Abstract
<p>The main purpose of this study is to develop and validate a valid measure of the early childhood (EC) English teacher knowledge. Through extensive literature review on second/foreign language (L2/FL) teacher knowledge, early childhood teacher knowledge and early childhood language teacher knowledge, and semi-structured interviews from current early childhood English teacher, the initial survey questionnaire was developed. Then, think-aloud interviews were conducted with samples from four groups with different teaching experience as they took the survey to see whether or not they understood the survey questions and whether or not the survey questions/statements represented their professional knowledge accurately. Lastly, a finalized survey was distributed to 40 current early childhood English teachers (K-2) in Korea. The theoretical framework of teacher knowledge was drawn upon Grossman’s (1999) “model of teacher knowledge” such as subject matter knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of context. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Cronbach-alpha, and split-half. The findings will show subcomponent of teacher knowledge, characteristics of the participants and survey items’ reliability. The implications of analyzing teacher knowledge survey to gain insight into developing curriculum in early childhood English teacher education.</p>
Highlights
The importance of English Education for children has been recognized widely in countries where English is learned as a second/foreign language (Butler, 2015; Curtain & Dahlberg, 2010; Moon, 2009; Nikolov, 2009)
The main purpose of this study is to develop and validate a valid measure of the early childhood (EC) English teacher knowledge
Based on a review of the literature, a survey questionnaire of what teachers think they know about EC language education was created and distributed to 40 teachers
Summary
The importance of English Education for children has been recognized widely in countries where English is learned as a second/foreign language (Butler, 2015; Curtain & Dahlberg, 2010; Moon, 2009; Nikolov, 2009). Few teachers receive training in early childhood language education (Butler, 2015; Chen, 2011). Examining what these teachers know and need to know to be effective is a crucial step in the process of developing a national English curriculum for preschool and kindergarten, which does not currently exist, and preparing quality English language teachers of young www.ccsenet.org/elt.
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