The Present State and Outcomes of Korean Language Education for Multicultural Family Members

다문화 가정 대상 한국어 교육의 현황과 성과

The aim of this paper is to briefly consider the present state regarding Korean language education for multicultural family members, and to consider the outcomes produced so far. Married woman immigrants and their children must be one of the most significant groups for Korean language education in terms of their huge number and their roles and meanings in Korean society. In order to uplift the Korean communicative ability for multicultural family members, an effective operating system for Korean language education is needed, and also live and efficient Korean language instruction must be given by capable Korean language teachers with adequate teaching materials. A customized Korean language education must also be offered based on researches about the characteristics of multicultural family members as "Korean language learners". Korean language education for married woman immigrants has almost been set up in some extent, in terms of teaching materials and the teacher training system. Therefore, an efficient operating system must be constructed so that the developed teaching materials can be actively utilized in the site of Korean language education. A periodical retraining of Korean language teachers for multicultural family members is also necessary for the improvement of Korean language teaching efficiency. However, Korean language education for multicultural children is still in its infancy due to its late start-up. By the support of the Korean government, the curriculum of Korean language education has recently been fixed, KSL text books are being developed, and a diagnostic tool for evaluating their Korean language ability is now in progress. Many continuing concerns and support must still be provided for the improvement of their Korean language ability and fostering them as competitive and capable of speaking Korean.