Despite an increase in ethnic diversity within the country, the English language teaching workfor... more Despite an increase in ethnic diversity within the country, the English language teaching workforce remains undeniably binary in Korea. Using an intersectionality lens, this study was an exploration of the racialized experiences of one Ugandan female teacher of English working in Korean ELT. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate how she perceived herself as an English speaker and teacher and how Koreans’ stereotypes of ideal English teachers and Black people affected her professional identity and self-perceptions. Findings suggest that the Ugandan woman was rejected by the formal accreditation process and faced considerable challenges in her efforts to be accepted as a qualified English teacher in Korea. On the other hand, she perceived herself as a native-like English speaker and a fully qualified English teacher with an MA degree in TESOL and years of English teaching experience. This study reveals not only the practical difficulties of a biased assessment syste...
This study explores university life experiences of seven Asian foreign students (Chinese: 2 males... more This study explores university life experiences of seven Asian foreign students (Chinese: 2 males, 2 females; Vietnamese: 1 male, 1 female; and Laotian: 1 male) attending “A” university in Busan City, Korea. Using narrative inquiry to elicit their stories in their own voices, the field texts collected from semi-structured interviews were analyzed focusing on critical experiences throughout their school life trajectories. The results indicate that all participants wanted to be assimilated into Korean culture at the beginning, but they soon realized their lack of Korean language proficiency caused them to be undervalued in every aspect of their lives, which hampered their relationships with Koreans. As their time in Korea progressed, they started to develop coping strategies to overcome the difficulties and achieve their goals. The outcomes of this study may provide important information for understanding Asian foreign students’ expectations, struggles, and .adaptation processes. They...
This study aims to examine the English syntactic errors occurred persistently in the Malaysian ES... more This study aims to examine the English syntactic errors occurred persistently in the Malaysian ESL learners' written composition in the Politeknik Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The subjects were 50 multilingual students who speak their own dialect, Malay as their second language and English as their third or foreign language. Data were collected from the written discourse in the form of descriptive essays. The subjects were asked to write in the classroom within 45 minutes. Fifty-one categories of errors were classified to find out the causes of syntactic error, types of frequent errors, weakness areas and problems tend to occur in written composition. The findings of the study showed that the syntactic errors were due to learners' mother tongue interference, lack of grammatical knowledge, lack of vocabulary knowledge, repetition, redundant lexical choice, bad sentence formation and developmental errors.
This case study investigated parental language ideologies and the underlying social and familial ... more This case study investigated parental language ideologies and the underlying social and familial factors affecting the construction of attitudes toward bilingual parenting and how the parents' ideologies affected the formation of family language policy and home language practices. Numerous familial factors were examined, such as parents' socioeconomic status, educational attainment, and relationships with their children, as well as social context factors. The results of the study suggested the interconnectedness of the parents' beliefs with the status of the English language in Korean society and the role of family capital in supporting English language use at home. Several factors affecting bilingual parenting were also investigated, such as parents' language proficiency, available learning resources, and parents' consistency in parenting, and use of English as the medium of communication at home. The results may resonate with the experiences of many Korean parents who have been practicing home bilingual education or are planning to do so in the near future.
Korean parents are strongly committed to investing time, effort, and money into improving their c... more Korean parents are strongly committed to investing time, effort, and money into improving their children's English competence in order to maximize their human capital in the era of globalization, a phenomenon often referred to as ‘English fever’ (Park, 2009). However, because of the Korean socio-economic structure, there is considerable disparity among families in the financial investment they can afford. Therefore, in the educational privileges and especially English learning support that Korean children receive is an inequity often overlooked by the majority of Koreans. One response to this issue is the newly emerging movement among Korean mothers called ‘maternal English education’ (eommapyo yeongeo), which has become a widely used term throughout the country.
Despite an increase in ethnic diversity within the country, the English language teaching workfor... more Despite an increase in ethnic diversity within the country, the English language teaching workforce remains undeniably binary in Korea. Using an intersectionality lens, this study was an exploration of the racialized experiences of one Ugandan female teacher of English working in Korean ELT. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate how she perceived herself as an English speaker and teacher and how Koreans’ stereotypes of ideal English teachers and Black people affected her professional identity and self-perceptions. Findings suggest that the Ugandan woman was rejected by the formal accreditation process and faced considerable challenges in her efforts to be accepted as a qualified English teacher in Korea. On the other hand, she perceived herself as a native-like English speaker and a fully qualified English teacher with an MA degree in TESOL and years of English teaching experience. This study reveals not only the practical difficulties of a biased assessment syste...
This study explores university life experiences of seven Asian foreign students (Chinese: 2 males... more This study explores university life experiences of seven Asian foreign students (Chinese: 2 males, 2 females; Vietnamese: 1 male, 1 female; and Laotian: 1 male) attending “A” university in Busan City, Korea. Using narrative inquiry to elicit their stories in their own voices, the field texts collected from semi-structured interviews were analyzed focusing on critical experiences throughout their school life trajectories. The results indicate that all participants wanted to be assimilated into Korean culture at the beginning, but they soon realized their lack of Korean language proficiency caused them to be undervalued in every aspect of their lives, which hampered their relationships with Koreans. As their time in Korea progressed, they started to develop coping strategies to overcome the difficulties and achieve their goals. The outcomes of this study may provide important information for understanding Asian foreign students’ expectations, struggles, and .adaptation processes. They...
This study aims to examine the English syntactic errors occurred persistently in the Malaysian ES... more This study aims to examine the English syntactic errors occurred persistently in the Malaysian ESL learners' written composition in the Politeknik Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The subjects were 50 multilingual students who speak their own dialect, Malay as their second language and English as their third or foreign language. Data were collected from the written discourse in the form of descriptive essays. The subjects were asked to write in the classroom within 45 minutes. Fifty-one categories of errors were classified to find out the causes of syntactic error, types of frequent errors, weakness areas and problems tend to occur in written composition. The findings of the study showed that the syntactic errors were due to learners' mother tongue interference, lack of grammatical knowledge, lack of vocabulary knowledge, repetition, redundant lexical choice, bad sentence formation and developmental errors.
This case study investigated parental language ideologies and the underlying social and familial ... more This case study investigated parental language ideologies and the underlying social and familial factors affecting the construction of attitudes toward bilingual parenting and how the parents' ideologies affected the formation of family language policy and home language practices. Numerous familial factors were examined, such as parents' socioeconomic status, educational attainment, and relationships with their children, as well as social context factors. The results of the study suggested the interconnectedness of the parents' beliefs with the status of the English language in Korean society and the role of family capital in supporting English language use at home. Several factors affecting bilingual parenting were also investigated, such as parents' language proficiency, available learning resources, and parents' consistency in parenting, and use of English as the medium of communication at home. The results may resonate with the experiences of many Korean parents who have been practicing home bilingual education or are planning to do so in the near future.
Korean parents are strongly committed to investing time, effort, and money into improving their c... more Korean parents are strongly committed to investing time, effort, and money into improving their children's English competence in order to maximize their human capital in the era of globalization, a phenomenon often referred to as ‘English fever’ (Park, 2009). However, because of the Korean socio-economic structure, there is considerable disparity among families in the financial investment they can afford. Therefore, in the educational privileges and especially English learning support that Korean children receive is an inequity often overlooked by the majority of Koreans. One response to this issue is the newly emerging movement among Korean mothers called ‘maternal English education’ (eommapyo yeongeo), which has become a widely used term throughout the country.
Uploads
Papers by Youngjoo Seo