Thepurposeofthisstudyistwo folds:one is to present different perspectives between Koreans and foreignersinconnectingaspecificwordintermsofassociatingantonyms; the other is to suggestsome effective adoptions ofthese findings in teachingKoreanvocabulariestoforeignlearnersofKorean.Itisoftenthe casethatpeopletendtothinkofaspecificwordtogetherwithitsrelated antonym.The relationship between a word and its antonym is closely associated with the vocabulary network in the human brain.Therefore using thisassociationinteachingKoreanhelpslearnerstorememberthe vocabularieseasier.Howeverthesemanticfieldofeachwordisinevitably different depending on the culturalbackground of the learners.This research reveals thatKoreans and foreigners often think ofa different antonym ofthesameword.Althoughtheassociationprocessseemstobe similarbetweenKoreansandforeigners,thereseemstobeadiscrepancy in theextentofabstraction ofantonyms.In otherwords,thedifference arisesnotinthetypeofantonyms,butintheextentoftheabstractionof eachword.Basedonthis,Koreanteachershavetobeespeciallycautious inteaching antonymsby dealing with gradableantonymsanddirectional antonyms in a differentmanner.Itshould be also noted thatteaching Korean vocabulariescan beaccomplishedmoreeffectively byrecognizing andrespectingdifferentculturalbackgroundsofthelearners.

• 박정은(경희대학교)