재외동포 유아 대상 한국어 교육 방안

Ways of Teaching Korean for Overseas Korean Preschool Children

There is a high potential for most overseas Korean heritage children to become adult bilingual speakers since they grow up in a bilingual environment. If this comes true and they become perfect bilingual speakers, they are eligible for growing up as talented people needed for the era of globalization who are proficient in local language and culture as well as in Korean language and culture. In this sense, the importance of Korean language education for these children cannot be overemphasized. However, there are many cases where they are less competent in using Korean than in using local language because they had fewer chances for exposure to Korean language than comparable children who live in Korea. Especially, experience using Korean language during early childhood, which can be called as a ‘critical period’ in language acquisition, plays a decisive role in their becoming perfect bilingual speakers. Therefore, this paper aims to look into Korean language learning environment for overseas Korean heritage children and its subsequent linguistic features of their Korean language. In addition, this paper gives careful consideration to stages of development of their language and character recognition and seeks for effective ways of teaching Korean, which are in tune with their developmental stages.