The nature of the learners
At this level, students are widening their social networks, experiences and communication repertoires in both their first language and Korean. They continue to need guidance and participate in structured, collaborative tasks that both recycle and extend language. Students are gaining greater independence and becoming more conscious of their peers and social context. They are gaining greater awareness of the world around them. They are noticing additional similarities and differences between Korean language and culture and their own.
Korean language learning and use
Learners increasingly use Korean for a range of everyday interactions and in classroom activities to communicate with their teacher and peers. They share ideas and opinions on a range of topics related to personal interests and wellbeing and those drawn from other learning areas through collaborative and shared tasks. They make simple arrangements and transactions, organise and present information and create performances based on real or imaginative experiences with support of scaffolding and modelled language. They express, reason or elaborate on opinions using language in complex structures as set phrases. As they build their competence in Korean, learners comprehend and produce short texts such as songs, video clips, role-plays, skits and stories, using simple structures and familiar vocabulary. With increasing literacy in Hangeul, learners make connections between spoken and written forms of Korean and begin to read and write short texts in Hangeul. Students apply spacing and spelling rules to their reading and writing with increasing grammatical and phonological awareness. They develop metalinguistic knowledge of basic forms and structures and of honorification in Korean, and use it with their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to predict meaning of unfamiliar language.
Contexts of interaction
Learners interact in Korean with each other and the teacher, and may communicate with peers in Korea using technology. Tasks at this level are typically collaborative, structured and sometimes competitive, such as games, class displays and performances. Korean traditional games such as yunnori that involve interactive and spontaneous language use, collaborative problem-solving procedures, collective decision-making and physical movements are integrated into tasks. Learners may notice use of Korean in the media and wider community and have access to Korean speakers and cultural resources through the use of ICT.
Texts and resources
Learners engage with a range of published texts in print and digital forms such as readers, stories, songs and computer-based language learning materials, as well as those prepared by the teacher of Korean, including language exercises, games and presentations. Learners may have extra access to Korean language and culture resources through texts created for the Korean community such as websites, television programs and music or video clips.
Features of Korean language use
Learners expand their knowledge of Korean vocabulary, grammar and honorific elements. They are aware of some patterns of sound changes at syllable boundaries such as 연음법칙, 비음화 and 구개음화 in familiar words and expressions. They express past tense and use some verb phrases in complex structures as set phrases. They are increasingly familiar with verb-final sentence structures, and basic case markers and particles, noticing the importance of grammatical elements such as particles or suffixes rather than word order in making sense of Korean sentences. They use a range of vocabulary including basic common descriptive and action verbs, number words with counters, basic adverbs and simple negations. They develop a metalanguage for describing aspects of the Korean language and how it works. Learners are increasingly aware of the relationship between language and culture, and of the dynamic nature of language. They explore the relationship between language and identity and how attitudes are shaped by cultural perspectives and revealed through language, and consider their own cultural and communicative behaviours.
Level of support
While learners are gradually gaining independence in learning, they still need ongoing support, including explicit instruction, structured modelling and scaffolding with stimulus materials. Task activities incorporate implicit form-focused language learning approaches and examples of texts. Learners start using dictionaries with teacher support and have access to word charts, vocabulary lists and electronic and print reference resources.
The role of English
Korean is the primary language for classroom routines and language learning tasks with English in a supporting role. While it is encouraged to use as much Korean for discussion, reflection and explanation and for the content drawn from other learning areas as possible, the use of English for these aspects of learning activities ensures the continued development of learners’ knowledge base and intercultural capability. The language of response varies according to task demands, with Korean used primarily for communicating in structured and supported tasks and for familiar interactions, and English for open-ended, comparative tasks and discussions that develop understanding of language and culture.
