Korean Language Learning

From the first day of English 425, the class TA introduced my classmates and I to the Korean language. From that point forward, we have consistently taken part in lessons Korean lessons. Hyojin Chapin prepares and gives the lessons that last about twenty minutes each. The objective of learning some of the Korean language is to examine and analyze how instructors teach a second language. An analyzation of the lessons will be beneficial and crucial to my learning of how to teach English as a second language to my future students. As mentioned before, the first day of class was also the first Korean lesson. Hyojin introduced herself to each student with the formal Korean way to say “hello,” and a formal bow. Although simple on the surface, this

Group work is a principle part in child psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of development. Through studying and observing both adults and children, he found that social interaction was a main component of language learning. With a social environment, individuals are able to learn to a high degree of knowledge and comprehension (Lightbown and Spada 25). Hyojin integrated this theory into her lesson when having us practice our introductions with our

We delved into structure based learning in the last few lessons when we learned how to say colors and compose letters in Korean. Structure based learning focuses on the form of language. This includes explicit teaching of grammar, reading, and writing. Hyojin would use formative assessments such “thumbs up or thumbs down”, observations, and weekly review to evaluate our learning. In the fifth Korean lesson, Hyojin supported us through manipulatives. Specifically, she gave us Lego bricks in order to support our peer-to-peer interactions. Hyojin taught the content of this activity (colors) between two Korean lessons. The first time was strictly structural, learning the names of the colors, but the second time we put our new declarative knowledge to use. This in turn added to our procedural knowledge because we used it in conversation with others. Procedural knowledge may eventually become automatic, and the learner may not remember it being declarative knowledge to start (Lightbown and Spada