This article focus on the Chinese education programs and materials in Korea retrieved from Professor King Shen-Zhe’s essay:

1.       Program structure and materials

The Chinese related materials available in bookstores are “Chinese reading/conversation”, “Chinese language structure”, “examination questions”, “Chinese dictionary”, ”Chinese Rhyme/phonetics/Characters”, and “Chinese lexis”. Compare to other second foreign languages such as English and Japanese, Chinese has become the majority in the market.    

20 years ago, there was no Chinese book fulfilling the requirements. Nowadays, the Chinese publication market has been a obvious contract to other foreign language publications. However, the selling volume does not mean effective learning results, in present, the huge selling volume must go with complete quality development.    

Over 400 different types of basic Chinese learning materials exist in the market. ^[1][17] In contrast, because the market demand is much less, the intermediate and advanced Chinese learning materials are not effectively developed while those have already existed in the market, which employ Chinese literatures(prose and novels) and articles from newspaper or magazines. Thus, based on pedagogic theory and for drawing long term strategy, completely developing materials has been the top priority. Now it is time to share experiences and collect everyone’s useful ideas. It is the time to share knowledge, but posses on our own.   

Now let’s take a look at materials adopted in regular and irregular programs.

Materials used in secondary education are determined by government, and which adopted in college or university are selected by schools. ^[2][18] In terms of common subjects, the main focus is the standard of basic Chinese. The results show that universities only plan Chinese language programs in basic level and levels above intermediate are rarely seen.

The first time while Korean senior high school opened Chinese courses was in 1954 (1954-1962). The Chinese education programs then can be categorized in 4 dimensions, including “General purposes of Chinese education”, “Teaching goals”, and “Codes of conduct for each grade”. The objective is to help students to be able to have command in basic and oral ability in words and structures as well as the comprehensive ability of other countries’’ culture. Afterward, from 7^th educational program (year 2000), students can have the chance to select second foreign language. The “Chinese I “course mainly focuses on “to help people to have command in basic Chinese and practice in daily life. Base on it, Korean students can communicate actively with Chinese people.

In 1956, Korean senior high school had first time to published “Chinese Readings” and started to adopt the term of “Chinese language”.

In sixth educational program (1995-1999), the Chinese phonetic symbols were changed from notation to alphabets spelling and the writing way was also changed from traditional to simplified Chinese.

Since 1992 Korea established diplomatic relation with China, the main stream off Chinese education has been transferred from Taiwan to China.  

In terms of materials, there was only one publisher dealing with Chinese materials, but nowadays, there are five publishers which had passed verification and certification are publishing materials for secondary schools.

In most of colleges, the long-term classes adopt the Korean translation published by Beijing Language and Culture University and the short-term classes mostly adopt Chinese learning materials which actually do not suitable for reality. Only a few numbers of colleges self-developed and adopt on-line materials. ^[3][19] However, on-line system is not popularized in all colleges. Faculties are mostly graduated from Korean University majoring in Chinese or who had studied in Chinese. In recent, some lecturers with master or PhD degrees appeared, and these lecturers also include Chinese or Korean-Chinese. Furthermore, Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) also opened Chinese learning programs in broadcasting way which are conducted by professors in universities or famous lecturers in colleges.

From the aspect of the whole Korea, there are more than 10 publishers which specialize in Chinese language materials and other more than 40 publishers specialize in English and Japanese. Most publishers mainly publish general Chinese conversation and reading as well as materials for universities or adult learning. However, materials designed for Korean are rarely seen but just edited or translated materials according to Korean reality which are published in China. Every material goes with tapes, MP3 disks or video files.  ^[4][20] 

The best selling Chinese material is published by Beijing Language University called “New Strategy to learn Chinese” 《新攻略中国语》(Original title: Speed Chinese oral practices) and 《301句로 끝내는 中国语会话》(Original title: 301 sentences for Chinese conversation).Besides, there is an abnormal situation, the sell of books about HSK account for 50 % of the Chinese book market, but HSK is just a exam designed for students who attempt to study in China. Meanwhile, the Chinese learning materials in domestic Korea in basic and intermediate levels are more than 400 types which account for the majority of the whole market. But advanced materials remain relatively rare, which is also an important problem of Chinese learning in Korea.

Even though there are publishers co-developed Chinese materials with Chinese publisher in Korea, there is no actual material aiming at Korean learners with bilateral cooperation. We hope urgently that the materials which are suitable for Korean tastes, co-operate with the learning hours in Chinese and take Korean’s good command in Chinese characters into consideration can be developed soon.

The foreign language teaching in the future should enhance the ability of communication and exchanging in describing sentences and discard the materials or teaching methods with grammar structure and memorize mechanically. Thus, the relative oral ability tests and materials aiming at socializing ability are urgently expected.  

The cultivation and demands of best lecturers are arising with the development of secondary education specializing in Chinese teaching. In addition to open teachers’ training programs in Chinese departments to cultivate professional Chinese teachers, colleges also set up external Chinese programs in Education graduation school (external Chinese graduation school) which produce about 250 master dissertations each year. Moreover, students in graduation school should finish all modules in 5 semesters before graduation and join the teachers’ qualification exam hold by government. After being qualified as a teacher, students can be arranged to step on the stage to teach.   

Teachers in elementary schools are mostly from Education graduation schools who major in Chinese. Teachers in high schools are all pass the qualification test hold by government. High school teachers should finish the internship for a month or study in the workshop provided by Chinese government for 5 weeks in summer vocation.

Chinese teachers in domestic high schools are fully enough, but a continuous training program for teachers is necessary to be established.^[5][21]

[1][17] Most of these books are published in Chinese and translated or edited in Korean. Books which take Korean Chinese-learners or foreign language learners in consideration are not published yet.

[2][18]  Only 1 Chinese materials for junior high schools and 5 for senior high schools in 2008.

[3][19] Please refer to http://www.jrchina.com/。                                                                                 

[4][20] In addition, teaching aids and multi-media materials are generally seen in classroom. Teaching plan is necessary as well as writing and using teachers’ books.

[5][21] Different from other foreign languages, since Chinese and Koreans with Chinese passports migrated massively to Korea, Chinese teachers become no longer insufficient. But they have be trained from basic teaching and research program to be professional teachers with teaching system knowledge. Besides, their learning attitude should be observed with a complete evaluation system.