This thesis is aimed to explore the relation between Korean-American youth learners' cultural identity and Korean proficiency.
In the first chapter, the purpose and the necessity of research was described. Related researches conducted in the past wer...
This thesis is aimed to explore the relation between Korean-American youth learners' cultural identity and Korean proficiency.
In the first chapter, the purpose and the necessity of research was described. Related researches conducted in the past were briefly introduced and research questions were deduced upon them. The first research question was about cultural identity of Korean-American Korean learners, especially the teenagers. Their Korean cultural identity and American cultural identity was researched based on their personal background. Also, the objective of the second research question was to study on their acculturation type, also based on their personal background. Finally, through the third research question, the relation between their cultural identity, acculturation type, and Korean proficiency was discussed.
The second chapter serves as a theoretical background for the research, where the definition and the present condition of the participants for this research, Korean-American youth Korean learners, was briefly introduced. In addition, the definition and the components of cultural identity and the definition and the type of acculturation was introduced.
In the third chapter, the method of the research was described. The information about the participants, survey and questionnaire used to collect the data was specifically described. The procedure of the research and method of the data analysis was also discussed.
The fourth chapter consists of the results of the research. Personal background of the participants, their contact to Korean culture, the aspects of their Korean learning style, and their self-recognition of cultural identity were shown. Moreover, it was discussed that how these characters have influenced their cultural identity and acculturation type. The results show that majority of Korean-American youth learners' contact channel of Korean culture was very limited to the family or religious groups. Also, most of them were learning Korean, or have learned Korean for at least two years due to their parent's persuasion. In addition, most of the participants concluded that the cultural identity of themselves were consisted of both Korean and American identity.
According to the result, firstly, Korean-American youth learner's Korean cultural identity score was higher than their American cultural identity score, and this difference was statistically significant. Moreover, their Korean cultural identity score was not influenced by their gender, age, grade, the motivation of learning Korean, self-recognition of cultural identity, and cultural characteristic of their family. However, both Korean and American cultural identity was influenced by the place of birth and it was statistically significant. The participants who were born in Korea showed higher score in Korean cultural identity than those who were born in the USA, while American cultural identity score was lower than the America-born participants. In addition, American cultural identity was higher if they concluded their family culture is close to American. Besides, Korean cultural identity score was higher if their self-recognition of cultural identity was closer to Korean.
Secondly, the results also showed the percentage of Korean-American youth learner's acculturation type. The highest was integration group, the second was separation group, the third was marginalization group, and the assimilation group was the last. The type of acculturation did not differ from participants' gender, age, grade, the motivation of learning Korean, cultural characteristic of family and self-recognition of cultural identity. However, it differed from their place of birth. The majority of the participants who were born in the USA was integration type while the majority of Korea born group were separation type.
Finally, the relation between Korean-American youth learners' cultural identity, acculturation type, and Korean proficiency was analyzed. The results show that Korean cultural identity and Korean proficiency was positively correlated, while there was no significant relation between American cultural identity and Korean proficiency. Also, Korean proficiency differed from their acculturation type. The separation group showed highest score in Korean proficiency test, followed by integration group, marginalization group, and assimilation group in order. Especially the score of assimilation group was significantly lower than separation group and integration group.
In the final chapter, research result was summarized and the importance and limitation of the study was presented. Also, some suggestions for the future study were described. This study is significant for two reasons. First, it is the first try in teaching Korean as a foreign language field, to clarify the relation between cultural identity and Korean proficiency of Korean-American youth learners, who are studying Korean in the USA. Moreover, the research showed the importance of formation of cultural identity in Korean-American learner's efficient learning and emphasized the importance of culture education in Korean education. Therefore, the results of the study are expected to be used as a data to set and perform the direction of teaching Korean to Korean-American learners.