This thesis is intended to analyze the actual situation and
problems of vocabularies contained in the newly revised elementary school textbooks by searching vocabularies presented in four 1st year elementary school Korean textbooks to the curriculum ...
This thesis is intended to analyze the actual situation and
problems of vocabularies contained in the newly revised elementary school textbooks by searching vocabularies presented in four 1st year elementary school Korean textbooks to the curriculum revised in 2009, and by divide-analyzing the researched data into the realms of their frequency, form, phoneme, and meaning, which is likely to be used as vocabulary teaching aid and useful for a next
Korean textbook compilation.
The number of vocabularies researched is 2,083 dividually, and Average frequency is 3.96, which shows that they are remarkably high in number of individual and connected vocabularies, and average frequency is quite high with various vocabularies being repeated many times, compared with the 7th revised Korean textbooks(3.53). Frequency distribution is as follows : the accumulated usage rate of 57 very high frequency words that are over 21 times repeated is 27.10%, and that of high frequency words that are over 10 times repeated is 48.34%, whereas that of 1,356 low frequency words that are used once or twice is as relatively much as 20.61%, which is rather an overload for the 1st year students, and can be considered as a mistake that has failed to take into account the appropriate number of vocabularies fit for children’s developmental stages as a result of the chances for repeated learning reduced compared with the 7th curriculum. Among very high frequency words that can be thought worthy of learning, as many as 14 predicates take up the words from the ones ranked 1st to the ones ranked 20th,, for predicates function crucially in constituents of sentences of our mother tongue.
In form analysis, analysis to parts of speech, to word formation, and to word type were done, whose analysis to parts of speech shows, in number of individual vocabularies, the order of nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, exclamations, pronouns, determiners, and numerals, but in number of connected vocabularies, that of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, exclamations, determiners, and numerals. Though adjectives are fewer in number of individual vocabularies than adverbs, their connected usage is a lot more than adverbs. Distribution to word formation shows that single words are 62.70%, taking up over half of the total vocabularies, which is considered as a result of using many relatively simple words, for the level of the 1st year learners is taken into account. Distribution to word type shows the order of native words, Sino-Korean words, loanblends, and loanwords. It can be known that high distribution of native words is due to intentionally choosing many of them to meet the distinctiveness of the 1st year students.
In euphonic analysis, anlaut phoneme and syllables were analyzed, the result of which shows that the usage rate of individual vocabularies starting with vowels is the most 15.84%, vocabularies starting with ‘ㄱ’ among ones starting with consonants being the most 11.43% followed by ones starting with ‘ㅅ’, 9.36%, and ones starting with ‘ㅈ’, 8.31%. The least shown anlaut phoneme is ‘ㅉ’, 0.62%. In distribution of words to number of syllables, 1 syllable to the max 7 are shown, two-syllable words, in number of individual vocabularies, being the most 36.53%, followed by three-syllable, 23.67%, one-syllable, 20.98%, four, five, 6, and seven.
In analysis to meaning, 18 realms of meaning were set, into which vocabularies were fragmented. The situation and characteristics of contained vocabularies show mainly words closely related to students’ life, and stories of personified animals that clearly feature actions or images of the characters, and accordingly their personified vocabularies are also chosen. Many of words related to families, relatives, animals, plants, and nature that directly involve the students, are contained, and various methods of expression are used to describe a feature. Contrary to this, however, ‘neungae’, a word strange to even adults is contained, and words with low frequency, though their meanings not difficult, such as ‘otgoreum’ or ‘babzziggugi’ are used, which words may need to be replaced with other alternative words or moved to other years. Besides, the fact that many easy words with difficulty level 1 are contained may cause the concern of possibly depriving students of chances to think about them. To cope with this, teachers on-the-job need to help students grasp what is the meaning of a word that evades students’ mind in the context of the writing, with the help of dictionaries or by putting the word into a concrete situation.
More attention should be paid to textbook compilation to have a substantial vocabulary teaching that is inevitable in accomplishment of Korean education, in which sense, it can be thought to have overlooked the importance of vocabulary teaching that in the contents system of Korean education in this curriculum revised in 2009, the word, ‘vocabulary’ has disappeared. It’s worthwhile to reconsider that in the basic frame of curriculum itself, the term has disappeared, despite the grade band accomplishment standard mentioning it.
Though this thesis is limited by the analysis of the vocabularies contained only in the new 1st year Korean textbooks according to the curriculum revised in 2009, the vocabulary list attached to its appendix may be used by 1st year teachers at the chalkface for vocabulary teaching, and be a useful data in later selecting educational vocabularies as well.
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