Internet-Based English Learning Activities of Infants and Preschoolers in Multimedia Labs

Abstract

The present study intended to suggest desirable directions of early childhood English learning by examining the actual conditions of the Internet-based English learning activities using a range of services and information as a means of activities applicable to multimedia labs along with case studies with infants and preschoolers. For the purpose of this study, 26 infants and 20 preschoolers were selected as subjects in an infant school attached to S university. The subjects were observed for one term with regard to their English learning experiences, activities, process and effects based on the Internet in the multimedia lab. As a result, the process of learning English using the Internet in the multimedia lab consists of helping children understand structures and functions of computers, which is a ‘recognition phase’, followed by a ‘usage phase’ where children’s fear of computers is resolved due to increasing familiarity, and finally an ‘application phase’, where they can actually learn English on the Internet. Also, as for the response to the Internet-based early childhood English learning in the multimedia lab, both children and their parents were mostly satisfied. They viewed teacher-children interaction and increasing infant’s attention to computers as the most important aspects to be considered in this approach to English learning.