This study set out to analyze the perceptions, uses, and error patterns of postpositions in Korean among Korean learners at the intermediate level, examine differences between the experiment and control group before and after education, and devise a t...
This study set out to analyze the perceptions, uses, and error patterns of postpositions in Korean among Korean learners at the intermediate level, examine differences between the experiment and control group before and after education, and devise a teaching plan for postpositions to reduce their errors.
In Korean, postpositions are part of the essential grammar elements, being used even in simple and short sentences. They are taught and learned starting in the elementary level(Level 1) of Korean study. Korean learners, however, have a difficult time using postpositions and record a high error rate of them, which was demonstrated in the present study. There are a couple of causes behind them: first, postpositions of Korean themselves are difficult. They have various and special meanings in addition to grammatical functions. Since their usage environments are similar, it is challenging to distinguish and use accurately the functions and meanings of each postposition; Secondly, the Korean curriculum offers no further education about the postpositions covered at the elementary level and remains at the level of adding new postpositions, which raises a need for effective and repetitive postposition education.
The investigator analyzed compositions by 22 Korean learners at Levels 2, 3 or 4 at the international exchange center of a university, examined the frequency and patterns of using and making a error with ‘이/가’, ‘을/를’, ‘은/는’, ‘에’, and ‘에서’ and categorized them into ‘substitution’, ‘omission’ and ‘addition’ for analysis. Based on the analysis results, the subjects were divided into the experiment and control group, which were confirmed to be homogeneous based on the t-test results. While the experiment group received postposition education in a morpheme-centric teaching method, the control group did postposition education in a common method. After education, the investigator analyzed the total number of phrases, frequency of postpositions, and error rates of each postposition in their compositions for comparison purposes.
The findings show that both the groups had educational effects in the percentage of correct answers in the grammaticality test and that of errors in compositions. The experiment group made a little bit better improvement, but the change was not statistically significant. It is, however, noteworthy that the experiment group increased in the number of phrases used in compositions after education. After getting some understanding and confidence with regard to the use of postpositions through education, they seem to develop desire for writing and write a composition of many phrases. There was statistical significance in the changes to the number of phrases used by the experiment group(the experiment group: an increase from 824 to 1,176; the control group: a decrease from 779 to 686).
When there is repetitive and cyclical education and learning for postpositions, they can ensure their accuracy and appropriateness and be connected to communication abilities.