Language ideology and identity in transnational space: globalization, migration, and bilingualism among Korean families in the USA

Abstract

A growing transnational migration trend among (South) Korean families brings heterogeneity to the Korean-American communities in the US in terms of educational practices and identity. Based on interviews with Korean mothers, this study discusses how two groups of Koreans, Korean immigrants and early study abroad sojourners, enacted and adopted different language ideologies that resulted in divergent attitudes to and different strategies for their children's language education. The interviews with early study abroad families, in particular, revealed that their attitudes to language education were closely related to the language ideologies of global English in Korea. That is, these early study abroad families circulated ‘glocalized’ English (localized global English) through transnational migration as an educational strategy. Particulary, two language ideologies of global English: (1) language as marketable commodity; and (2) language for cosmopolitan membership, become apparent and intensified in their discourse on language education.

A pluralistic approach to an immigrant community highlights the intra-group variations in US immigrant populations, yielding an understanding of their diverse educational practices and identities. This study also contributes to a dynamic notion of bilingualism and language learning in transnational space by emphasizing the multiple and context-specific nature of language ideologies.

Keywords:

• language ideologies
• bilingualism
• language learning
• identity
• study abroad
• Korean-Americans

Notes

1. For a general discussion of Korean immigrant history and settlement patterns in the US, see Hurh (1998), Jo (1999), Min (2000), and Shin (2005).

2. The residents of Kangnam, south of the Han River, have a particularly high correlation with the parents' desire toward early study abroad or early language learning abroad.

3. Interestingly, some people divide fathers of kireki kajok (geese families) into three kinds: (1) dokswuri appa (eagle fathers) who can fly to see their family several times a year and are the most prestigious and wealthy kind; (2) kireki appa (geese fathers) who can fly to their family only in certain periods, due to their work and financial situation, and finally; (3) peyngkwun appa (penguin fathers) who cannot fly and ‘are stuck’ in Korea due to their financial and social constraints.

4. For a full discussion of the controversy regarding the introduction of English in the elementary school, see Public hearing on implementing English as an elementary school subject published by the KEDI (1995).

5. This statement is not uncontroversial, but the discussion of the issue is beyond the scope of this paper.

6. According to Guilherme (2007), while ‘deficit cosmopolitanism’ that is restricted to the lower socioeconomic levels of a society takes places in the process of transitory bilingualism to reach monolingualism, ‘elite cosmopolitanism’ lies in the upper socioeconomic levels for which multilingualism is the goal.