KJCKorea
Journal Central

This paper aims to illuminate the socio-cultural characteristics of Korea and Japan in school textbooks by drawing on the significant differences between categories that appear in lexical distributions by areas of meaning of vocabulary in the current national language textbooks for first-year middle school students in Korea and Japan. Particularly, this paper has verified that as Korea introduced the free-semester system for the first year of middle school according to the current curriculum (2015), the total number of words decreased to 3/5 compared to the vocabulary in the previous textbooks, which is equivalent to about 9/10 compared to Japan. In order to examine the qualitative change, the lexical distributions in the major categories were compared according to Bunruigoihyou (1964). In the case of Korean textbooks, there were significant differences in the order of <1.3>, <1.2>, and <1.4> based on the total number of words. In the case of Japanese textbooks, significant differences were shown in the order of <1.5> and <1.1>. These features were also observed in the middle categories. In the case of Korea, significant differences were found in <Race･ Ethnicity>, <Human Beings>, and <Members･Position> in <1.2>; but the difference between the two countries has decreased significantly compared to the past. There was also no significant difference in <Family> and <Organization> in the middle categories, as well as <Monarch>, <Social Class>, <The Military>, and <Soldier> in the small categories. This can be interpreted as a desirable phenomenon. As for Korean textbooks, there were significant differences in <Duty> and <Economy> in <1.3>. Particularly due to the influence of high frequency words such as “Theft･Sponsorship Activity･Money･Donation” it is also characteristic that there was no significant difference in <Creation･Writing> as there was before. There were significant differences in 6 items in <1.4> too, but it is difficult to interpret it in socio-cultural terms due to the influence of specific high frequency words. As for Japanese textbooks, even distribution is found in <1.12 Presence or Absence> and < Action> in addition to <Instruction>, <Quantity>, <Space･Location> which are related to information literacy. In particular, various technical terms were used in <Organism>, <Space･Topography>, <Animal>, and <Nature･Object> as the present revision focuses on the global environment and ecology. A more comprehensive conclusion will be drawn in the future through analysis of texts and vocabulary before and after revision of textbooks in each country.

Middle school national language textbooks, Vocabularies, Lexical distribution, Socio-cultural characteristics, Bunruigoihyou (1964)