By the end of Year 6, students engage in classroom interactions to carry out collaborative tasks, to exchange information and to express feelings and ideas related to specific contexts, personal interests and daily routines at home and school. They ask and answer questions with appropriate intonation and gestures, changing sounds on syllable boundaries in a word as appropriate (for example, pronouncing words such as 한국어, 같이 and 감사합니다 as 항구거, 가치 and 감사함니다). They use simple structures for a range of functions, including making simple arrangements and conducting simple transactions (for example, 아이스크림 한 개 주세요. 얼마예요? 오천 원이에요), and some complex structures such as –도 되다 and –(으)ㄴ/는 것 같다 as set phrases to ask for permission (for example, 화장실에 가도 돼요?) and to offer their own opinions (for example, 저는 …이/가 맞는/틀린 것 같아요). They use particles such as –(으)로, –하고 and –에서 as part of a set phrase (a noun/pronoun + particle) to indicate instrument (with/in …, for example, 연필로 쓰세요, 한국어로 뭐예요?), accompaniment (together with …, for example, 친구하고 쇼핑했어요) and location (at/in …, for example, 학교에서 공부해요). They describe two events occurring in sequence, such as daily routines, using two sentences with a 그리고 at the beginning of the second sentence or the –고 coordination (for example, 밥을 먹어요. 그리고 운동해요;밥을 먹고 운동해요), and past experiences using a suffix –었/았– (for example, 캔버라에 살았어요). They negate statements (for example, 안 가요, 못 먹었어요) and construct questions about reasons, prices and opinions/feelings, using set phrases such as 왜요? 얼마예요? and 어때요?/어땠어요? (for example, 영화가 어땠어요?). They use descriptive language (such as 예뻐요, 멋있어요) and manner and time adverbs (such as 빨리, 천천히, 어제, 오늘, 내일). Students describe amounts of familiar items, including currency and time, using number words from either the pure Korean or the Sino-Korean number system in their appropriate forms, with a range of counters (such as 장, 잔, 권, 그루, 송이, 원, and 시) and in appropriate word order (for example, 책 세 권). They pronounce Arabic numerals appropriately according to the accompanying counters (for example, 10살, 6학년). Students locate specific information in a range of familiar spoken, written and digital texts, identifying familiar vocabulary and grammatical features to support understanding. They use simple and formulaic language with the support of structured models and scaffolding to create short texts with familiar structures and features, in various modes and formats. Students translate texts between Korean and English in familiar formats, and create their own simple bilingual texts, using known words and expressions. They provide extra information or explanations for words or expressions that have no equivalents in the other language or cannot be readily translated, such as 벼 versus ‘rice as a crop’, 쌀 versus ‘rice as raw grains’ and 밥 versus ‘cooked rice or meals’. They identify aspects of Korean language in which Korean culture is embedded, such as politeness embedded in –(으)세요.
Students differentiate between spoken and written forms of Korean by applying their understanding of rules that govern pronunciation and writing using Hangeul syllable blocks, and by associating spoken forms of known words with their written forms. They change verb forms using suffixes such as –었/았– and –고 by applying their understanding of grammatical elements that affect different grammatical meanings and functions. They identify the topic/subject and the object in simple sentences and explain how word order in Korean is different to English using basic metalinguistic terms such as word order, subject, object and verb. Students identify distinctive features of familiar spoken and written texts in different genres, such as language used at the beginning or closing (for example, …에게/께; …(으)로부터/올림), and relate them to distinctive purposes, intended audiences and social contexts of texts. Students apply their understanding of the importance of context, age and social relationships in language use during interaction, and identify age as particularly important in determining the level of politeness and formality in using Korean (for example, 미안합니다 versus 미안해요 versus 미안해). Students provide examples of how spoken and written forms of language change over time, and explain how Hangeul was initially created and continues to change. They explain how languages borrow words with culture-specific meanings from each other and provide such examples from Korean words borrowed from English and other languages (for example, 피아노, 케밥) and Korean words used in Australia (for example, 비빔밥 (bibimbap), 아리랑 (arirang)). Students provide relevant comments on how language is used to influence people’s perceptions (such as in advertisements or campaigns), and identify their own ways of thinking about Korean associations such as brand names or names of cultural items. They compare gestures or body languages involved in communication using Korean and other languages and identify similarities and differences across cultures. They provide examples where direct translation is not possible, such as terms or expressions that reflect cultural practices (for example, 잘 먹겠습니다/잘 먹었습니다, 식은 죽 먹기), and determine whether their equivalents exist in their own language/s.