The Teaching And Learning Of Chinese Characters In South Korean Elementary Schools

With the increasing development of China’s economy, its history as an ancientcivilization, and, with China being the most populous country whose world influence hasbeen expanding-foreign interest in learning the Chinese language has increasedsignificantly. In South Korea an increased interest in Chinese culture and friendlydiplomatic relations between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) has resulted inChinese language classes gradually entering Korea’s education system. Teaching Chineseas a career has expanded beyond China and is travelling abroad. In Jeollanamdo (a regionin the Republic of Korea where the author teaches Chinese) you can even learn Chinesein elementary school classrooms.This paper has been developed by consulting literature, analyzing questionnaires,and has been combined with the author’s personal efforts in researching the teachingChinese characters in primary schools in South Korea. The author will analyze errors inthe teaching of Chinese characters and will make some teaching proposals.This paper is divided into four sections.The first section outlines the purpose and significance of this topic, relevant currentresearch and research methods, innovation and the lack of research and papers like thisone.The second section explains Korea’s policy on the teaching of Chinese characters,highlights the1800Chinese words emphasized in Korean Education and analyzes andclassifies textbooks for teaching Chinese characters in South Korea.In the third section there is an analysis of the results of a questionnaire on the statusof teaching teachers how to Chinese characters, and Chinese character learning bystudents in Korean elementary schools. Writing errors and the causes of these errors aresummarized based on students’ writing homework. The fourth section proposes some teaching suggestions based on the currentclassroom situation of Chinese character teaching and common student errors and hopesto provide some useful lessons on the teaching of Chinese characters.