earticle

영어

Followings are the results of the study on Korean university students' recognition and performance in romanizing Korean. In terms of indicating road signs, 72.6% of the participants of the study identify the signs as Roman letters, while 53.3% of them as English ones. However, when it comes to the street signs, there exists confusion between Roman and English letters. In other words, the participants of the study have used Roman and English letters interchangeably. Although the participants of the study were exposed to the formal instruction on Romanization from middle and high school, 56.5% of the participants respond that English and Roman letters are used with complementary manner in a college. As for the performance in using Korean romanization, 43.1% of the respondents mark correct answers on a transliteration test, while 37.5% of them do correct ones on a transcription test before learning how to romanize Korean. These results indicate that the participants are not acquainted with the sound changes of Korean language. However, after learning Korean romanizing systems administered in this study, the participants show remarkable improvement not only from the transliteration test but from the transcription test, that is, 88.4% and 84.2% of correct answers respectively. On the contrary, the participants reveal difficulties in adapting and transcribing the changes of Korean phonological sound system. Educational implication is that four hours' instruction can make it different for the students to learn Korean romanization system, and 50 percent of errors can be diminished.