An analysis on teachers’ perception on the education curriculum for prospective Korean language teachers

Abstract

Since the enactment of the “Framework Act on the Korean Language” (herein after “Act”), researchers have focused their studies on measuring whether the Act played a huge role in providing Korean education. This can be confirmed by many, that the Act has indeed played a huge part in providing Korean language education. However, little attention was given to the validity of the education curriculum for prospective Korean language teachers as provided by the Act. Therefore, this survey has been conducted to provide an insight to teachers` perception of the Korean language curriculum for prospective teachers and will test whether such perception meets the standards in which the Act has been enacted. In this survey, we have received response on the importance of each domain and subject in the areas of Korean language education as viewed by the Korean language teachers. The results revealed the importance in the following order: Teaching Practice, Korean Linguistics, Korean Educational Linguistics, General Linguistics, and Korean Culture. These results strongly suggest that there is a need for the current curriculum, laid out by the Act, to be reconsidered to stress different levels of importance and time assignment for each category. The survey analysis shows the disparity in importance within the curriculum between the Act and the views in which the Korean language teachers perceive Korean language education. While further research is needed to confirm the analysis of this survey, this area of research will be instrumental in determining the suggestive shapes of the curriculum governed by the Act in the years to come. (Busan University of Foreign Studies)