OCIP Korean Program
Program Description
The non-credit courses in the Korean Program offered by UHM Outreach College International Programs are intended for students who have no or very limited prior knowledge of Korean. They focus on Korean language use in communication, and include Korean hangul alphabet reading, grammatical aspects of the language, and some listening activities.
Target Audience
This program is ideal for anyone who wishes to start learning Korean language and gain insights into Korean cultures!
Level Descriptions
We use the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Speaking Proficiency Guidelines to help you assess and develop speaking proficiency in Korean. The ACTFL Guidelines describe language proficiency in terms of five major levels: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, and Distinguished. Each level is divided into sub-levels (Low, Mid, High) to provide more granularity.
The ACTFL level information helps you choose which course level you should sign up. Our basic courses correspond to the ACTFL NOVICE levels.
View Korean Courses.
| OCIP Korean Courses | ACTFL Levels | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Beginning I | Novice Low | • Able to produce isolated words and phrases. • Can introduce oneself with single words or memorized phrases. • Pronunciation may often be unclear. |
| Beginning II | Novice Mid | • Can handle a few simple communicative tasks in highly familiar contexts. • Able to make lists, name items, and express basic likes/dislikes. • Speech consists mostly of memorized phrases and a limited amount of learned words and simple sentence patterns |
| Beginning III | Novice High | • Can manage simple, direct conversations on familiar topics. • Able to ask and answer questions about personal details, daily activities, and immediate needs. • Speech may still be fragmented and dependent on memorized phrases. |
More detailed descriptions of the course content
A higher level course assumes students have mastered the SLOs in lower level courses.
| OCIP Korean Courses | Student Learning Outcomes (SLO’s): At the end of the course, students will be able to |
|---|---|
| Beginning I | • read and write (and type) simple texts in hangul • engage in brief exchanges on daily life topics such as greetings and self-introductions • use (negative) equational sentences with ‘to be’ • understand and use very simple sentences with direct objects • ask (yes/no) questions • talk about studying (e.g., class, subject, etc.) |
| Beginning II | • read and write (and type) texts in hangul • engage in brief exchanges on daily life topics such as meeting friends and buying gifts • use simple adjectives and verbs • be able to count using the necessary counters, including time • ask (yes/no) questions • talk about location of people and objects |
| Beginning III | • read and write (and type) simple texts in hangul • talk about the activities of the previous day in past tense • talk about simple future (e.g., upcoming weekend) plans • use simple adverbs • express one’s likes and dislikes • use irregular verbs and adjectives |
Adapted from https://www.actfl.org/uploads/files/general/Resources-Publications/ACTFL_Proficiency_Guidelines_2024.pdf