Curriculum textbook consistency framework for evaluating Chinese conversation textbooks in Korean secondary education

This study introduces the Curriculum–Textbook Consistency Index (CTCI), a multidimensional evaluation framework for evaluating alignment between language education policies and instructional materials in multilingual contexts. Developed to assess government-authorized Chinese Conversation textbooks in Korean secondary education, the CTCI integrates curriculum compliance, cognitive complexity (Bloom’s Taxonomy), and linguistic proficiency progression (CEFR) to provide a systematic measure of language planning implementation. Applied to all three authorized textbooks under Korea’s 2022 revised curriculum, the analysis reveals significant disparities: Vocabulary coverage ranged from 15.9% to 16.8%, and communicative expressions inclusion rates from 34.3% to 38.8%, indicating inconsistent adherence to national curriculum objectives. Cognitive demands were concentrated at Bloom’s “Applying” level, while CEFR progression patterns varied substantially, raising equity concerns for multilingual learners. These findings reveal differences across textbooks and provide empirical grounds for establishing a multidimensional curriculum–textbook alignment framework in Chinese language education. The CTCI offers a transferable framework for evaluating curriculum-material alignment across diverse second language contexts. This model provides a foundation for future comparative research and may inform evidence-based language planning in other multilingual education settings.