This study is grounded in recent social changes in Vietnam, where the number of learners seeking employment in Korean companies has been rapidly increasing. Along with the spread of the Korean Wave (Hallyu), the expansion of economic cooperation betwe...
This study is grounded in recent social changes in Vietnam, where the number of learners seeking employment in Korean companies has been rapidly increasing. Along with the spread of the Korean Wave (Hallyu), the expansion of economic cooperation between Vietnam and Korea, and the active local expansion of Korean enterprises, interest in the Korean language has continued to grow. Within this context, Vietnamese learners of Korean have shown a strong interest in Korean language education for occupational purposes, particularly to develop professional communicative competence in workplace settings. However, current Korean speaking instruction remains insufficient in reflecting authentic situational contexts and the practical linguistic demands required for actual job performance.
In response, this study focuses on designing the content of occupational-purpose Korean speaking education for Vietnamese learners. To this end, it investigates learners’ linguistic and cultural characteristics, speaking difficulties, learning motivations, and required topics. Based on the findings, this study proposes instructional goals, speaking task designs, task components, task types, and teaching–learning methods that can be effectively implemented in real educational settings.
The structure of this study is as follows. Chapter I presents the purpose and necessity of the research, reviews previous studies on Korean language education for occupational purposes and communicative-oriented speaking instruction, defines the scope of Vietnamese learners as the research subjects, and outlines the overall structure of the thesis.
Chapter II examines major theories related to speaking instruction as the theoretical background, including communicative language teaching, task-based language teaching, and artificial intelligence–based language teaching. It also analyzes the concepts, characteristics, and principles of content organization in occupational-purpose Korean language education to establish the theoretical foundation of the study.
Chapter III reports the results of surveys and in-depth interviews conducted with Vietnamese learners of Korean, Korean language education practitioners, and company representatives. Through this process, learners’ speaking difficulties and their needs regarding job-related topics and instructional content are analyzed. In particular, implications for instructional design are derived by comparing responses from learners, instructors, and corporate stakeholders. Chapter IV designs the content of occupational-purpose Korean speaking education based on the needs analysis results. It systematically establishes instructional goals and designs speaking tasks for occupational purposes, while exploring teaching–learning methods suitable for Vietnamese learners. Specifically, the study proposes instructional methods such as memorization for improving fluency, shadowing for enhancing accuracy, chain speaking to encourage active participation, conversational practice through collaboration with ChatGPT, and task-based activities to strengthen job-related competencies.
Finally, Chapter V summarizes the research findings and discusses the significance and limitations of the study, while suggesting directions and tasks for future research. This study is meaningful in that it presents a practical and field-oriented direction for designing Korean speaking education that reflects the workplace language needs of Vietnamese learners. Furthermore, it provides practical teaching techniques applicable to the increasingly prominent field of artificial intelligence–based language instruction and serves as foundational data for the development of job-specific, customized Korean language curricula.
Key Words: Korean speaking education, Korean for occupational purposes, Vietnamese learners of Korean, needs analysis