English Language Learning and Learner Identities of North Korean Refugees in South Korea
Dissertation Title: English Language Learning and Learner Identities of North Korean Refugees in South Korea
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Wenhao Diao (Co-Chair), Dr. Sunyoung Yang (Co-Chair), Dr. Hayriye Kayi-Aydar
Location: Please contact SLAT office (GIDP-SLAT@arizona.edu) for Zoom information
Abstract: This qualitative ethnographic study aims to examine the interrelationship between English ideologies and learner identities of eight North Korean refugee (NKR) college students, and how they can further affect their English learning experiences by analyzing their narratives and classroom discourse. The study aims to expand the current knowledge of NKRs’ English learning by presenting and analyzing the stories of NKR English learners and users with diverse educational histories and ideologies and their fluid, multidimensional, and multidirectional identity construction and negotiation processes (Preece, 2016). Data were collected over the course of 7 months and included interviews, reflective journals, visual learner histories, and participant observations in English classrooms.
The findings revealed complex interrelationships between language ideologies, identity construction and negotiation processes, and second language (L2) investment of NKR students as English learners. The construction of English learner and user identities and the levels of L2 investment of the participants were subjected to various language ideologies in SK. The findings showed the linguistic racialization experienced by NKR students in SK, where they were often identified as uneducated and incompetent, reflecting the deficit ideology towards them. The study also revealed the intersectionality between Christianity and the NKR students’ identities and investment in English in different spaces. The study offers pedagogical implications from the local to the global level, including English education for NKRs and other minoritized groups, particularly immigrants and refugees. Moreover, the study provides implications for future research on the investigation of NKR students’ English learning and their identity construction and negotiation processes in their L2 communities.
