Positional Identities of an International Student in South Korea: Denied Rights and Neglected Duties

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the experiences of an international graduate student at a South Korean university via positional identity theory. It reveals the positional identities that evolved out of the student’s experiences studying the Korean language prior to starting her graduate degree, and during her time as a graduate student. Applying narrative research methodology that employed interviews and journal entries, the findings reveal that the student’s self-perceived right to receive her lectures in English coupled with negative experiences learning Korean prior to her graduate studies influenced her willingness to learn the Korean language and impacted upon her experiences during her graduate lectures. Perceived neglected duties and denied rights clustered to form positional identities which were radically different to described identities held prior to her time in the South Korean educational context. Implications on what these results might mean for the newly developing international graduate student market in Korea are then discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• English education
• identity
• international students
• positioning theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund.

Notes on contributors

Michael Rabbidge

Michael Rabbidge is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Education and the TESOL Department at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea. His primary research interests include the developing language identities of international students and English educators, and issues related to translanguaging practices in EFL contexts.

Mithun Banerjee

Mithun Banerjee works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She received another MA (research) degree in Socio-cultural studies at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea. Her research interests include language and identity, L2 learning, psycholinguistics and morphology.