A Study on ‘Hara’ Style Endings in the Korean Language Education Textbooks

Abstract

This paper examined how ‘hara style endings were suggested as target grammatical items in Korean language education textbooks and suggested some basic directions for improvement. ‘Hara style endings are sentence-final endings which are used typically in written texts in which a specific addressee is not assumed. Data sources were from six series of Korean language education textbooks which are published by well-known Korean language education institutes since 2015. The findings of data analysis showed that ‘hara style endings have seldom been suggested as target grammatical items. Only two series of the textbooks suggested declarative forms as target items, and only one series suggested interrogative forms as target items. Neither imperative form nor suggestive form has been suggested as a target item in any textbooks. This paper also suggested some basic directions for improvement. First, every types of ‘hara style endings need to be suggested as target items. Second, they need to be suggested in separation from sentence-final endings of same forms which are used in spoken language. Third, information on text genre in which each ending is used needed to be offered besides information on media. Finally, information on different usages of each interrogative form is need to be offered for distinction.