Learning Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL)

Description
This is a small site with very basic elements and limited content. Language covered includes the Korean alphabet, basic conversational phrases, parts of the body, members of the family, vocabulary, numbers, asking for directions and grammar. The site is very easy to navigate and has simple interactive elements. The lessons are presented with basic stick figure like graphics and some image files. By moving the cursor over a picture the Korean and English words are displayed. Some images also have the option of playing embedded audio files for listening and pronunciation practice. There are also quizzes at the end of some lessons with functions enabling the learner to skip questions and check answers as well as simply displaying the answer even before attempting it. The site also provides a list of Korean textbooks, some images of Seoul and an option to download the lessons to the user's computer.

Description
This site is divided into five parts: alphabet/syllables, words, grammar, conversation and short stories. There are also some lecture notes outlining basic vocabulary and two quizzes. Basically the alphabet sections are simply explanations of the Korean alphabet with extensive examples of the different Korean sounds and comparisons to similar sounds in English words. The words section covers vocabulary lists for topics such as days of the week, seasons, family, body and country. Each word is listed along with the English word and a sound file to illustrate pronunciation. The grammar section is very basic and easy to understand outlining sentence structure, personal pronouns, verbs and particles. The conversation section contains nothing more than topic-based dialogues. There is no audio to accompany these dialogues and no interactive elements. There is nothing in the short stories section, which may be the result of a broken link. The two quizzes contained on the Website are simple multiple choice vocabulary quizzes. If the learner chooses an incorrect answer then a message box pops up asking them to try again.

Description
KLEC was established by Korean@Monash to help share Korean language learning resources with the world. The site has a large database of images for vocabulary learning, a section dealing with pictorial exercises and some other additional resources. The image database is simply pictures with some vocabulary to describe what is seen in the images. The pictorial exercises are somewhat more interactional with vocabulary recognition games and links to the pronunciation of certain words. There is also a substantial number of reading and listening comprehension activities organised into 5 different levels, designed to match learners' Korean language abilities. In the additional resources section, there is a tool called the MOA Concordancer, an online workshop, language activities with photos and links to several other Korean language learning Websites. The MOA Concordancer allows both teachers and students to input a Korean or English word and the tool will then generate all the possible uses of that word in Korean by providing a number of example sentences using the word. The application also has settings for teachers and students to create cloze exercises based on these example sentences. The online workshops are basically activities that are emailed to a Google mailing list enabling participants to then respond and receive feedback.

Description
KOSNET is a site run by the National Institute for International Education. This is a Korean government body responsible for overseas Korean's education, international education and international exchange for Korea. The site has extensive materials in the form of e-textbooks that cover reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary and grammar in an interactive way. These lessons can also be downloaded and cover a pre-test, preliminary (alphabet and pronunciation), infants, children I, children II and adolescent/adult materials. Lessons are topic-based and consist of a listening activity – an animated dialogue, a vocabulary list, phrases, expressions, practice and exercises. Learner control is optimised with the learner able to access any exercise in any order. Lessons are highly interactive with applications to toggle Korean and English subtitles, listen to words and phrases, record and playback the user's own voice and participate in gap-fill and choose-the-right-answer types of quizzes. Users are also able to access lists of new words and an online dictionary at any time. Materials are extensive with many chapters, chapter units and end of chapter tests. Users must register to use the materials but this is easy and unobtrusive. Users must also install three plug-ins in order to access all of the materials available – Realplayer, Flash Player and ieinstagent 7.

Description
'LearnKorean.com' contains Korean language lessons, games, discussion forums, chat rooms, Korean food recipes as well as links to YouTube tutorials for learning Korean, Korean News footage and sites dealing with the Korean language and culture. The lessons provide dialogues, explanations of the content and audio files to aid with pronunciation. Lessons are also cross-referenced so that learners can go back to a previous lesson that relates to the current lesson they are completing. Control is totally in the hands of the learner with any of the thirteen lessons assessable at any time. Explanations particularly for grammar are very clear and simple. The games provided on the site are simple matching and concentration type games. While the games appear simple, they still have interactive elements and cover language learning components such as pronunciation, numbers, food, personal information, direction and clothes. The chat room requires Java but is very simple and easy to use.

Description
As this site is run by the Korea Tourism Organisation, there is an emphasis on learning Korean for the purpose of travelling to the country. The site consists of 30 lessons covering travelling to and living in Korea. For example, there are lessons on money exchange, clearing customs, shopping, relaxation, hobbies and weather. Lessons are very basic with animated characters leading the learner through pronunciation drills and dialogues with subtitles and vocabulary lists. There is also an interactive part of the site where activities, reading passages, dialogues and games have been developed around famous Korean tourist spots. However, interaction is limited. Learners are only able to access vocabulary lists and subtitles for reading texts and animated dialogues.

Description
This site takes a contemporary approach to computer-assisted language learning. Basically the language learning elements of the site are divided into two parts: lessons and shows. Each of these follows a similar format but with the shows containing video footage explaining Korean language points and providing examples. Lessons contain audio files and provide students with a list of vocabulary and the option of downloading the file in PDF or MP3 formats. Each lesson could be termed a mini lesson as the content is minimal. The emphasis is on providing learners with authentic practice and enabling them to remember and use what they have learnt. Topics covered include days of the week, grammar, how to read and write, time, how and why questions, numbers, negative sentences, food and many more. The site also has good contact mechanisms for asking language-related questions and links to each of the teachers of the lessons through Twitter.

Description
Window to Korea provides learners with a choice of activities including learning practical Korean for travelling, fusion word fair, word power and a gateway three. Some parts of the site might be difficult to navigate for beginner students as many action buttons are displayed in Korean. Korean for travelling contains 13 chapters set out in text book format with sentences and translation and accompanying audio files. This part of the site requires Flash and may be an expired link as this part of the site does not work properly. Other parts of the site contain cultural and historical information regarding Korea and vocabulary lists with no romanisation and no audio files for pronunciation. The site is only useful for those with advanced Korean skills who can already read Korean and have no issues with pronunciation. Beginners will find it difficult to use some of the applications and read the language content activities.