As South Korean society becomes a multicultural society, Korean-Chinese bilingual education gradually expands as a form of multicultural education, mostly in the elementary schools in the areas where multicultural students are concentrated. This study...
As South Korean society becomes a multicultural society, Korean-Chinese bilingual education gradually expands as a form of multicultural education, mostly in the elementary schools in the areas where multicultural students are concentrated. This study is a basic study for the establishment of a Korean-Chinese intercultural, bilingual curriculum for ordinary students and examines the elementary school curriculum and cultural learning contents in Korean and Chinese elementary textbooks. Based on this, this study explores the direction of the selection of cultural learning contents in Chinese education in terms of the connectivity between intercultural, bilingual education and the present elementary school curriculum. As a result of the discussion, the following suggestions have been drawn out. First, it is necessary to select cultural learning contents in various areas so that students can develop intercultural competence based on a wide understanding of Korean culture and Chinese culture. Second, it is necessary to present cultural learning contents, differing the levels according to students’ grade ranges, and considering students’ cognition level and cultural learning situation. Third, intercultural education should reflect both perspectives throughout all processes of intercultural, bilingual education, rather than dealing with certain cultural learning contents. One of the practical methods for this is to deal with the cultural contents of both countries in a more integrated way from a comparative perspective. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the present status concerning the level and range of cultural learning contents in the elementary school curriculum and to discuss measures for the selection of cultural learning contents for students’ cognition and cultural characteristics. Due to aforementioned points, this study will be of value as it can be utilized as a reference to prepare intercultural, bilingual curriculum.