Uncovering monolingual ideologies embedded in South Korean multicultural education

Using the case of multiracial Korean Americans, who are positioned across/between the boundaries of language and race, we explore language choice and use as sites for reimagining intercultural communication. Analyzing in‐depth autobiographical interviews, we ask how cultural difference and sameness are constructed and how understandings of English as a world language shape multilingual interactions. Findings reveal how, despite being familiar with cultural norms of Koreanness, multiracial Korean Americans are still constructed as cultural others by Korean speakers and rely on understandings of English as a world language to resist the metapragmatic frames their interlocutors would inscribe onto them. Use of English became a method for protecting their Korean identity, thus challenging the notion that use of a heritage language is essential for maintaining the ethnic identity. Consequently, we discuss the intersections of multiraciality and multilingualism to refine understandings of race and culture in intercultural communication and the globalization of English.

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Uncovering monolingual ideologies embedded in South Korean multicultural education

Cited by 4 publications

References 34 publications

Racism without race in South Korea: linguistic racism within a curriculum embracing language diversity

Racism without race in South Korea: linguistic racism within a curriculum embracing language diversity

North Korean refugee students’ strategy of school engagement and its impact on identity in South Korea: “aspiration towards an inter-Korean identity through a process of being one of them.”

Multiracial Korean Americans negotiating Korean and English

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