wiseness. This study indicated that parents’ views of English education was contradictory to the main direction of English education curriculum.