Problematising students’ agency in the internationalisation of higher education

ABSTRACT

From a critical ecological linguistic perspective, this paper argues that South Korean English-language-policies are constraining students’ agency. Since the millennium, as a legacy of neoliberalism universities of non-English-first-language contexts have implemented EMI (English-Medium Instruction) courses top-down to further internationalise. Faced with a declining birth rate, South Korea has been no exception to this trend; nevertheless, this ‘dominant policy path’ has disregarded the linguistic challenges of students. These challenges are exacerbated by recent changes made to the English section of the University entrance examination which constrain students’ linguistic capital. Gidden’s Structuration Theory and Bourdieu’s notion of habitus are used to problematise South Korean university students’ agency within their structured-English-learning ecologies. In analysis, I use a constructivist approach enabling a theory of Situated Linguistic Capital to emerge. This theory conceptualises a dynamic between trust and linguistic capital which has been shaped by the past and which affects future affordances. Accounts of English educational experiences, collected from ten South Korean university students, are used to exemplify the theory. I conclude by arguing that conducting a needs analysis with students and EMI content instructors, to understand existing power relations, will encourage moves towards bottom-up, socially just directions in future South Korean English-language-policies. (198)

KEYWORDS:

• English-Medium Instruction
• student agency
• South Korea
• linguistic capital
• social justice
• affordances
• trust
• symbolic violence

Acknowledgment

I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Juup Stelma for his insightful critique of my initial ideas and early drafts. I would also like to extend my thanks to the anonymous reviewers and Dr. Gary Motteram, Dr. Sylvie Lomer, Dr. Trevor Grimshaw, and Diane Slaouti for helping my thinking develop, over time, which has contributed to this paper. Finally, I would like to thank the participants who gave their time to be involved in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dylan G Williams

Dylan Glyn Williams PhD, is a lecturer at the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film, Queen Mary University of London. His current research interests focus on East Asian education systems and the multilingualism and equity of English-Medium Instruction.