With the advent of a global era, the number of foreigners coming to Korea is increasing. The number of elementary school students wanting to learn Korean language is increasing owing to the increase of multicultural children resulting from the increase of international marriage and entrance of foreigners and their children seeking employment in Korea.
The Ministry of Education is seeking to change gender discriminatory expressions used by students learned from textbooks to gender equal expressions. Even though the number of students trying to learn Korean is increasing, changes in Korean language education are scarce. In this regard, this study believed that education from gender perspective for learners is necessary not only in overall Korean language education sector but also at Korean language learning environments. The study target was textbook for elementary students because elementary school years is a period prior to settling gender perspective and the time is appropriate for gender education than middle school and high school years. Performing gender equality education in elementary school is essential and conducting such an education in upper grades during which stereotypes toward gender roles are strongly formed is crucial.
In this light, this study analyzed 'Standard Korean Language for Elementary School Students' upper grade textbook through Critical Discourse Analysis focusing on gender sensitivity.
The textbook was analyzed mainly based on visual factors and linguistic factors. The visual factors were analyzed after dividing into stereotypes toward gender roles and stereotypes toward body expression and the linguistic factors were analyzed by dividing into discourse structure and discourse situation. The textbook was analyzed after dividing the visual factors into stereotypes toward gender roles and stereotypes toward body expression and the linguistic factors into discourse structure and discourse situation.
As a result of analyzing the textbook, a number of problems were found when conducting analysis focusing on gender sensitivity. In this regard, this study proposed textbook improvement measures. The measures were proposed in two aspects: the visual factor aspect and the linguistic factor aspect. When it came to the visual factors, illustrations and textbook improvement measures reflecting necessary improvements in textbook were mentioned and when it came to the linguistic factors, improvement measures when developing textbook after referring to the guidelines by Guentherodt et al.(1980) and McGraw-Hill publishing company(1972) were proposed.
The following are the significance of this study. First, the textbook targeting elementary school students, which had not been handled in learning environments comprised of those learning Korean as a foreign language, was analyzed. Second, the textbook was analyzed through critical discourse analysis to deliver appropriate gender sensitivity to elementary school students. Lastly, this study is meaningful in the sense that it proposed specific improvement measures in terms of visual and linguistic factors.
Textbook is the most important factor in classrooms. Therefore, it must be endlessly revised and developed according to demands by students and teachers. If researches on textbooks have been conducted by focusing on functional domains until now, they should be carried out focusing on diverse values from now on. Studies in diverse domains in Korean language learning environments should actively take place in the future.