Analysis Of Current Chinese Syllabus And Teaching Materials For High School Students In South Korean

Chinese language (Mandarin) education in Korean high schools is an organic part of its national educational system. It is crucial to Mandarin education to ompile a syllabus for Mandarin and the education materials. The Korean High School Mandarin Education Syllabus, as the outline and basis of writing teaching materials for High school Mandarin education, was issued by the Education and Human Resources Department and amended as needed in practice. The latest Korean High School Mandarin Education Syllabus (the seventh version) was issued in 2007 and has been effective since 2009.The emphasis on Chinese culture and the cultural knowledge is the main feature of the seventh version. This study is centered on both textbooks and the culture introduction column, caculating and comparing the embodiment of the Syllabus's cultural contents in teaching materials. As affected by the changes in the Syllabus's cultural contents, the scope of the basic vocabulary has been apparently modified. This study carries out an analysis of newly added vocabulary and the remaining vocabulary, based on studying the nature and frequencies of the words, to prove the requirements that "substantive words are dominant" and "high frequencies" are fully reflected in the syllabus amendment and word selection. At the end of this paper, the two most widely used textbooks in Korea, taken for examples, are analyzed to summarize their characteristics and shortcomings and suggestions are given for future studies.This study concludes that the changes in the Syllabus's cultural contents suggest the realization on the part of Korea that high school Mandarin education is not only a process of teaching knowledge, but rather of cultivating a skill and culture transmission. As it is also shown in the textbooks, efforts are made to introduce Chinese culture and input culture. As for the vocabulary, the syllabus basic vocabulary and newly added vocabulary and basic vocabulary in textbook share the same features, all following the requirements thaf "substantive words are dominant" and "high frequencies". However, there is still plenty of room for improving the vocabulary's composition in the syllabus and textbook, the scientificalness and normalization in word selecting.As Mandarin increasingly spreads in world, this study focuses on overseas Mandarin education and analyzes the seventh Korean High School Mandarin Education Syllabus and textbooks, expecting to explore different countries' Mandarin education modes, promote compiling syllabus and nation-based theory study for compiling textbook, and improve the practice.