외국인 교환학생의 한국 문화 친숙도와 대학 생활 적응 및 한국어 학습의 상관관계

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of interest in Korean culture on campus life in South Korea and Korean language learning. The study was conducted with short-term exchange students, for whom the interest in Korean culture is one of their motivations for learning Korean. For the research, the author analyzed the level of correlation between the Korean proficiency of the students and the results of two questionaries: Korean cultural familiarity (Choi, 2012) and Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire; SACQ (Baker & Siryk, 1984). For correlation analysis, both parametric and non-parametric statistical methods were used due to a relatively small number of the exchange students, 32. The analysis show that a high level of familiarity with Korean culture had a significant correlation with college life adaptation and Korean language learning. In addition, students in the group with higher Korean proficiency tended to show higher familiarity with Korean culture. However, it was difficult to find a significant correlation between maladaptation to college life and familiarity with Korean culture or Korean proficiency. Lastly, the analysis showed that the most significant correlation with college life adaptation & maladaptation and Korean proficiency comes from: the familiarity with Korean culture of people around the students. This result infers that the exposure to Korean culture of friends, family, and neighbors of the foreign exchange students may have an impact on the students' adaptation to college life or Korean language learning.