The objective of this study was to present principles and directions for designing discipline-specific writing tasks, which could be utilized in academic Korean writing education, while reflecting the characteristics of humanities and social sciences ...
The objective of this study was to present principles and directions for designing discipline-specific writing tasks, which could be utilized in academic Korean writing education, while reflecting the characteristics of humanities and social sciences majors as well as science and engineering majors. To achieve this objective, this study analyzed general Korean textbooks for academic purposes and discipline-specific writing textbooks used in South Korean universities and writing tasks from internationally recognized English assessments for academic purposes. This study also administered surveys and conducted in-depth interviews with discipline-specific instructors to ascertain the needs of the university setting.
Analysis results revealed that general Korean textbooks for academic purposes focused on improving basic literacy and learning fundamental structures, while discipline-specific writing textbooks reflected the discourse conventions and performance practices of their respective fields to a relatively concrete degree. It was found that text interpretation and argument construction were core performance elements in the humanities and social sciences, while problem analysis and the accuracy of reporting results were key in the science and engineering sectors. This study derived four design principles (setting discipline- specific performance goals, structuring content around core performance competencies, designing stages that reveal the performance process, and setting materials and performance conditions) based on these findings. This study also suggested task design frameworks and examples applicable to both disciplines.
The significance of this study lies in its contribution to the conceptualization of Korean writing for academic purposes according to the needs of each discipline and the provision of criteria that are directly applicable to the design of actual tasks.