A study on need analysis for developing effective English Experience Center programs in Korean elementary schools.

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the preferences and needs of elementary school students, their parents and teachers for developing English Experience Center programs in elementary schools in Korea. In order to identify these preferences and needs, a questionnaire was administered to 2,353 students, 2,854 parents and 272 teachers and supervisors at 11 elementary schools and offices of education in 5 different areas. The results show that parents and teachers preferred having regular English classes in the English Expereice Center utilizing discretionary activity hours and extracurricular classes to after-school programs during the semester. As for the ideal length of the programs, the groups preferred long-term programs to short-term programs at the center. In terms of the type of English Experience Center program; all the groups preferred situation-based programs to task-based and content-based programs. Culture-based programs were mostly preferred, but content-based programs were the least preferred by all three groups. Based on the results of the present study, suggestions for the effective English Experience center programs and English immersion programs were made at the end of the paper.