Curricular Design for Content-Based Advanced North Korean Dialect Materials: Pedagogical Principles and Practical Issues

Abstract

ABSTRACT Providing optimal learning environments in which students can achieve higher levels of proficiency, ILR 2+ and above, is a big challenge to language educators. A well-designed curriculum is an essential resource in helping students to achieve higher levels of proficiency. This paper discusses the components of an advancedlevel, content-based curriculum, showing how these components are incorporated into the recently developed Advanced North Korean Dialect Materials (ANKDM). Featured in these materials are linguistic differences between South and North Korea, along with historical and socio-cultural references being used in current North Korea. The materials in ANKDM are interactive, online content-based instructional materials which provide students/learners with cultural and regional information concerning North Korea through different topics. The learning activities are carefully designed to incorporate Higher Order Thinking Skills, i.e., Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation skills, in addition to Memorization, Comprehension and Application skills. The texts used in these materials are carefully selected to represent projective and evaluative text modes, nonstandard linguistic features, and a high level of cultural references. These materials, integrated into meaningful tasks and projects, will guide students in learning a variety of subject matters as well as linguistic elements regarding North Korea.