An Analysis of Writing Errors of the Korean Language Learners in Sri Lanka

Abstract

At present, the number of foreigners who learn Korean language is rapidly increasing. There is no exception in Sri Lanka. Students who prefer to learn Korean language are gradually increasing every year. The main goal of conducting Korean language classes is to improve the students’ communication skills. Among the four skills of language learning (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), writing is the most difficult aspect. Therefore, it is very essential to develop a suitable methodology to teach Korean language writing in systematical way. The aim of this research is to clarify the writing errors done by Sri Lankan native students, when studying the Korean Language. For this purpose, a research was conducted in the form of a survey among 30 students. A sample of students was chosen from the University of Kelaniya, who study Korean Language as a major subject (2nd year - 15 students, 3rd year -15 students). To identify the errors, an error analysis on survey data has been done. The analysis was divided in to two parts, the word dimension and the sentence dimension. According to survey, more errors occurred in sentence dimension than word dimension. Word dimension was subdivided in to three major categories and sentence dimension was subdivided in to nine major categories. By analyzing answers of survey the most occurring writing errors in Sri Lankan native students have been identified. Moreover, by applying the proposed method in teaching environment, I expect improvement in Korean language writing education and also hope to contribute in developing learner's Korean language skill. One of the significant benefits of this study is that it attempts to investigate the students’ errors in their Korean writing. I strongly believe that the results of this study will facilitate the teaching and learning process