Returning Secondary School Students’ Adaption to Korean Language Education and Aspects of Their Using the Korean Language: A Self-reflective Study
권순희
이화여자대학교
korean language education research 50Vol. 4No. pp.41-80 (2015)
Abstract
Since Korea entered the era of globalization, over 20,000 Korean students have been leaving Korea for their study abroad every year and almost the same number of students is returning to Korea. According to the recent statistics, the number of returning students reached 14,000. Returning students are experiencing a culture shock again. They have already experienced the following stages of culture shock in a foreign country: (a) Honeymoon or Traveler’s Stage, (b) Culture Shock Stage, (c) Adjustment, Reintegration, or Progressive Recovery Stage, and (d) Acceptance, Resolution, or Celebration Stage. When returnees come back to Korea, they go through three stages of culture shock while they are readjusting themselves to their own culture. Strictly speaking it could be a domestic-foreign-domestic culture shock or a foreign-domestic-foreign culture shock, in that order. To investigate the process of returnees’ culture shock with respect to their learning and school life, a survey was conducted. The subjects were 4 undergraduates, 1 graduate, and their mother who had once attended a secondary school in Korea after they returned Korea. The results showed how they were coping with the following issues: laissez-faire education compared to systematized education in a foreign country, uncomfortable culture of seonhubae ‘senior-junior relationship’; differences in language usage; differences in classroom atmosphere; and differences in evaluation criteria. Another survey of returnees’ reflections on their usage of the Korean language was also conducted to find whether they could recall their former errors or monitor their current misusages. Some suggestions were made to propose the Korean language education for returning secondary school students. First, returnees need a multimodal instruction. Second, further study should focus on educational communities including classroom settings rather than on an individual learner’s case study. Third, a new approach to the Korean language education is required; teachers should be aware of their learners’ culture shock. Finally, teachers’ instruction should be based on reflective socialization; language teachers should accept every individual learner’s cultural and linguistic identities.
Keywords
귀국 학생문화 충격 과정다모드 교수학습법문화적 정체성언어적 정체성성찰적 사회화
