БНСУ-д монгол хэл заан сургаж ирсэн түүхэн байдал, тулгамдсан асуудлууд

Survey of Teaching Mongolian in the Republic of Korea and its problematic issues

This small article presents an overview of the history and present stateof Mongolian language education in Korea, with focus on Mongolian language pedagogical materials currently in use at academic institutions the Republic of Korea. Historically, Kitan (an early Mongolic language) was first taught in Korea (Koryŏ高麗) in 995 A.D. After this point in time, there is no clear evidence regarding to the teaching of Mongolic languages in Korea until the Chosŏn朝鮮 period (1392-1897), when we have information that there was a regular exchange of teachers and students from and to Mongolia. After this period, there is no information on the teaching of Mongolian in Korea until modern times. In 1990, Mongolia became a democratic country. Not long after March, 26, 1990—the date that Mongolia and Korea established diplomatic relations—Mongolian language education in Korea began to resume. Beginning in the early 1990s up to the present, various institutions of higher education in Korea have established Mongolian language programs, including Dankook University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea University, Seoul National University, and so on. This article will largely focus on pedagogical materials employed in post-1990 Mongolian language education at such institutions in Korea, including textbooks, language handbooks, and dictionaries. Mongolian language textbooks, handbooks, and dictionaries are being in use widely at academic institutions in Korea. These materials can be divided into two kinds: 1) Those written by Korean scholars, and 2) those written by Mongolian and other scholars. 1. Mongolian language textbooks, handbooks, and dictionaries written by Korean professors and other scholars: Korea is one of leading country interms of Mongolian educations. They established various academic programs in Mongolian studies, offering bachelor’s degree programs, master’s degrees, and doctoral degree programs. Most oldest institutions in Korea is the Dankook University Department of Mongolian Studies, and the associated Institute for Mongolian Studies established in 2008. Owing to the efforts of these institutions, as well as professors and scholars at other private and national universities in Korea, Mongolian studies in Korea has reached its present state of development. 2. Below I provide a list of Mongolian language textbooks, handbooks, and dictionaries written by Korean professors and other scholars in Korea in the past 15 years: Below I provide a list of Mongolian language textbooks, handbooks, and dictionaries written by Mongolian scholars, as well as scholars outside of Mongolia. These works are also used for research at teaching at academic institutions in Korea. 3. Issues relating to the textbooks and handbooks: Most of the textbooks tend to be mechanical, focusing on grammatical rules accompanied by several example sentences for review and practice. Since there are only a few example sentences provided for each grammatical rule, the textbooks do not provide enough practice for students to learn to speak. The texts do not focus enough on Mongolian culture, society, life style and daily interests, Mongolian youth, and other essential topics for accurately learning Mongolian language. For this reason, the student may feel less interest about the textbooks. The textbooks do not include sufficient supplementary materials, such as video and audio files or other media-based activities for students to catch students’ interest and give them an opportunity to study at home and positively reinforce language skills.