Up to now, there have hardly been studies on needs analysis of Korea instruction to children from multi-cultural background. This deals with needs analysis to propose effective Korean instruction to children (especially elementary school student...
Up to now, there have hardly been studies on needs analysis of Korea instruction to children from multi-cultural background. This deals with needs analysis to propose effective Korean instruction to children (especially elementary school students) from multi-cultural families background whose population have been rising rapidly recently. This study tried to identify the students' specific difficulties (related to Korean language) on everyday usage and academic usage of Korean, and find out what subjects and themes should be taught in Korean instruction classes.
Country-wide survey (Seoul, Kyungki, Pusan, Jecheon, Jeonju, Kwangju) on elementary students/parents from multi-cultural background and teachers teaching students from multi-cultural family background were conducted. Out of 206 surveys sent, we had total of 112 responses, consisting of : 43 responses from children from multi-cultural family background, 31 reponses from parents of multi-cultural background elementary students, and 38 reponses from teachers who had experience of teaching students from multi-cultural background family background. Aside from the survey, this study also analyzed focus 19 in-depth interviews with 7 students with multi-cultural family background, 6 parents with students with multi-cultural family background, 5 teachers in charge of multi-cultural family background students class, and 1 welfare professional on multi-cultural families. The collected data and reponses has been: 1) analyzed using descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA for quantitative analysis with SPSS 17 program, 2) post-hoc analyzed with Scheffe's multiple range test, and 3) summarized into charts using Nvivo 8 program for qualitative analysis.
The results of the survey and focus interviews are summarized as follows:
First, more than 80% of teachers and parents responded that advanced level of Korean instruction was needed when they were asked about needs for Korean instruction for elementary school students with multi-cultural background.
Secondly, the survey showed students generally have more difficulties in academic Korean than everyday Korean: 49% of the students who took the survey responded that they had difficulties in practicing everyday conversational Korean, and 80% of the students responded that they had difficulties in practicing academic Korean. According to the survey, teachers had higher recognition about students difficulties compared to students themselves or their parents, which can be attributed to teachers having base of comparison with other native Korean students. As for the specific items of the language difficulties, the ones that student had most difficulties were (in the order of difficulties) 'understanding the instruction text', 'words/terms mentioned during the class ', 'understanding textbooks and reference materials'.
As for the parents, they taught their children had most difficulties on (in the order of difficulties), 'words/terms mentioned during the class', 'making presentation in front of the class', and 'understanding textbooks and reference materials'. As for the teachers, they felt that the students had most difficulties on (in the order of difficulties), 'words/terms mentioned during the class', 'writing on a given theme', 'discussions in class'.
Lastly, on the questions asking on needs analysis of content-based Korean instruction, students answered that the subjects they had most difficulties were mathematics, social studies, science, and writing. Other subjects mentioned by students includes Language arts (speaking/listening/reading) and English.
Subjects that students wanted to learn in content-based Korean classes varied a lot by individual's preferences and needs: mathematics, language arts (speaking, listening, reading, writing), social studies, science. As for the subjects that teachers and parents thought that the students needed to learn, there were social studies, language arts (especially writing and reading) and history. While the subjects mentioned by students were mainly subjects they were good at and/or they liked, the subjects mentioned by teachers and parents were ones like Korean social studies, culture studies and history through which they hoped that students would improve their confidence and build up their identities as a Korean national.
In conclusion, the survey and studies showed that Korean instruction for children with multi-cultural background should be a special purpose Korean instruction rather than general purpose one, and the need analysis showed that the most effective Korean instruction should be "content-based Korean instruction focusing on academic subjects". Lastly, the proposed follow-up studies on 1) developing Korean teaching materials for elementary school students with multi-cultural background using takeaway from this ; 2) testing effectiveness of content-based Korean Instruction on certain academic subject or theme; and 3) developing and testing content-based Korean instruction model to find out its effect.
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