Because of the close ties between Chosun and China, almost Chosun kings set great store by Chinese language teaching and the cultivation of talents in the language. Some of the kings themselves were fluent speakers of Chinese, and tried to make their sons acquire the same ability. A few even took part in the official assessment of their ministers’ abilities in the language. Chinese learning institutes were established; and Chinese learning manuals, complied in large quantity. Yet despite their efforts, the results were sadly disappointing, at least to most of the kings, who lamented constantly of the low language standards. This paper is an exploration of the causes of the failure of the imperial efforts. Based largely on the Chosun Imperial Records, it examines the Chinese language teaching under the imperial auspices (with special focus on speech training), the measures upholding the prestige of Chinese learning, and the ultimate failure. It is hoped that by learning from the past, we can find directions to improve the Chinese teaching of today.

Language makes it possible for children to communicate with each other and has a great influence on their thinking and leaming. Since language is so closely related with children' s development of cognition and language skill, the language teaching in early infancy and the study of it have become more and more important. Language educators have realized the importance of the early Chinese teaching and its teaching method in China, where 21 million babies are bom every year. The first part of this paper focuses on the early Chinese teaching being practiced in China and gives a review of the developments of the early Chinese teaching. It combines the present situation of the early language education with "The Guidance Synopsis for Infant School Education" to find the characteristics of the early Chinese teaching. The who1e-language approach has been app1ied to the early Chinese teaching since the second half of years in 1990s. The second part of the paper studies the whole-1anguage approach to early Chinese teaching. The focus of this part is on how to app1y the approach in actua1 teaching. It gives practical examples to analyze the characteristics of the whole-language education. At last, the paper discusses some matters to be considered and problems to be solved when the who1e-language approach is applied to Chinese teaching in China. It a1so forecasts the future development of the whole-1anguage education.

벼리】새로운 언어를 배울 때 가장 기본이 되는 것은 바로 그 언어의 발음일 것이다. 성인이 되어 모국어가 아닌 외국어를 습득하는 것은 유 아가 모국어를 습득하는 과정과 상당히 다르고 어려움도 크다. 특히, 발음은 문법이나 어휘력에 비하여 능력이 향상되기가 더 힘들다. 그리하여 학습자가 대상 언어에 대한 많은 언어 지식을 가지고 있더라도 발음이 정확하지 않아 효과적인 의사소통이 이루어지지 못할 수도 있다. 발음은 일종의 습관이다. 잘못된 발음이 고착되면 시간이 지난 후 고치기 가 매우 힘들다. 따라서 언어 학습 초기에 정확한 발음을 익히는 것이 아주 중요하다. 이 논문은 한국어와 중국어의 음소배열제약을 분석하고 대조 연구하여 중국인 한국어 학습자 또는 한국인 중국어 학습자의 발음 학습에 도움을 주고자 하는데 목적을 두고자 한다.