2009 개정 초등영어 교육과정에 대한 교사들의 인식과 요구 조사

A survey on elementary school teachers’ perceptions and needs about the 2009 National English Curriculum

This study explores how elementary school teachers perceive the 2009 National English Curriculum and future directions for improving it. The study particularly examines teachers’ perceptions concerning the goals, contents, teaching & learning methods, and assessment of the elementary English curriculum. A questionnaire was developed and administered to 120 elementary schools, and the responses of 108 elementary English teachers were analyzed. The results show that given the demands for English education brought up by societal changes, developing students’ abilities to communicate with various groups of English users as a primary goal should continue to be emphasized along with a focus on affective goals. Overall, the teachers perceived the level and quantity of contents in the curriculum to be appropriate for elementary school students;whereas they indicated that more attentions needs to be paid to improving students’ reading and writing skills in grades three and four. While the teachers did not express high levels of satisfaction with the content & performance standards, they found the example learning activities to be helpful. It was also revealed that the sections ‘teaching & learning methods’ and ‘assessment’ should be improved so as to serve as a useful guide by which teachers are able to plan instruction and assessment in practice. Finally, this study bears some implications for the next English curriculum and presents directions for further research.