The Culture of children's reading education in Korea and the United States.

Reading specialists, as well as members of the general public, have long sought to understand why so many children in the United States read below grade level and why so many of its adult citizens are illiterate. While problems associated with reading are not unique to the United States, it is noteworthy that some nations do not experience major problems in this area. In the Republic of Korea, for example, only 8.2 percent of students in primary schools experience difficulty reading texts written at their grade level (National Institute of Educational Evaluation, 2001), and adult literacy is 99.9 percent (Ministry of Education, 2001; UNESCO Statistical Yearbook, 1996).

In contrast to their Korean counterparts, many school-age children in the United States fail to read at their grade level. The 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as "the nation's report card," revealed that more than two thirds (68 percent) of 4th-graders could not read proficiently. The report further indicated that 40 percent of 4th-graders, 30 percent of 8th-graders, and 25 percent of 12th-graders failed to read at the NAEP's basic level. What constitutes a basic reading level is obviously different for 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students; generally speaking, it is a demonstration that the student comprehends what is being read (see Note at the end of the article for NAEP's definition of basic reading level).

Problems with reading in the United States are not confined to school-age children; adult literacy is a major problem as well. Forty-four million of America's 191 million adults are functionally illiterate, classified as Level 1. Level 1 is the lowest level of adult literacy, ranging from adults who literally cannot read at all to those who can only write their names or locate the expiration date on their driver's license. Level 1 adults cannot fill out an application form for a social security card, fill out a job application, read a newspaper, write a letter, or read the instructions on a bottle of medicine. They cannot function effectively in society to achieve their goals and develop their knowledge and potential (The National Institute for Literacy, 1998). Furthermore, more than 25 percent of adults in America read at or below the 5th-grade level--far below the level needed to earn a living wage (Sum, 1999).

This article reports on the culture of teaching literacy and literacy activities in one nation, Korea, and analyzes why it has been so successful in increasing the nation's literacy. Korea was selected because it has been successful in virtually eradicating illiteracy in a relatively brief period of time--20 years. In 1970, the illiteracy rate was 8.8 percent; in 1980, 7 percent; and in 1990, 0.1 percent (Korean Educational Development Institute, 1990). These data are consistent with those published in UNESCO's Statistical Yearbook (1996) and The World Factbook (2001). The author acknowledges that the United States and Korea have different cultural beliefs and practices that are not easily adapted or changed, but believes that some of Korea's practices in reducing illiteracy can be useful in the United States.

Four parental beliefs regarding children and literacy in Korea most clearly distinguish it from the United States. The first, and perhaps most important, is Korean people's strong belief in academic achievement, considered by most Koreans as the hallmark of success. Persons who hold positions in academic institutions, such as university professors, teachers, and scientists in private and governmental agencies, are revered far more so than in the United States, where there is more of an inclination to admire persons who possess wealth, power, or celebrity status. Because of the deep reverence for academic achievement, Korean parents are willing to make significant personal sacrifices to advance their children's education (Yu, 1988).

The second belief common to many Korean parents is that their preschool children can and should gain significant amounts of knowledge before entering kindergarten at age 5 (Lee, Park, & Kim, 2000). Korean parents believe they have a personal responsibility to help their preschool children become competent readers and writers. They view themselves as their children's primary teachers. So and Kim (2000) report that middle-income Korean families have an average of 160 children's books at home, and that low-income Korean families have nearly the same amount. Sixty-three percent of low-income families and 67 percent of middle-income families read to their children either every day or every other day.

Korean parents also believe they have a responsibility to spend considerable time engaged in formal and quasi-formal academic activities with their preschool children. Since they believe that their children should possess reading and writing skills before entering elementary school, Korean parents make every effort to have their children begin to read and write at a very early age (Lee, 2002).

Finally, Korean parents firmly believe that they have an obligation to provide the financial resources needed to provide their children with books and supplementary educational materials, tuition for schools, tutors, etc. The Seoul Statistical Yearbook (2002) reports that Korean families with an average income of $1,383 to $2,153 spent 20 percent of that income on their children's educational activities, while Korean parents with an average income of $2,153 to $3,692 spent 18 percent. Furthermore, fully 86 percent of kindergarten children in Seoul have attended two educational institutions prior to entering kindergarten (Statistical Yearbook of Seoul Education, 2001). These institutions normally place considerable emphasis on reading and writing.

