Cultural Competence in Korean Education and Development of Cultural Competence Test Tools on Beginning Level

The importance of culture is much emphasized in the field of education and language teaching in Korea. However, to our knowledge, no study has attempted to define cultural competence in teaching Korean, what to teach in cultural competence, and how to test cultural competence. We also have to recognize that not many studies exist about cultural competence, that the perspectives of researchers are diverse, and that the dominant view still regards language and culture as separate entities. Therefore, this study aims to review the definitions of cultural competence in literature and thereby understand the concept and components of cultural competence. This study also suggests that only by considering cultural competence as part and parcel of cultural and language education can we meet the objective of increasing communicative competence. The contents of cultural competence testing, it is suggested, must not embrace general culture only in a broad sense. In addition, it is important that we come to a general agreement about the standard contents in cultural competence testing. Moreover, the present Korean textbooks do not adequately reflect the objectives of teaching and testing of cultural competence. This study finally raises several questions related to the contents and their relevance to cultural competence in the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK).