This study scrutinizes distinct characteristics and vocabulary compositions of
university-level Japanese textbooks tapped into education courses in Korea. While
secondary education curricula in Korea offer a standardized vocabulary list and
structu...
This study scrutinizes distinct characteristics and vocabulary compositions of
university-level Japanese textbooks tapped into education courses in Korea. While
secondary education curricula in Korea offer a standardized vocabulary list and
structured curriculum regarding Japanese language education, university-level Japanese
education lacks such consistency, resulting in significant variations in vocabulary
quantity, parts of speech, difficulty level, commonality among textbooks.
To tackle these inconsistencies, this research analyzes five university-level Japanese
textbooks fostered and utilized by individual universities, focusing on vocabulary quantity,
parts of speech, lexical origin (word type), and JLPT levels. In addition to that, four high
school Japanese textbooks approved under the 2022 revised curriculum are used as a
control group for comparison.
The findings reveal notable disparities in vocabulary quantity and difficulty across university textbooks, with some textbooks containing more than five times the number of vocabulary items found in high school textbooks. Moreover, the degree of vocabulary overlap (commonality) between university textbooks is relatively low. These inconsistencies may hinder the efficiency of vocabulary instruction and pose challenges for learners, particularly those at the beginner level.
Based on these outcomes, the study puts emphasis on the need for standardization in
university-level Japanese vocabulary education and proposes suggestions for future
textbook enhancement. These include establishing a foundational vocabulary list,
improving the alignment between vocabulary and learners' levels and enhancing the
coherence of vocabulary across university-level materials. This research contributes to
the improvement of vocabulary education in university Japanese curricula and offers a
foundation for more systematic textbook development.