Recent years have witnessed an increase in the immigration of Korean children as well as growth in the number of the multi-cultural children. How the children from multi-cultural families adjust to Korean society has attracted the attention of Korean ...
Recent years have witnessed an increase in the immigration of Korean children as well as growth in the number of the multi-cultural children. How the children from multi-cultural families adjust to Korean society has attracted the attention of Korean scholars in the early childhood field. However, relatively little research has been carried out on the adaptation of Korean returnees who lived abroad in early childhood. Although early childhood is a critical period of child development, the impact of living abroad on the lives of these children has not been researched. For that reason, this study was predicated on the notion that a child who spent early childhood in a sociocultural environment different from their own may have specific process of adjustment after homecoming. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study has been to explore the process of cultural adaptation to Korean society of a child who lived abroad in early childhood.
In this study, the following methods for gathering and analyzing data were used: (1) recording video and sound during observing and interviewing the participant, the family members, the classmates and the schoolteacher at participant’s home and school; (2) archival and documentary research for information related to participant’s past and the present; (3) analyzing data through transcription and reading.
Based on an empirical case, this analysis has led to three observations. Central to this study have been the particulars of the participant’s: (1) friendships; (2) adaptation to the Korean culture; (3) adaptation to homework and assignments from school.
First, the participant is a helpful and good friend to classmates. In addition, there is a classmate who knows well about the participant’s culture and this friend often helps the participant by acting as an interpreter or by sharing their foreign culture, but only occasionally.
Second, the participant found difficulty in bringing one's own school supplies to school. The participant also had some problems with playing games with peers, especially games that the participant was not good at. Therefore, some adjustments were needed. However, the participant had a good understanding of the Korean traditional culture. This has its origin in his home education.
The third finding is that the participant has some trouble in reading and writing in Korean. Despite the fact that there were some improvements in the participant's Korean ability during the last four months, it would take time for the participant to adapt to Korean assignments from school.
Now having provided a basic summary of the content of each theme, the conclusions which can be drawn from this study are the following: 1) Education for these children should be started from the critical period of child development, early childhood. 2) Not only should the private tutor but also the government should take part in this educational work. 3) Research on children who lived abroad in early childhood must be conducted by professionals in the early childhood field with a special emphasis on the period of early childhood. In addition to this, it is desirable to have some contact with elementary school coursework. 4) The contents and the methods of the education have to be concretized.
The current research and its findings can be considered as an initial step for future work on these children and it only remains for me to express some hopes. I hope that there will be more studies: (1) done by experts in early childhood education department; (2) with a variety of participants with different starting points, length of stay, locations, genders, etc; (3) regarding self-concept since it is known that self-concept has something to do with adaptation; (4) with approaches from longitudinal perspective which take into account the participant’s entire life.
，韩语毕业论文，韩语论文题目 |
