Parents’ Perceptions and Experiences of Early English Education in South Korea: A Focus on English Kindergartens

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate parents’ perceptions and experiences of early childhood English education in South Korea based on their children’s private English kindergarten education. It aims to explore parental opinions about early English language learning. In addition, the study intends to discover key factors that influence their decisions in selecting private English kindergartens. Finally, it attempts to determine their level of satisfaction with their children’s English kindergarten experiences and language learning outcomes. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data gathering methods were used in the study. The data were collected through a questionnaire given to 30 participants and semi-structured interviews with 8 participants. As a result, participants perceived that learning English at an early age is beneficial for children’s future academic and career success. The findings suggest that the current trend of private English kindergartens, highly accessible only to children from wealthy families, reflects the strong demands of parents for early English education as the Korean education system does not allow teaching English in kindergartens. To provide equal opportunities for all children to learn English in the current era of globalization, it is necessary to integrate English education into the national kindergarten curriculum.