Korean Culture of Teaching Literacy

First and foremost, Korean parents (especially mothers) spend a great deal of time simply talking with their young children. They engage in a variety of activities to teach their children how to talk, as well as how to read and write. Korean parents involve young children in conversations with siblings, extended family members, visitors, and friends. Mothers talk about the ingredients they are using when cooking, about signs while driving, and generally comment on all everyday activities. Verbal interaction between adults and children is very important to children's learning to read and write (Holdaway, 1979; Teale, 1982). Such oral language experiences stimulate learning to read and write. While parents in the United States talk to their children, it seems less pervasive than the talk that takes place between Korean children and their parents.

Korean parents also engage in many interactive story reading activities; for example, explaining the plot and discussing illustrations in books. Chung and Koo (2001) report that 93 percent of Korean children between the ages of 4 to 6 read books with parents or grandparents. These story reading activities greatly expand children's knowledge. When reading books, children are encouraged to make predictions about content and outcome. In addition to books, Korean parents use comic books, contemporary stories, poetry, and songbooks to help their children use and experiment with words. As parents engage in these story reading activities, children begin attending to the print in books. Some experts believe story reading is crucial to children's literacy, because it instills in them the sense that reading is an enjoyable personal and social language activity (Flowers & Roos, 1994; Galda, Gullinan, & Strickland, 1993).

In addition to oral language activities and story reading, Korean parents use games and various educational activities to enhance their children's academic learning. One such activity is called "Linking the Last Syllable," a word-generating game in which the ending sound of a word becomes the beginning sound of the next word (Lee, Park, & Kim, 2000). For example, when a child says "cat," the next player must say a word that begins with "t," such as "truck." Then the third player must think of a word that begins with the last letter of "truck," such as "kitten" or "kite." This game may be easier for Korean children because of the structure of the Korean language, Hangul, but it can be applied to almost any other language, certainly English.

A second activity used by Korean preschool children is a language worksheet (haksupjee). These worksheets help explain the letter and sound correspondence of the Korean written language. Parents usually receive haksupjees once a week, which are collected and corrected by parents or by paid tutors. While haksupjees are not very effective when used in isolation, they become very useful when used interactively with adults. Haksupjees also contain activities that provide children with drills in copying, tracing letters or words, and using consonant-vowel combining principles (Kim, 1999).

A third activity, "Making a Pictionary," is a common activity. The only materials children need are scissors, glue, blank booklets, writing tools, and pictures that relate to the story. Children simply cut out pictures and glue them in their booklets (Lee, Park, & Kim, 2000). When children do not know how to spell words correctly, they often ask a friend, sibling, or parent to dictate the words for them. Siblings or parents often ask children to discuss their feelings and thoughts about the pictures, making it a more personal interaction while providing a context to the words used in the story.

Korean homes are usually comfortable, warm, and secure places where children are allowed to express themselves freely. Korean parents direct their children's language with exciting, interesting, and pleasing experiences that encourage them to talk by extending their verbal communication (Teale, 1982). This highly positive and warm environment is important to literacy development.

Although Korean parents may not possess a thorough knowledge of the research in reading, their beliefs and practices are strikingly parallel with some of the leading theories. For example, Korean parents engage in extensive oral interaction with their children. Emergent literacy theorists believe that literacy develops concurrently and interactively through experiences in oral language and that without oral language, it might be impossible for children to develop the ability to read and write (Clay, 1967). Researchers maintain that children begin to learn to read and write as early as one year of age by listening to stories being read to them, noticing labels and signs, and experimenting with pencils and other writing tools (Holdaway, 1979; Taylor, 1993; Teale & Sulzby, 1989). Numerous studies confirm that early readers come from homes where they have had oral language interaction with family members and friends.

