언어·문화 통합 교육을 위한 블렌디드 상호문화교류 커리큘럼 -미국 대학 초·중급 한국어 수업 사례-

Integrated Language and Culture Instruction Through a Blended Intercultural Exchange Curriculum: A Case Study of Beginning and Intermediate Korean Courses in a U.S. University

Since the advent of communicative language teaching in the 1980s, the field of foreign language education has undergone a cultural turn, highlighting the growing importance of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Although culture is now recognized as integral to language education, effectively integrating it into classroom practice remains a challenge. This study presents a Blended Intercultural Exchange curriculum implemented in beginning and intermediate Korean courses at a U.S. university. Grounded in a project-based learning approach, the curriculum combines classroom-based Korean instruction with online intercultural exchanges and a short-term cultural excursion in Korea, culminating in a collaborative field research project with Korean university students. By structuring these components around sustained inquiry and collaboration, the curriculum provides a concrete model of language–culture integrated pedagogy designed to enhance ICC among lower-level foreign language learners in overseas contexts. Drawing on student reflections collected through post-program surveys and group discussions, this study examines the curriculum’s effectiveness in developing learners’ intercultural communicative competence and discusses its implications for diverse institutional and pedagogical settings.