Exploring language awareness through students' engagement in language play

ABSTRACT

The present study explores Korean students' demonstration of language awareness through their engagement in language play. Grounded in the understanding of the relationship between language play and an ‘engagement with language’ (EWL) perspective, this ethnographic and discourse analytic study investigates how Korean students aged 11–15 engage in ludic language play in English immersion camps in South Korea and discusses how these episodes offer learners an opportunity to display their language awareness, particularly their EWL. The findings highlight the nature of students' play with language as closely connected to their language awareness, functioning as a metacognitive tool in language learning, and their conscious attention to the broader context, in which language use is negotiated, maintained, and reinforced. Overall, episodes of language play served as a potentially prime site for demonstration of language awareness in terms of forms, functions, and effects, as well as for the creation and negotiation of more meaningful interaction filled with collaborative and voluntary engagement. The study suggests that further investigation of the learners' engagement in language play could yield deeper insights into how learners display their knowledge and awareness of languages, explore the relationships among languages, and further identify themselves as competent users of multiple languages.

KEYWORDS:

• language awareness
• engagement with language
• ludic language play
• English immersion camp programmes
• adolescent EFL learners

This study was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Funds of 2015. My deep appreciation goes to Dr Agneta Svalberg, two anonymous reviewers, and the editors for their insightful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article; any remaining errors are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Funds of 2015.

Notes on contributors

So-Yeon Ahn

So-Yeon Ahn is an assistant professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, where she conducts research on language and cultural awareness, social and cultural approaches to language learning, and language ideology and identity.