Letters to KOTESOL: 2012 February

2018

The aim of the article is to present the results of an analysis of some educational perspectives of multicultural families in South Korea. The first part of the article focuses on a brief theoretical observation on some terms such as ‘official language’ and ‘mother tongue’ as well as the terms ‘multicultural family’, ‘multicultural student’, ‘multicultural teenager’, ‘multicultural classroom’, ‘multicultural education’, etc. The second part of the article is dedicated to elucidating the current state in Korea where the existence of multicultural students has led to the need to formulate and implement a specific educational policy treating the current multicultural diversity of the contemporary Korean society.

Melbourne Asia Review, 2024

Working Papers in Educational Linguistics 28(1): 43-60, 2013

The ideology of one nation, one race, and one language has been constructed and reinforced in the Korean mind over the course of its history. However, a recently growing number of migrants in South Korea have challenged this ideology, and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) announced the Educational Support Plan for Children from Multicultural Backgrounds (ESP) in 2006 to address the needs of multicultural children in schools. Under this initiative, the national curriculum was revised to raise the understanding of diverse cultures among all students, and textbooks were developed under direction from MEHRD. Taking a critical perspective toward language policy, the current study aims to offer a historical account of the emergence of monolingual ideology in South Korea and then to analyze how this ideology has shaped recent multicultural education policies.

The Immigration and Education Nexus: A Focus on the Context and Consequences of Schooling , 2012

Rapid economic advancements and urbanization since the 1980s has transformed South Korea into a country with high growth rates of immigration from the influx of migrant workers and foreign brides. However, because of South Korea’s long past as a homogenous society, there are few programs to assist in the integration of recent immigrants, and this has major implications for the education and schooling of multicultural children. While some systematic attempts have been made to better integrate multicultural families, these attempts only aim to better assimilate multicultural families to Korean culture. What is lacking is a broader curriculum that aims to teach all Koreans to better understand and appreciate cultural differences. This paper examines current schooling practices in South Korea and the barriers that minority children currently face.

The Immigration & Education Nexus, 2012

International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, 2018

Drawing on ecological perspectives, this study examined the foundational assumption behind the negative stereotypes that surround children of mixed parentage in South Korea; namely, that their alleged deficiency in the Korean language will cause numerous issues for Korean society. The data used for this study came from a panel study of Korean adolescents that included such variables as their Korean and English proficiency as well as other explanatory variables at the individual, family, school, and community level. This study revealed that the longitudinal trajectories of Korean and English proficiency for mixed parentage adolescents were comparable to those of peers who had ethnically Korean parents. This suggests that the ‘multicultural’ label attached to this group of minority youth has served as a means of managing growing economic inequality exacerbated by globalization; in particular, the delusion of the label is highlighted by the strong bond between children’s language proficiency and their socioeconomic status. The findings of this study urge researchers and educators to assess more critically the lives of minority children.

In contemporary South Korean society, there is a strong emphasis on cultural homogeneity and, simultaneously, the development of English proficiency as a human resource. Since language is inextricably linked to identity, bilingual learners from English speaking countries may feel pressure to conform to Korean cultural and linguistic norms, leading to negative identity practices that discourage the use of English. Like the “model minority” stereotype which has been assigned to Asian learners in the United States, the pervasive belief that learners from English speaking countries are highly proficient in English may have adverse effects on students who do not meet the conceptualized standard. To explore educational problems associated with the English-Korean bilingual learner, a case study was conducted on an American-Korean elementary school student. Results revealed that the learner avoided speaking English in public, learning English in formal contexts, and talking about American ethnic traditions, which has resulted in significant deficiencies in English pronunciation and literacy. The avoidance of explicit instruction appears to have precluded the development of cognitive and metacognitive strategies useful in overcoming language deficiencies in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Recommendations for educational reform have been suggested.

2016

Despite the South Korean government’s recent policy interventions to accommodate the emerging social and classroom reality that has increasingly become multicultural, few guidelines have been provided for multicultural education practice at the local and municipal levels in South Korea (Henceforth, Korea). In particular, investigations focusing on newcomer adolescents’ linguistic and cultural identities are scarce. In this light, this doctoral inquiry investigates how multicultural students, their languages and cultures are reflected in Korean society and schools and especially, how newcomer adolescents’ linguistic and cultural identities are negotiated in terms of their own success in Korea. 8 multicultural education policies and 27 news media publications as well as the narratives of 7 students and 6 educators from two high schools are analyzed through Fairclough’s (1992, 2003) critical discourse analysis. Based on the analysis, the discourses of diversity embedded in the nation-s...

2021

This chapter identifies and presents a range of factors that impedes North Korean students' learning and social adaptation in the South Korean educational system. Such factors include differences in learning approaches, social experiences, behaviour, mindset, language use, among others. All of these lead to low acceptance by the host towards the immigrant both in schools and in everyday communication. Attempting to stretch beyond painting a bleak picture of cultural mismatch, this chapter argues that while it seems impossible to restructure the thinking of a society overnight, small changes can take place in the everyday classroom learning through culturally sensitive activities. Such activities need to help students demonstrate respect, build social understanding, reduce communication mismatch, break social stereotypes, avoid discrimination, develop supportive principles, tolerate differences, and nurture a healthy sense of belonging. All of these are to be considered for the practice of a more inclusive, empathetic, and culturally sensitive pedagogy, which teachers would need not only to help students learn but also to strengthen teachers' professional development.