— Overview
Education in Korean as a foreign language, the writer says, came into view from the 1980s, on the back of Korea’s economic growth and the holding of the 1988 Olympics. Demand among foreigners for learning Korean has increased since then, and the field at home and abroad has grown through the work of scholarly societies, the education of Korean teachers, the compiling of textbooks, and a test of Korean ability. In this way, the writer says, Korean as a foreign language has taken its place as a field of independent study.
What should come first in teaching Korean grammar is the question of what to teach foreigners, and the question of how to teach it. The former is bound up with the content of education, the latter with method. The paper sets out to discuss, with cases of foreigners’ Korean, what and how it would be desirable to teach. Among the types of error that easily arise when a person uses various communicative strategies to get a thought across, the writer names the use of an avoidance strategy.
When Korean is taught as a foreign language, grammar teaching is indispensable. Older teaching of Korean grammar, the account says, was centered less on linguistic function than on a mere listing of knowledge, in the domain of Korean linguistics as an abstract system. As a result, teaching and learning about the use of the language did not take place, and there was little help for an actual improvement in the ability to use Korean.
For that reason, some people often neglected grammar teaching in Korean education. In that situation, the state enacted, in 2005, the Framework Act on the Korean Language, in order to disseminate properly Korean as a distinctive cultural heritage of the people. That “to the present” in the writer’s opening stays in the writer’s moment; later statutes are not added here. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
— Contents and key concepts
From the 1980s, and two questions
Education in Korean as a foreign language, the writer says, came into view from the 1980s, on the back of Korea’s economic growth and the holding of the 1988 Olympics. Demand among foreigners for learning Korean has increased since then, and the field at home and abroad has grown through the work of scholarly societies, the education of Korean teachers, the compiling of textbooks, and a test of Korean ability. In this way, Korean as a foreign language has taken its place as a field of independent study.
What should come first in teaching Korean grammar is the question of what to teach foreigners, and the question of how to teach it. The former is bound up with the content of education, the latter with method. The paper sets out to discuss, with cases of foreigners’ Korean, what and how it would be desirable to teach. Among the types of error that easily arise when a person uses various communicative strategies to get a thought across, the writer names the use of an avoidance strategy.
A listing of knowledge, and a 2005 act
When Korean is taught as a foreign language, grammar teaching is indispensable. Older teaching of Korean grammar, the account says, was centered less on linguistic function than on a mere listing of knowledge, in the domain of Korean linguistics as an abstract system. As a result, teaching and learning about the use of the language did not take place, and there was little help for an actual improvement in the ability to use Korean. For that reason, some people often neglected grammar teaching in Korean education.
In that situation, the state enacted, in 2005, the Framework Act on the Korean Language, in order to disseminate properly Korean as a distinctive cultural heritage of the people. That “to the present” in the writer’s opening stays in the writer’s moment; later statutes are not added here. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Source
- An account of Korean grammar education as a foreign language since the 1980s and the 1988 Olympics, of a habit of listing abstract knowledge, and of the Framework Act on the Korean Language enacted in 2005.
Last updated: 14 November 2026
Refund policy
- Change of mind / refund requested after partial use / more than 7 days after purchase
◆ Exceptions
- File errors / cannot download or open the file
◆ How to request a refund: send a 1:1 inquiry via Customer Service at the top