美語長久以來扮演著國際語言的角色，且隨著大環境的改變，它成為了生活中重要的工具。近幾年來我國九年一貫教育政策的實施，將美語教學納入國小的正規教育，使得學習美語的意識抬頭，初學者的年齡層也從原本的國中，降到國小，甚至已向下延伸到幼稚教育階段。目前坊間許多幼兒園標榜採行全美語的教學環境，刻意將其所標榜的全美語教學套上所謂的全語言學習，希望藉由理論上的論證來增強其實施美語教學的正當性。但是，有關全語言的討論是指在母語環境下的語言學習。因此，全美語幼兒園宣稱他們是採用所謂全語言方式來進行美語教學的論述是否成立，亦或這樣的論述只是幼兒園應用科學的知識來建立自身正當性的做法，成為了研究者想要去探究的問題。 本研究以全語言教學的理論為論述架構，並融入了社會語言學、心理語言學及讀寫萌發的觀點，來做為理論上的討論。研究方法採質性研究方法中的參與觀察法進行，選擇台中市一所全美語幼兒園為研究對象，藉由實地觀察、資料分析和深入訪談，從不同面向獲得分析幼兒園實施全美語教學概況的資料，以進行研究和討論。 研究結果發現：（一）全美語幼兒園強調實施全美語教學只是使用不同的語言學習，教學內容不會偏離幼稚教育的精神，但是實際上執行起來卻是過多的美語課程取代了幼教專業課程的情況。因為園方希望在大量語言刺激及不斷熟練單一語言的環境下，可以短時間內展現出學習美語的成效。這樣一來如同把幼兒置身在語言的補習班裡，淪為補習教育下的語言學習機器。（二）全語言教學觀點中所強調的是，在母語脈絡底下進行的語言學習，除了語言的使用外，還包括整個環境的文化和人的思考邏輯。因此，全美語幼兒園所謂的「全語言」，頂多也僅能做到暫時性的情境改變和語言使用習慣的轉換，無法真正將全語言的教學精神融入全美環境的教學中。所以，全美語幼兒園不能將其所採行的全美語教學認定為是實行所謂的全語言教學。 English, as an international language, is also an important tool in daily life. English teaching has been incorporated into elementary school curriculum under the Grade 1-9 Curriculum education policy. The age of first-learners has dropped from junior high school level to elementary or even down to pre-school level. As a result, many pre-schools claim to provide English-only teaching environment. These schools quote language learning theories in order to justify English teaching to very young learners claiming English only teaching is equivalent to the whole language learning. However, the theory of whole language is based on the first language learning environment. Whether those English-only pre-schools actually apply whole language learning method or whether those schools are simply quoting a scientific theory to justify such practices will be discussed in this thesis. This paper apply the theory of whole language teaching along with the perspectives of social linguistic, psychological linguistic and Emergent Literacy as base theories and discuss former topics by qualitative research method and observation. An English-only pre-school is selected as the research sample. In order to discuss and study the topics, clinical observation, data analysis and “in-depth interview” were used to collect the information of actual practice of English-only teaching. The result reveals two important findings. First, even though the English-only teaching pre-schools assert that English is merely a language used to teach pre-school curriculum, the number of English courses outnumbers the standard pre-school curriculum. Overwhelming amount of materials is forced into young kids in such single-language environment in the attempt to deliver results in a short time to the parents. In sum and all, the pre-school are nothing more than English cram schools. Second, these schools cannot recreate a whole-language environment as they claimed since whole language teaching theory emphasizes the language learning in the first language setting, as well as learning of culture and the logics. On the other hand, the so-called whole language teaching in the English-only pre-schools simply achieve in temporally setting change and language usage alternation. Therefore, those pre-schools should not promote their practice of English-only teaching as whole language learning.
