About this resource:
The nature of the learners
Children enter the early years of schooling with established oracy skills in one or more languages and varying degrees of early literacy capability. For young students, learning typically focuses on their immediate world of family, home, school, friends and neighbourhood. They are learning how to socialise with new people, share with others, and participate in structured routines and activities at school. Typically, they have little to no experience of Korean language and culture.
Korean language learning and use
Korean language learning at this stage is focused on developing learners’ oral language and familiarising learners with the language through interaction involving enjoyment, imagination and action. Through classroom routines and action-related activities such as playing games, dancing, singing and chanting, students learn and use Korean to socialise with others and explore the primary world around them. Non-verbal expressions such as miming, movement and gestures are an important part of students’ learning. Children begin to hear single words, phrases and short simple texts in Korean, relating them to concrete objects and people seen and known in their immediate environment, to what they feel and do, and to topics about self, home, family, and classroom activities. They listen to, use and experiment with simple formulaic language for routines such as greetings, introductions and classroom language, and become familiar with meaningful sounds in Korean. With the introduction of Hangeul, children become further aware of the relationships between sounds and letters, and between syllables and syllable blocks in Korean speech and script. As their phonological awareness increases, they begin to develop literacy in Korean, identifying simple Korean words in short texts through activities such as shared/supported reading or sight word games. They start to write Hangeul by copying or tracing words, and later co-construct longer texts such as chants and rhymes. Through the repeated use of simple patterns where basic key particles, verb endings and honorific elements are used, children notice that some Korean grammatical elements and rules are different from those of English. As students use simple language patterns with culturally appropriate gestures or body language, they recognise elements of Korean culture such as politeness embedded in the Korean language and its use, and become aware that there are different ways to communicate using languages other than their own.
Contexts of interaction
The primary context for students’ interaction is the language classroom, with the teacher of Korean language and peers. Students may have some access to Korean-speaking peers in wider school or community settings. Their use of Korean primarily relates to classroom routines and activities, drawing on their interest in play, movement and games and on their curiosity about the world around them.
Texts and resources
Learners have exposure to a variety of spoken, visual and written/digital texts. They listen and respond to teacher talk, and take part in songs, play, stories and simple conversations. Written and digital texts include picture books, wall charts, Big Books and teacher-generated materials such as games, labels, captions and flashcards. Writing development is supported through tracing and copying simple words as sight words and short modelled sentences in texts such as greeting cards or captions, and through co-creating shared resources such as word walls or storyboards.
Features of Korean language use
Students become familiar with the sound system of the Korean language, recognising Korean pronunciation as being different from that of their own language/s. They learn to pronounce syllable blocks as part of sight words, recognising the association between simple vowel and consonant sounds with their corresponding letters. They recognise, use and distinguish simple Korean intonation patterns for statements and questions. They become familiar with and use the pattern of simple basic sentences such as those with -요 at the end, and notice similarities and differences between Korean and English. They begin to develop curiosity about Korea and Korean people and about different ways of making meaning using Korean.
Level of support
Children need rich language input and their learning is supported with the ample provision of scaffolding and language modelling. They need opportunities to build and test hypotheses about the Korean language and culture, to review, recycle and revise them, and to adjust their use of the Korean language and understanding of Korean culture. Attention to diversity in students’ learning needs and backgrounds, and to the provision of continuous encouragement, cues, feedback and opportunities for learners to reflect, support these hypothesis building and testing processes. As the main source of target language input, the teacher provides ample models and examples of the Korean language and culture with the support of visual cues and resources such as pictures, realia, objects and charts.
The role of English
While the teacher and learners are encouraged to use Korean wherever possible, English is used for discussion, reflection, questions and explanations relating to complex ideas or aspects of languages or cultures, and in tasks which involve moving between the two languages, such as bilingually naming objects or images.
About this record:
http://rdf.australiancurriculum.edu.au/elements/2018/05/0d3c6b17-d5a3-4996-bfbe-45403f70f3b9.rdf