This study aims to find out the difference between an argumentative text produced by a Mongolian student studying Korean in Korea and a text produced by a Korean native speaker from a text linguistical perspective, and find the reason behind that diff...
This study aims to find out the difference between an argumentative text produced by a Mongolian student studying Korean in Korea and a text produced by a Korean native speaker from a text linguistical perspective, and find the reason behind that difference. The reason why the research chose Mongolian students as the number of Mongolians among the total foreign student population in Korea is only second to Chinese, and it is still steadily on the rise.
The students from Mongolia are to be able to complete a text that contains the constituting principle and factors acceptable by those in the same language community when taking part in Korean writing. That is why a text that displays unique characteristics in terms of vocabulary, style, and structure, and also suits the purpose, function and situation of language usage, according to the general rules and traditions of language community members who use target language should be produced. Thus, this research has compared and analyzed the argumentative text by a Korean mother tongue speaker and a Mongolian learner in three aspects of content, organization, and expression for the text section; and the aspect of logical unity device that is often used in editorial texts. The comparison and analysis of such text would be meaningful the Korean language educational scene as depending on the analysis result, the learner can provide the basic of functionality for a writing education to produce a good text.
For this research 20 Korean mother tongue speakers, and learners who have studied in the regular course in K university, a Korean education institute, for about a year were used as the subject for analysis. The composition of this study are as below:
Chapter 1 states the necessity and purpose of the research, the study deems that it is important to consider the format and the meaning altogether as a process of producing a text which is a single combination with meaning, instead of teaching writing just to teach vocabulary and grammar, and has proposed a text analysis as a detailed method. For the previous studies, existing research related to editorial text that is the subject of analysis, and the former research on Mongolians who are studying Korean were referred to.
Chapter 2 talks about the research about text linguistic, which is the theoretical basis of this research, and the theoretical background about the research on argumentative text. Chapter 3 proposes the topic for research and states the design and process of the research to verify the subject proposed. There are 3 topics for research suggested by this research, first, it is to seek for unique characteristic of Korean native speakers and Mogolian learners when writing an argumentative text. Second, the style of how the logical linking device used in an argumentative text, and lastly, to see the similarity and difference between the argumentative text by Korean native speakers and Mongolian learners when looking at the results of the proposed subject for the topics. Chapter 4 reveals the results of the subject and stated its interpretation. Chapter 5 talks about the limitations of this research and the conclusion derived by the results of the research.
The summary of the result of analysis of the topics for research are as below.
First, after analyzing the text section, there was a difference between Korean native speakers and Mongolian learners in terms of unity in context and validity of argument. The reason for such difference is because the general rules and traditions when Mongolians write a argumentative text is different from a Korean native speaker. Mongolians preferred a context of argumentative writing that focused on expressing personal opinions, a liberal mind, and reporting one's perspective about a certain topic while reaching a conclusion.
For the composition section, the way paragraphs is worked out and the logical structure was the focus. And in this aspect there was not much difference between a Korean native speaker and a Mongolian learner. In other words, the capability regarding the composition of the text for both Korean and Mongolian, were different for each individual.
Spelling, spacing, usage of vocabularies, accuracy of sentence, and style were the focus for the expression aspect, and in this aspect there was conspicuous contrast between a Korean native speakers and a Mongolian learner. This seems to be because Koreans mostly are aware of the expression aspect of a argumentative text while Mongolians are not used to emphasis on expression aspect.
Secondly, it was to look at the style of usage of logical connection device used within an argumentative text. As a result there was not much difference between a Korean native speaker and the Mongolian learner. The style that Korean preferred was a logical connection device of expansion, while Mongolians preferred the logical connection device of strengthening. Especially Koreans preferred the arrangement and addition, comparison and conversion of the expansion aspect, and the cause-effect connection device for the strengthening aspect. Whereas Mongolians preferred the cause-effect connection of the strengthening aspect and the logical connection device of time, and after that the comparison and conversion of the expansion aspect and often used the logical connection device of referring to above for the explanation aspect. For that reason, it can be seen that Mongolians use a cause-effect connection to link paragraphs instead of using a logical connection device.
Lastly, the similarities and difference between the argumentative text by Korean native speakers and Mongolian learners can be seen. For the similarities, for the composition of argumentative text, the introduction section provides the basic information on the topic, present one's argument through quotations, concrete examples, and statistics, or express the motive, purpose of writing the text and indicating the direction the text would be heading to. The main body would be about giving detailed examples and evidence about one's argument, and the conclusion would be about strengthening one's argument through a personal opinion.
The difference is how Mongolians form their main body. The main body is consists of either one paragraph or many paragraphs. The paragraphs that form the main body states the thesis sentence at the beginning of each paragraph then the behind sentences would provide evidence or proof about the thesis sentence. Another difference is that the purpose of a argumentative text for a Korean is to convince someone. However, a Mongolian argumentative text, as mentioned above, focuses more on the process of reaching a conclusion of a fixed topic. Also, in the Korean language there is a concept of logical connection device often used in argumentative texts, whereas in Mongolian language, it is used as linker, thus it can be seen there is a different in usage.
From the above results, it can be proposed that in order to produce a text that has a composition principle and factor that is acceptable by the language community, the Mongolian learners should be first taught of the strategy such as general argumentative text structure or organization when writing an argumentative text in Korea, also it can be proposed that they should be familiarized with expression methods such as vocabulary and sentence style.
However, since this research analyzed a total of 40 cases, 20 for each group, there would be limitations to use the result of this study to universally apply to all Mongolian learners. Also, as it is limited to the content, organization, and expression aspect of an argumentative text, it cannot be said that there is an detailed analysis. Also since the linking device that appeared in the argumentative texts were only limited to logical linking devices. Hence, for future discussions, there should be a various and detailed analysis of texts, and not only should linking devices should be considered, but also the actual usage of other text composition factors should be further researched.