초급 한국어 학습자의 양태부사 습득 연구

A Study on the Acquisition of Modal Adverbs by Beginner Learners of Korean

This study aims to examine the acquisition of modal adverbs by beginning learners of Korean by analyzing their types, frequency, and accuracy in spoken data. For this purpose, instances of modal adverbs were extracted and analyzed from free conversation data collected over five months from eight beginning-level Korean learners. The analysis revealed that the modal adverbs most frequently used at the early stage were ama (“probably”), jinjja (“really”), and sasil (“in fact”), among which jinjja and sasil showed relatively high semantic and syntactic accuracy. In contrast, ama exhibited lower syntactic accuracy due to its diverse range of co-occurring grammatical forms and learners’ incomplete acquisition of such patterns. Other frequently used modal adverbs included hoksi (“by any chance”), kkok (“surely”), and byeollo (“not particularly”). Among them, byeollo posed little difficulty for learners due to its relatively clear usage condition of appearing only in negative sentences. However, hoksi and kkok were more difficult to use accurately, as they can be combined with a wide variety of grammatical constructions. An analysis of Korean language textbooks showed that although jeongmal (“really/truly”) was widely presented in instructional materials, jinjja was acquired more quickly and accurately by learners. This suggests that modal adverbs which are frequently used in spoken discourse may be acquired more easily than modal adverbs which are frequently presented in textbooks. Based on these findings, this study argues that modal adverbs with high frequency but low grammatical accuracy should be reinforced through supplementary vocabulary-focused instruction that emphasizes both modal meanings and syntactic constraints.