Teaching Preschoolers English in a Public Educational Context

Abstract

This qualitative study describes the setting for teaching preschoolers English based on the experience of four public preschools in the Central Pacific Region of Costa Rica. The aim was to gain more insight about the public preschool system of which little information is available. Data was obtained mainly from interviews with teachers and classroom observation. A coding system was elaborated to classify the collected information into three main categories: Characterization of preschool bilingual education, the methodology used and academic action fields to improve how English is taught to preschoolers. The most relevant findings reveal that, although teaching preschoolers a foreign language is important, there is much more that should be done to foster these skills in children at this educational stage, such as provide teachers with more English-language training for preschoolers. In addition, the methodology should include games, music, non-verbal routines and language to acquire the target language. These results would further contribute to documenting this field of study for teachers and actions specifically targeted to teaching English at the preschool level in the Costa Rican Public School System.