This dissertation aims to re-establish objectives of Korean culture education for Korean language learners and to propose a direction the culture education should take in accord with the goals of Korean culture education. Thus far, the education of Ko...
This dissertation aims to re-establish objectives of Korean culture education for Korean language learners and to propose a direction the culture education should take in accord with the goals of Korean culture education. Thus far, the education of Korean culture for Korean language learners has been given as an educational tool for improving ‘communicative competence’ of language or along that line. However, in consideration of Korean language learner' various purposes of learning the Korean culture, it is necessary to set up a new paradigm in the culture education, besides the improvement of ‘communicative competence.’ Therefore, the study of this dissertation investigates Korean language learners' learning motives and objectives so that it can construct a new paradigm of culture education and accordingly suggest a direction of teaching the culture.
Chapter Ⅰ presents the aim and necessity of this study, examining the previous literature related to the current topic into the goals and directions of culture education, contents of culture education, and methodologies of culture education. Then it explains the methodology and scope of research.
Chapter Ⅱ critically considers the culture education in the Korean language education. First, the concept of culture, extensive and stratified, is examined from the viewpoint of foreign language pedagogy which is relevant to the research, as well as from the those of humanities, sociology, and anthropology. Furthermore, a close inspection of the characteristics is carried out on each type of culture educations, i.e., ‘education for international understanding’, ‘multi-cultural education’, and ‘inter-cultural education.’ The status quo of culture education in the Korean language education is investigated in terms of debate over the status and methodology of culture education. There is a suggestion that the notion of culture, confined to the communication for improvement of language skills, be extended.
Chapter Ⅲ establishes two paradigms of culture education. The theoretical background for the new paradigms includes the three kinds of motivation, viz., instrumental motivation (la motivation utilitaire), integrated motivation (la motivation intégrative), and existential motivation (l'existence d'une motivation) for foreign language learners. In order to solidify this theory, there was a depth interview with Korean American learners and Chinese learners, who showed a significant difference between the cultural background of a native country and the motive of learning Korean. As a result, another purpose of developing ‘Cultural Literacy’ could be extracted as a paradigm, which is additional to improving ‘communicative competence’ in the goal and direction of culture education. There was also a relation set up between the two paradigms of culture education, improving ‘communicative competence’ and developing ‘Cultural Literacy.’
Chapter Ⅳ presents the principles of culture education and suggests a direction that the culture education should follow according to the two paradigms. To begin with, the features of Korean culture, as an educational subject, were examined, which were categorized into Cultural Products, Cultural Practice, and Cultural Perspective. The mutual relationships among the categories were also defined: Their relationships could be cast in the culture of visible outcomes and the culture of invisible actions, in which the Cultural Products and the Cultural Practice occur on the basis of the Cultural Perspective whereas the Cultural Products and the Cultural Practice influence the Cultural Perspective in return. These close reciprocal relationships among the categories of Korean culture were applied as a foundation for the basic principles of the culture education. Next, the basic principles of Korean culture education were presented: One is an ‘intercultural approach’ in which the Korean culture is positioned in comparison to a native country(residing country) and the other is a ‘holistic approach’ to the three categories of Korean culture that reflects the characteristics of Korean culture. Based on such, a direction of culture education was proposed in accord with the two paradigms of ‘communicative competence’ and ‘Cultural Literacy.’
Chapter Ⅴ reconsiders the key issues of the research and looks into the implications of culture education for the Korean language learners. In addition, it presents significance and limitation of the research, along with some suggestions for future research.
This research is meaningful in that it provided a new paradigm of fostering ‘Cultural Literacy’ for the existing study on the culture education which has been examined in terms of improving ‘communicative competence’ as part of language education. It is also important in that it sought a direction of educating culture. The results of this research can become the foundation in the research direction of culture education that mirrors the Korean language learners' diverse variables, and the suggested direction in compliance with the two paradigms is expected to serve as a milestone in the study of methodologies for the culture education. Moreover, the attempt that the properties of Korean culture were applied as a basic principle for the Korean culture education is also significant in that it intrinsically related the research of Korean culture with its education.