A Study on the Presentation of Korean Particles ‘-eun/neun’ and ‘-i/ga’ in Beginner-Level Textbooks for Spanish-Speaking Learners

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine how the Korean particles ‘-eun/neun’ and ‘-i/ga’ are presented in beginner-level Korean textbooks used by Spanish-speaking learners from an information-structure perspective. The study analyzes three textbooks used in Spanish university contexts: Coreano para principiantes (2010), Sogang Korean 1A (2024), and New Yonsei Korean Vocabulary and Grammar 1-1 (2018), focusing on grammatical explanations, example sentences, and practice activities. The findings reveal different pedagogical limitations across the three materials. Although the extent of explicit discourse-pragmatic explanation varies, the functional distinction between the particles is not always consistently supported by examples and practice activities. Some examples provide situational context without making the motivation for particle choice sufficiently transparent, while activities remain largely structural or quasi-communicative. These limitations are particularly relevant for Spanish-speaking learners, since Spanish lacks equivalent particles and realizes information structure through different mechanisms. Based on these findings, the study proposes a pedagogical sequence combining simplified explicit explanation, contrastive contextualized examples, and a progression from structural practice to functional communicative tasks, while drawing on Spanish information-structural resources. The significance of this study lies in providing a pedagogically grounded framework for adapting the teaching of Korean particles to the information-structural characteristics of Spanish-speaking learners.