About This Instructional Resource

About The Instructional Context

The Korean language program at Penn State University consists of a 3-semester sequence of 4-credit courses that begin with the fundamentals of the Korean alphabet, sentence structure, and basic vocabulary, and build toward enhancing students' ability in speaking, reading and writing in situations encountered in daily life. The curriculum is based on textbooks published by the Language Research Institute at Seoul National University and enriched with instructional materials created by individual instructors. Initial placements are based on an oral interview and progress is monitored throughout the semester via both standardized and informal oral and written assessments. The Korean language program fulfills the university’s foreign language requirement for graduation.

About The Teacher

So-Eun is a Korean national who holds a MA in Teaching English as a Second Language and is completing a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics. She has taught in the Korean language program at Penn State for 3 years. The traditional nature of the curriculum and a consistent mix of domestic and heritage language students create unique instructional challenges for So-Eun. She relies on a range of instructional and classroom management strategies to cope with the differences in her domestic and heritage language students’ language proficiencies and attitudes toward learning Korean.

About The Students

Sara was born in Korea to a Korean mother and an American father. She lived there for two years before moving to the United States. Her mother’s parents moved to the United States shortly afterward and live very close to Sara’s family. Although she doesn’t have any family remaining in Korea, Sara returns regularly for visits. She has been exposed to Korean all of her life, but only began formal study at the university level since they did not offer Korean at her high school. She is very much enjoying her Korean class and states that she is embracing her Korean side.

Lindsay was born in Korea, adopted by an American couple, and raised in the United States. Except for practicing Tae Kwon Do, she has had no experiences with the Korean language and culture. She doesn’t perceive there to be any differences between heritage and domestic students in her classroom. As she says, “We’re all students, we’re all here at Penn State.”

Casey lived in Korea for two years while her dad was in the Army. She attended an American school from fifth to sixth grade and took Korean as a required course and so she considers herself a Heritage language learner. After returning to the United States, Casey and her twin sister have visited Korea once when they were fifteen and really enjoyed the food. Casey says she would have taken Korean in high school but they didn’t offer it. Casey and her sister are taking Korean now at the university level and they really enjoy it.

Yi-Ting grew up in Taiwan moved to New York City a couple of years ago to attend private school. He’s a speaker of Chinese and English and is now learning Korean. He began learning Korean from his Korean friends while living in New York City and when he came to Penn State he enrolled in Korean 2. He did well in Korean 2, and after Korean 3, he plans to take Korean 4 in his next year of study.

Eric was born in Korean, adopted as an infant and grew up as an English speaker. His first exposure to Korean came in his senior year in high school when he went to Korea on an exchange program. He started taking Korean when he was a sophomore at Penn State and enjoys studying it. He thinks that speaking, and especially, pronunciation is easiest for him. He hopes to return to Korea some day and be able learn more about the culture.