The purpose of this study is to establish text elaboration measure of reading chapter in "Textbook for EPS-TOPIK", "Industrial Safety I" and "Industrial Safety II", to suggest practical examples in order to reduce and prevent any unneeded industrial a...
The purpose of this study is to establish text elaboration measure of reading chapter in "Textbook for EPS-TOPIK", "Industrial Safety I" and "Industrial Safety II", to suggest practical examples in order to reduce and prevent any unneeded industrial accidents of foreign workers due to their lack of Korean language understanding ability. Textbook for EPS-TOPIK is a textbook developed by the government to prepare foreign workers for the Korean language test and it is available freely at no cost through the internet web-site for the Industrial Human Resources Corporation. The service benefits enabled learners to learn on their own without any other resources. However, the text appeared in the textbook has written in more complicated way than its actual reading, for foreign workers to understand based on their level of comprehension in Korean. The data has been translated without any consideration for its learners. Some of these words are jargon, which cannot be understood unless the person has the particular knowledge in the area. This study raises the necessity of revising the reading text of the Textbook for EPS-TOPIK which includes Industrial Safety Chapter and also conducted research for establishing revised measure by selecting research issues. My research topics are as following.
First, what is the entire level of the grammar and lexicon in the Textbook for EPS-TOPIK, is it elementary, intermediate, or advanced level?
Second, what is the level of lexicon of the textbook for EPS-TOPIK Industry Safety chapter, is it elementary, intermediate, or advanced?
Third, what is the reading text of textbook for EPS-TOPIK Industry Safety chapter, which structured in accordance of the learner's level of Korean language ability?
Textbook for EPS-TOPIK was divided into the whole-chapter and the industrial safety chapter. The grammar and lexicon contents were extracted from each chapter, and classified as the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels based on the 'Four Levels of International standard curriculum for Korean Language'. As a result, all chapters of Textbook for EPS-TOPIK were identified as beginner’s levels in both grammar and lexicons. Meanwhile, the industrial safety chapter does not have a lexicon. Next, the study analyzed the preceding research data and confirmed that the actual level of the Korean language ability of foreign workers is elementary level. The results of the study suggest that the level of the whole chapters of textbook for EPS-TOPIK are not the same as that of industrial safety chapter and also figured out that industrial safety chapter is composed of higher-level lexicon compared to the actual level of the Korean language ability of foreign workers. In addition, lexical elaboration, structural elaboration, and Lexical and structural elaboration that were prepared for revision texts and based on the revised tests. The study presented the actual instances of industrial safety chapter readings for foreign workers' Korean language.
However, this study does not show the effectiveness of revised text due to time and space limitations. Therefore, further study should be conducted to clarify the effect of text before and after the revision. In addition, in the study, the revised target of lexical elaboration, structure elaboration, lexical and structural elaboration were selected as different texts respectively, but the same texts were not applied to each different elaboration method. In order to identify the most effective method among the three elaboration methods used in this study, there is a need for a follow-up study to compare the effectiveness of the revised text. The influx of foreign workers in Korea has increased rapidly due to economic growth, declining fertility rate, and aging population, and currently they are living as important members of our society. However, quantitative and qualitative research have not been conducted in comparison with other learning groups. New textbooks for foreign workers should be developed and measured to save time and money by revising in the most efficient way as well as to developed to meet its purpose and stage. The study has a significance. This is the first study clarifies the grammar and lexicon level of the whole chapters of the kind and the industrial safety chapter which suggests the revising measures of the reading text in the Textbook for EPS-TOPIK. By applying some of these various efforts and processes, it is my wish that the textbook improves foreign workers' Korean language ability and prevents any further accidents.