Korean language education in the United States is a language course that has recently experienced a surge in demand at universities. However, although the Korean language requires more time than other languages to reach the Advanced Level, it is treat...
Korean language education in the United States is a language course that has recently experienced a surge in demand at universities. However, although the Korean language requires more time than other languages to reach the Advanced Level, it is treated similarly to other language courses and is offered as an elective course at universities. Also, unlike the Korean language classes that are taught in Korea, the courses available in the United States give their learners very little opportunity to practice and ignite their skills. Thus, a very effective teaching method is required in order to maximize the communication between the learners during the limited amount of class time, and utilizing tasks is an effective way of encouraging meaningful interaction between learners.
The purpose of this research is to suggest effective ways to utilize tasks in order to improve the communication skills of the Korean learners within the English-speaking communities. For that purpose, this study draws essential factors from a need analysis and a textbook analysis completed by elementary learners in the English-speaking communities. The need analysis survey was conducted upon students that were taking the Korean Language as a foreign language at five universities in the United States, Texas, and the investigation focused on gathering information about the types of Korean task topics, task activities, and task interactions.
The need analysis revealed that the main topics that learners desired for their classes were primarily “greetings”, then “work and career”, and then “news and current affairs”, but according to the textbook analysis, there was only a minimal number of elementary level textbooks that dealt with such topics.
Research shows that the topic of “work and career” was dealt only by Textbook S and that “news and current affairs” was dealt only by Textbook A. Furthermore, in an investigation to check whether the beginning level topics suggested by the “Internationally Recognized Model of Korean Language Education” were well integrated into the textbooks in the English-speaking regions, it was revealed that approximately 61% (Textbook A) to 73% (Textbook I) of the textbooks dealt with topics of the beginning level.
The type of task activity that was most preferred by the learners was “playing games”, but the “playing games” task only amounted to 8.8% in the textbooks, and other task activities such as “role playing”, “talking with pictures” and “solving complex problems” also appeared very infrequently.
Furthermore, some textbooks showed no correlation between the tasks and the learning topics although tasks should conform to their corresponding learning topics. Korean teacher should be cautious about the discrepancy between the topics and tasks because it may be difficult for the task to activate the knowledge that was gained in the suggestion and practice stages, and may even drive away the interest of the learners.
The type of interactive learning that learners preferred the most was the small-group activities with 3-6 people, but an analysis about the tasks in the textbook showed that the most suggested tasks were in pairs, individuals, small-groups, and entire classes, it that order.
Therefore, the followings with tasks utilization are suggested, based upon the need analysis that was performed upon elementary learners in U.S. universities and also upon the Korean textbook analysis that was drawn from textbooks available in English-speaking regions.
First, teachers should utilize the tasks in the application stage of the classes since the Korean courses in U.S. universities have short class periods that may make it difficult to run entirely task-oriented classes.
Second, it should reflect the characteristics of the learners and the topics that the learners at the U.S. universities desire.
Third, it should either present a diversified array of tasks or suggest the task types that the learners prefer so that the learners may take interest and actively complete the tasks.
Fourth, it should reflect the interaction task types that the learners demand.
Fifth, the procedures of the task activities need to be specific and feasible.
The suggested task utilization methods are based upon the characteristics, textbooks, and demands of the elementary learners at U.S. universities. Thus, the application of these methods will sufficiently contribute to the Korean language courses in U.S. universities, and enhance them to be classes with practical and effective communication.
However, this research has its limits since it was focused on elementary learners and because there was limited participation in the need analysis surveys. It is proposed that subsequent studies should have the universality to incorporate all beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, and that the need analysis be done on a larger pool of participants.
Additionally, it is urged that tasks that are diverse, systematic and suitable for the learners’ characteristics be developed, including textbooks for English-speaking learners, and that a study be commenced to confirm whether the textbooks efficiently induce the improvement of the learner’s communication skills.
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