The purpose of this study is to support grammar education that is following core competency in actual education fields by confirming grammar education contents for enhancing communication competency. For this purpose, the study was conducted about gra...
The purpose of this study is to support grammar education that is following core competency in actual education fields by confirming grammar education contents for enhancing communication competency. For this purpose, the study was conducted about grammar education contents for Korean language education experts and learners. This is because competency based education premises both learners and teachers as active education participants, and if such premise is realized, it can be called competency based education in its original meaning.
Competency based education makes different assumptions for teachers and learners because knowledge is not static and permanent but temporary and tentative. In competency based education, learners and teachers are active constructors of meaning.
In the meantime, the grammar education has limited the role of learners or teachers in education while advocating learner-centered education and field-oriented education. Although the study about learners and teachers in grammar education has been proceed, those were mostly studying ‘on’ learners and teachers, and studying ‘through’ learners and teachers were rare. Particularly, it was difficult for learners to express their voices about the contents of the education, and teachers were put behind education administrators in some cases. This situation has led to a gap between researches and practice in grammar education. So active efforts are needed to narrow the gap at this point when a new curriculum is applied to the education field.
In this perspective, this study conducted following process. First, to establish the theoretical basis for the study of grammar education contents for enhancing communication competency, we reviewed the core concepts of this study through various literature review. Competency is a concept that has totality, performing, context, and possibility of learning. In this paper, the core competency is defined as ‘It can be learned, not inherited. It is a multidimensional concept that includes intellectual ability, personality (attitude), and technology. It is an essentially required skill to successfully cope with the future life including future careers’ in terms of curriculum.
Communication competency is one of the core competencies of Korean language and it was a central objective. Communication ability is developed from language ability. And grammar ability is essential for communication ability. However, recent linguistics and linguistic pedagogy debates emphasize the aspect of language use, emphasizing fluency rather than accuracy. So, related to communication ability, researches and education related to strategy and discourse are active. In addition, in the foreign language teaching method, the communication teaching method is recognized as a relative teaching method contrary to the grammatical translation teaching method. For this reason, communication and grammar tend to be recognized as being distant from each other. However, the concept of communication competency established by various scholars necessarily includes grammar ability as a component. This suggests that grammar ability is important in communication competency and it is necessary to actively study communication competency in grammar education field.
Next, this study researched experts’ cognition about communication competency and grammar education. This study was conducted through two Delphi surveys on 27 Korean language education experts. As a result of the research, the experts pointed out that lack of knowledge about communication competency, inadequacy of knowledge about Korean language knowledge, and communication were not suggested in the concept of communication competency of Korean language. Also, 78% of respondents perceived grammar ability as a subordinate ability of communication ability. This shows that most experts agree that grammar competency is essential for accurate and smooth communication. In addition, experts answered that discourse and media achievement standards are most relevant to communication competency.
Finally, Needs analysis was conducted to study the contents of grammar education needed to enhance the learners’ communication competency. The students were asked to rank the grammar contents that they needed to improve their communication competency. The highest priority items are grammatical elements, meaning of words, grammar knowledge including standard pronunciation method and spelling. Unlike Korean language education experts, learners responded that they need education about grammar knowledge to enhance their communication competency.
The education needs of the learners about the contents of grammar differed according to the learners’ gender and major. The female students and the students of the department of the curriculum were demanding the necessity of education for the relatively large amount of grammar contents. In other words, the female students and liberal arts students have a demand for a more sophisticated and accurate Korean language ability, that is a high-level communication ability as the mother tongue learners. The results of this analysis provide implications for individualized education according to the gender characteristics of learners and liberal arts·natural science integration education in the future.