A Study on the Educational Method of Teaching Korean Classical Poetry Through the Sijo Genre as Song : A study focused on intermediate and advanced learners of Korean

Korean classical literature presents challenges due to its high text difficulty and the significant temporal and cultural distance between the work and the learner. Foreign learners often face issues with familiarity and difficulty because of differ ences in literary customs, language, and cultural elements. To address the limita tions of vertical knowledge transfer and the challenges posed by the spatio-tem poral distance in classical literature education, this study focused on the genre characteristics of classical poetry and developed a learner-centered education plan using these characteristics as a scaffold. First, the study examined the concept and characteristics of the Sijo genre, exploring its lyrical poetic traits. Based on this, it investigated the experience of emotional appropriation through poetry songs, repeatability through poetry reading, and synthesis through the creation of Sijo poems. It was assumed that approaching Sijo as a song, leveraging its characteristic as lyric poetry meant to be sung, captures the essence of the genre and provides a fundamental and direct way to engage with it. Applicable works and songs were proposed as examples. This is an approach from a “utilitarian” perspective on genre that focuses on how learners can appropriate and enjoy the genre through its practical application. It represents a learner-centered educational method that uses the genre’s characteristics as a scaffold for foreign learners. This approach is sig nificant because it introduces an experiential education method to Korean classical poetry and holds promise as an alternative educational tool for foreigners.