공공형·자율형 어린이집 시범사업 모니터링 및 평가

Abstract

As the number of children of multicultural family’s increases, a new perspective that posits the environment for acquiring two languages, whereby the children can acquire the language of their foreign mother or of their father, can work as strength for these children. This research attempted to analyze the effect of the pilot-operation of a bilingual program (dealing with Chinese and Vietnamese subjects), developed in 2010 for parents and children of multicultural families. A number of suggestions were made as a result of this research, one being that more effective management of the program can come about through monitoring the implementation process. For the pilot operation, lesson 10, which is the most appropriate in terms of the interests and abilities of children aged three to five, was selected.

The research focuses on analyzing the effects of the bilingual learning support program and monitoring the results. For this purpose, the bilingual learning support program was revised, supplemented, and children and parents were selected. The process of monitoring was divided into process monitoring and result monitoring. Process monitoring was employed in order to better understand whether the program management was appropriate for lecturers and managers, and result monitoring was employed in order to better understand the children's language development and how much they understand the culture of their mother's country, the mother's satisfaction levels regarding the program, and awareness of enhancing child nurturing competencies.

The research methods included onsite study of the pilot operation from July to September 2011(once or twice). A total of 82 mothers (40 Chinese, 42 Vietnamese) from multicultural families participated in the program, and six different region's multicultural family support centers, childcare support institutes, research institutes in Universities participated in the small group program. The bilingual ability pre-tests and post-tests made for this research were given in order to measure the children's bilingual abilities and how much they understand the culture of their mother's country. Surveys and interviews for parents, lecturers, and managers were employed to determine levels of satisfaction with and the overall suitability of the program.

The results can be summarized as follows: the bilingual ability of children showed statically meaningful differences in pre and post-test results for all four sub-domains of expressive language, receptive language, culture comprehension language, and communicative language. The average score for bilingual ability was 8.98 for the pre-test but 20.38 in the post-test average. Children's bilingual ability not only showed an improvement of language use but enhanced understanding of their mother's country as well.

For the use and perception of language of the mother, self-esteem was raised for the child's family and culture, and more wanted to educate their children in two languages. . The changes seen in the father’s and the family's perception and attitudes towards bilingualism showed a decreased response, due to not knowing the husband's opinion about bilingual education. Instead, positive opinions on bilingual education increased. This indicates that the mother's participation in the program had the effect of strengthening the mother's child nurturing competencies which also enabled the mothers to better engage in child nurturing with more confidence and interest than before.

Program evaluation was undertaken for mothers, lecturers and managers. 96.3% of the mothers responded by stating that the program is very much needed, and 89% believed that the program was very helpful. Lecturers and managers responded very positively on the necessity and suitability of the program, however, the results showed lower scores in terms of their professionalism in supporting the program than other areas. This indicates that the priority needs for a bilingual program are education and intensive pre-training for lecturers and managers.

In terms of improvements to the program, dividing the whole program into 2 levels, a level 1 and 2, may be necessary, as will allowing children to make conscious choices about the program according to their abilities and interests. Correcting vocabulary errors, editing sections where each country's characteristics were not properly reflected, enhancing the quality of the illustrations and photos, and supplementing additional tools and materials needed for activities were all identified as areas needing some improvement.