교수요목기(1946~54년) 영어 교과서 <The National English Readers> 분석: 어휘, 가독성 수준, 문법, 지문 내용을 중심으로

Abstract

This study analyzes English textbooks that were in circulation in the formation stage of the contemporary education system (from 1946 to 1954 when the First National Curriculum was founded in South Korea). The textbooks analyzed in this study are The National English Readers, written by Gim Sheon Gi. They comprise three books for the junior high level and three books for high school students. This study investigates the relevance of new vocabulary words, the readability levels of the text measured by Fry’s readability formula, and the grammar and content of each chapter across all six books. Analysis revealed the following: first, the number of new vocabulary words, and the readability levels of the books did not increase systematically across subsequent book levels; second, in textbooks Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ, elements of grammar were not introduced systematically based on constructed grammar rules but were instead introduced alongside the readings to which they were applied; and third, the genres of written content in textbooks Ⅳ, Ⅴ, and Ⅵ for high school students were significantly different from each other— textbook Ⅳ contained mainly descriptions, textbook Ⅴ contained mainly stories, and textbook Ⅵ contained mainly essays and poems. Several educational implications are presented at the end of this paper.