If language acquisition is an active interpersonal process and the product of oral language, and children develop an understanding of language through social engagement with other language users (Halliday, 1974), it is not surprising, then, that Korean children read effectively. Korean parents provide just such an environment for their children.

What American Parents Can Do

Many American parents appear to view their child's first five years of life as a time for the family to get adjusted to each other. They want their children to learn about their immediate environment, such as streets, automobiles, computers, television, radio, and the local supermarket. They want them to learn about the biological world of plants and animals, as well as the physical world of mass media, weather, speed, and sound. American parents want their children to learn as much as possible, and certainly some American parents equal or exceed the time that Korean parents' spend with their children. On average, however, American parents are not as involved as Korean parents in the academic education of their children. Many do not support instruction for their very young children, other than watching Sesame Street and a few other educational programs on television. Sending a 2- or 3-year-old child to a formal class is not common practice, as formal instruction is not considered necessary or even desirable. Parents usually will buy some books and educational toys for their children, and read to them at bedtime, but few go much beyond that.

If American parents wish to help their preschool child ten learn to read by adopting some of the practices used by Korean parents, they could benefit from some of the following activities:

* The first five years of life are by far the most significant years in a human being's life--no other five-year period comes even close to being as important. Rather than letting children "do their own thing," American parents could develop a vigorous routine or "program" of talking, reading, and writing with their children. Parents can and certainly should play with and enjoy their children, but they should not overlook their role as mentors and teachers.

* The time parents spend with children should involve less sitting together watching television and more formal tutorial activities. Americans speak of quality time, but Korean parental practices would suggest quality time is not enough; there has to be a substantial increase in time--and it needs to be daily. This may not sit well with American parents, because of their busy schedules.

* In addition to spending more time with their young children, it may be necessary to spend more money on children's education. Money is needed for instructional materials and supplies, educational games and formal classes, nurseries, and tutors. Parents may be able to shift their expenditures from one area to another. For example, if parents decide to buy fewer video games that have limited educational value and more educational materials that do, they may not have to increase their spending.

* An educational activity can be almost anything that allows children to engage in activities that are enriching to them. These activities do not have to be similar to the quasi-formal activities described earlier ("Linking the Last Syllable," "haksupjees," and "Making a Pictionary"), but can include a wide range of activities involving talking, reading, writing, observing, and interacting with children. Visits to a number of places, such as farms, bridges, supermarkets, auto shops, car washes, construction sites, landfills, or hardware stores, can be vastly superior to a visit to a state capital or museum. Walking is superior to driving, because it allows children to interact with their environment. For the very young child, a walk in the backyard or around the block is quite adequate, provided it is a slow walk during which children can touch and feel interesting objects. On such walks with young children, you may very well travel less than 20 feet. Yet there are literally thousands of things to delight children while walking around any block, although some blocks may be more rich with plants, bugs, bushes, and animals than others. A slow stroll in a supermarket also is useful, especially if the parent is not pressed for time.

* Tutors can provide more systematic literacy instruction to help children acquire basic literacy skills before entering formal schools, especially if they themselves are unable or unwilling to do so. The preschool period is certainly not too early to introduce children to the concepts of the alphabet, letter sounds, and words, and to story reading.

* Siblings and neighborhood children are valuable resources, and should be viewed not only as friend s but also as tutors. When children get together in America today, they often watch television. There is no harm to television if it is used wisely and judiciously, but television is essentially a solitary and passive activity. Often, it is simply entertainment with little educational value. Parents need to have their children interact with other child ten, but they need to orchestrate and control what occurs during these times.

* In most Korean homes, the environment is warm and positive--children have considerable freedom and are valued by parents and relatives. Such an environment exists in many American homes, but it is sadly lacking in many as well. No amount of talk, educational activities, or time will have much positive effect on children if the environment of the home is cold or hostile.

Conclusion

America's efforts in the field of literacy have not been very successful overall, especially if one takes into account the millions of dollars spent on governmental and privately funded reading initiatives. Considering the enormous wealth of the United States, the situation can be described charitably as unfortunate and, more accurately, as startling. The author understands that wholesale or universal adoption of Korean parents' practices is not possible in the United States; Korea is a different culture with different family values and mores. The beliefs and activities described in this article are widely supported by researchers in the United States who specialize in reading, however, and most could be implemented in the United States with positive results. It is the author's hope that this analysis, and some of the practices and activities described in this article, will be helpful to parents and children in the United States.

