A Study on Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language in North Korea: Focusing on Conversation Textbooks for International Students

조선의 '외국어로서 조선어교육' 연구 - 류학생 회화 교재를 중심으로 -

This study dealt with an issue of teaching Korean as a foreign language in North Korea through textbook analysis. The literature in this field has been quite rare compared to that in other fields in Korean language education, which is due to the adverse circumstances under which research into North Korea is currently carried out. The textbooks analyzed were 조선말회화(1) and 조선말회화(3) and the two learners who had studied Korean with these textbooks were interviewed. The main results show that (a) the grammar points in each chapter are unevenly distributed in 조선말회화(1), which makes it not look learner-centered; (b) each chapter in 조선말회화(1) is composed of speech acts, topics and situations, which renders it useful to its learners; (c) 조선말회화(3) emphasizes Korean oral discoursal features as a conversational textbook; and (d) 조선말회화(3) also covers much of reading comprehension-focused contents, which its learners may find burdensome. Foreseeing a possibility of teaching Korean as a foreign language in a reunified Korea makes it critical to carry out research into teaching Korean as a foreign language in North Korea. This calls for future collaborative research into this issue between two Koreas.