Teachers' Perceptions of Content and Language Integrated Elementary English Education

Purpose: The current study aimed to investigate teachers' perceptions of content-integrated classes:the success factors of content-integrated classes and elementary school teachers’ understanding andknowledge of content-integrated classes. Methods: To this end, 155 surveys of elementary school teachers were analyzed drawing upon thecurrent status of teachers' English ability and content-integrated classes, preferred grades and subjects,and success factors and difficulties of content-integrated classes, and the surveys were then classifiedunder six understanding and knowledge categories through factor analysis. Results: The most preferred grade for the content-integrated class was the fifth grade, followed bythe sixth grade, with the higher grades being favored by the teachers due to the students’ Englishability. Functional subjects such as art, physical education, and music were preferred in the surveyand this was attributed to the students’ interest, motivation and the nature of the subjects beingexperiential. Teachers considered the teachers’ and the students’ English ability to be both successfactors and to be related to difficulties when conducting content-integrated classes. In addition, it wasdiscovered that the factor analysis could restructure the elementary school teachers' understanding andknowledge of content-integrated classes to include the necessity and effect of such classes, their methods,conditions for conducting such classes, their success factors, definitions and recognition categories. Conclusion: The current study concluded that the English and content-integrated classes are moreappropriate for the higher grades in elementary schools as their English skills can meet the demandsof English vocabulary and expressions adopted in such classes. In addition, more experiential subjectsare preferred due to the interests which motivates students to participate in content-integrated classes.