References

Chung, D., & Koo, H. (2001). A study on young children's reading activity at home. Life Science Research, 6, 175-188.

Clay, M. (1967). The reading behavior of five-year-old children: A research report. New Zealand Journal of Education Studies, 2, 11-31.

Flowers, P., & Roos, M. (1994). Literature-based reading programs: Elements for success. (ERIC Document Reproduction Services No. ED 373 319)

Galda, L., Gullinan, B., & Strickland, D. (1993). Language, literacy, and the child. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.

Halliday, M. (1974). The functional basis of language. Languages, 34, 54-73.

Holdaway, D. (1979). The foundations of literacy. New York: Ashton Scholastic.

Kim, M. (1999). Mother's belief in the reading and writing development of young children and home literacy development. Yonsei Journal of Human Ecology, 13, 120-131.

Korean Educational Development Institute. (1990). Study on current status of literacy in Korea. Seoul, Korea: Author.

Lee, G. (2002). The role of Korean parents in the literacy development of children. Unpublished manuscript.

Lee, J., Park, E., & Kim, H. (2000). Literacy education in Korea: A sociocultural perspective. Childhood Education, 76, 347-351.

Ministry of Education. (2001). Report on education in Korea. Seoul, Korea. Available at www.moe.go.kr/

National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2000). Reading: A first look Findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Washington DC: Author.

National Institute for Literacy, The. The state of literacy in America. (1998). Washington, DC: Author.

National Institute of Educational Evaluation. (2001). Report on primary students' national academic achievement test. Seoul, Korea: Author.

Seoul Statistical Yearbook. (2002). Seoul, Korea: Seoul Metropolitan Government.

So, H., & Kim, M. (2000). Mother-child interactions during reading in low socio-economic status families. Yonsei Journal of Human Ecology, 14, 60-69.

Statistical Yearbook of Seoul Education. (2001). Seoul, Korea: Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.

UNESCO Statistical Yearbook. (1996). New York: Statistical Division of the United Nations Secretariat.

Sum, A. (1999). Literacy in the labor force: National adult literacy survey. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 435 841)

Taylor, D. (1993). From the child's point of view. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Teale, W. (1982). Toward a theory of how children learn to read and write naturally. Language Arts, 59, 555-570.

Teale, W., & Sulzby, E. (1989). Emerging literacy: New perspectives. In D. S. Strickland & L. M. Morrow (Eds.), Emerging literacy: Young children learn to read and write (pp. 1-15). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

World Factbook, The. (2001). Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency.

Yu, E. (1988). Korean-American communities and their institutions: An overview. Korean Culture, 9, 33-45.

Note:

The definition of NAEP's definition of basic reading level is separately described for grades 4, 8, and 12 (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2000).

(1) Fourth-grade students performing at the Basic level should demonstrate an understanding of the overall meaning of what they read. When reading text appropriate for fourth-graders, they should be able to make relatively obvious connections between the text and their own experiences and extend the ideas in the text by making simple inferences."

(2) "Eighth-grade students performing at the Basic level should demonstrate a literal understanding of what they read and be able to make some interpretations. When reading text appropriate to eighth grade, they should be able to identify specific aspects of the text that reflect overall meaning, extend the ideas in the text by making simple inferences, recognize and relate interpretations and connections among ideas in the text to personal experience, and draw conclusions based on the text."

(3) "Twelfth-grade students performing at the Basic level should be able to demonstrate an overall understanding and make some interpretations of the text. When reading text appropriate to twelfth grade, they should be able to identify and relate aspects of the text to its overall meaning, extend the ideas in the text by making simple inferences, recognize interpretations, make connections among and relate ideas in the text to their personal experiences, and draw conclusions. They should be able to identify elements of an author's style."

Lea Lee

Lea Lee is Associate Professor, Educational Curriculum and Instruction, Darden College of Education, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virgina.