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Korean Textbook Development
The Korean Program at the University of Southern California has developed a series of new Korean textbooks, Interactive Korean. These textbooks are designed to develop practical communication with all four language skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing in a highly interactive format. In addition, the books not only emphasize important facets of the Korean language, but they also integrate many relevant points regarding Korean culture.
The basis for the textbook’s teaching method is the idea that authentic and meaningful coomunication should be the goal of classroom activities, and the language, in effect, is best learned through it. Moreover, Interactive Korean has an integrated syllabus that links language form (grammar and vocabulary) and the four language skills with various communicative functions. Every activity in each lesson includes the integration of the four skills. Specifically, the textbooks offer comprehensive grammar practice, as well as communicative activities that build fluency through practice and application. Added feature include high-interest topics that focus on both accuracy and fluency.
Interactive Korean: Beginning will be published by the University of Hawai’i Press in 2008, and the second book, Interactive Korean: Low-intermediate, is currently under revision.
The Korean Culture Day
Since 2002, the Project for Korean Language and Culture at USC has hosted the Korean Culture Day on the USC campus. This event has been hosted in partnership with the Los Angeles Korean cultural center, the USC East Asian Library, and the USC student club, Korean Culture Awareness Association. The purpose of this event is to provide exposure into Korean culture for the benefit of USC students, professors, and the Korean community through experiences of their rich culture, international students and Korean heritage students can build a stronger sense of cultural identity.
This event has provided opportunities to appreciate various performances, including taekwondo, fan dance, drum dance, and hwakwanmu. There is also, the chance to learn samulnor, and to play Korean traditional games.
Participants were able to sample various Korean foods including delicious bulgogi and Kimchi, to try on a hanbok (the traditional Korean costume), and watch Korean movies at the USC East Asian library.
The Korean Culture Experiencing Program at Dong-A University
Since 2006The Project for Korean Language and Culture at USC in partnership with Dong-A University has been conducting Korean Culture Experience Program for Korean overseas residents. The program’s purpose is that students develop Korean identity by learning the Korean language and experiencing Korean culture. This is a three-week-long program held at Dong-A University during summer break.
This program began in 2006 when 20 Korean heritage learners participated in the program. In 2006, 50 elementary and middle school students had an opportunity to learn the Korean language and experience the Korean culture with such events as a mask dance, making a mask and a porcelain vase.
Development of a Korean Language Proficiency Test for Students in Public and Weekend Korean Community Schools
Researchers in the project for Korean language and culture at USC visited public schools and weekend Korean community schools in the Los Angles Unified School District. The site visit is designed to review and analyze the existing types and methods of Korean language assessment as well as to identify the needs for the proficiency test both in K-12 and in weekend school settings. To achieve this, our researchers interviewed Korean language teachers and investigated existing types of assessment to analyze its: (a) content validity, (b) grade level appropriateness, (c) cultural fairness, and (d) presentation layout. Based on the need analysis, evaluation protocols will be developed for performance-based assessment tests for Korean programs in grade K-12. The assessment will be drawn from the ACTFL performance guidelines for K-12 Learners & 5 C’s (Communication, Culture, Connecting, Comparisons and Communities) of the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning.
Annual Korean Teachers Training Workshop
The Project for Korean Language and Culture at USC hosts an annual workshop for United States-based teachers who teach all levels of the Korean language. The Annual Korean Teachers Training Workshop started in 2001 to increase an interest in the teaching and learning of the Korean language. Its mission is to provide effective teaching skills and to encourage teachers to develop various teaching materials for class.
The 7th Annual Korean Teachers Training Workshop was held on January 27, 2007, focusing on teaching Korean through vocabulary. Seventy-six participants who came from California and Arizona attended the workshop. The opening lecture was titled “How to acquire the second language” by Ahn Hee Don, a professor of Konkuk University. The two main workshops offered were: (1) “Vocabulary errors and remedial methods for Korean heritage learners,” by Jihyun Park and Dong Hee Kim; and (2) “Vocabulary teaching through multimedia,” by Seonkyung Jeon, Yongjoon Cho, Misun Choe, and Jong Min Rhee.
The First International Conference on the Korean People
USC’s Project for Korean Language and Culture at University of Southern California held the First International Conference on the Korean People, “Past, Present, and Future” at USC Bovard Auditorium from June 2nd-3rd, 2006. It was sponsored by Hanmin University and World Cyber University in Korea. The purpose of the conference was to research the roots, movement, ideologies, and mission of the Korean people in over 200 countries worldwide from a linguistic, historical and cultural perspective. Also, through this research the conference aimed to contribute to the globalization of Pan-Korean studies through establishing a network among scholars.
In this conference a panel of experts in Korean studies had an in-depth discussion of inter-religious, inter-cultural, and inter-racial conflicts regarding the Korean people. Based on this discussion, the panel presented ideas to solve the currently distorted understanding of Korean tradition and customs. In addition, the panel discussed possible solutions for inter-generational conflict, strained relations between North and South Korea, and Eastern and Western nations.