In Korea, English education in kindergartens has dramatically increased in the last 15 years. As a result, almost all Korean kindergarten students are learning English today. The present study aims to understand Korean parents’, kindergarten teachers’, and kindergarten students’ perceptions of early English-language education (EEE). This study is particularly significant because thus far little research has investigated the perceptions of EEE held by the young learners themselves. Ninety-five participants - 30 kindergarten teachers, 33 parents, and 32 five- and six-year old kindergarten students - were recruited from five kindergartens in four cities in Chung-Nam province, Korea. The parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of EEE were examined through questionnaires, whereas the students’ perceptions of learning English were investigated through multiple data collection methods: a questionnaire, an interview session, and a drawing activity. Questionnaire data gathered from the parents and teachers were quantitatively analyzed, and the data gathered from the kindergarten students were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings revealed that the parent and student groups shared more positive attitudes towards EEE than the teacher group. In addition, many more parents and students believed that English education is necessary at the kindergarten level than the teachers did. Concerning kindergarten students’ perceptions, the three data collection methods in this study showed that many kindergarten children consistently held positive attitudes towards learning English. The students were not only interested in learning English, but they also showed high self-confidence in learning English. / Graduate

This research aims to shed light on language policies and early bilingual education in Sweden. It highlights the main language policies developed by Sweden while framing them within a European perspective, thus comparing the “national” language policies to the “international” language policies, stressing differences and similarities. More specifically, it analyzes the language policies and guidelines related to bilingual education created by the Council of Europe and afterwards applies the same procedure to the Swedish ones. Furthermore, this study investigates the language practices of children and teachers in two bilingual/multilingual settings. In order to do this, the research was framed as a sociolinguistic ethnography and was carried out using observations, interviews and audio-recordings in order to achieve triangulation wherever possible. Interview and observational data were analyzed thematically while interactional data was analyzed to establish the purposes for which different languages were used by participants. In conclusion, this study might give an idea of how appropriate the Swedish language policies are while stressing the need to revise and implement those policies that might affect the success of early bilingual/multilingual preschool education in Sweden. / Denna studie ämnar belysa språkpolitik och tidig tvåspråkig utbildning i Sverige. Ett av målen är att titta närmare på rådande språkpolitik i Sverige ur ett Europeiskt perspektiv, genom at jämföra ”nationell” och ”internationell” språkpolitik och belysa likheter och skillnader. Detta innebär, mer specifikt, att analysera språkpolitik och riktlinjer för tvåspråkig utbildning som är utarbetad av Europarådet och sedan ställa dem mot de riktlinjer som är utarbetade i Sverige. Dessutom är målet att undersöka olika lingvistiska praktiker hos elever och lärare i en tvåspråkig kontext. Studien har utförts med sociolingvistisk, etnografisk metod och metodologisk triangulering som inkluderat olika tillvägagångssätt såsom observationer, intervjuer och inspelade ljudupptagningar. Insamlad data har undersökts med syfte att klassificera olika språkliga beteenden för att söka förstå de olika strategier och vanor som utgör själva kärnan i interaktionen mellan tvåspråkiga elever och lärare. Slutligen är syftet med studien att ge en inblick i hur lämplig svensk språkpolitik är i fråga om tvåspråkig utbildning och samtidigt belysa vad som kan behövas reviderasoch införas för att påverka framtida tvåspråkig/flerspråkig utbildning i Sverige.