Culture Learning Curriculum for Advanced Learners of Korean

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study introduces and discusses a culture learning curriculum for advanced learners of Korean at the Korean Language Flagship Center (KLFC) undergraduate program at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UHM) in which Content-based instruction (CBI) models have been implemented as a primary pedagogical approach in order to train students to reach a superior level of proficiency in Korean. Cultural awareness of an L2 is often called the fifth skill in language learning, in addition to the four basic language skills. The current trend in foreign language education is to emphasize culture learning, insisting that language learning cannot be mastered without knowledge of the target language culture. Two culture learning courses designed under the theme-based instruction model (one of the three CBI models) are described and discussed below, along with their accompanying CBI-based textbooks and activities for language classroom use.