English Language Learning and Learner Identities of North Korean Refugees in South Korea

Abstract

Since the Korean War (1945-1953) that divided the peninsula at the 38th parallel, North Korea (NK) and South Korea (SK) have developed in different ways. There has been an increasing number of North Korean refugees (NKRs) arriving in SK since the late 1990s. English has attained a significant symbolic capital in the globalized world, and South Korea exemplifies the pervasive influence of English in various aspects of society, being inseparable to the country’s modernization (Park, 2009). Previous studies (e.g., Cho, 2018; Jung, 2009; Lee et al., 2016; Park, 2007; Shin & Kim, 2019; Shin & Park, 2019; Shin et al., 2019) claimed that English, in spite of it being a foreign language in SK, plays a significant role in NKRs’ adjustment and everyday lives in SK due to the material and symbolic capital and social mobility it brings (Park, 2009). Previous studies on NKRs’ English learning also revealed that it is not purely a cognitive or linguistic matter, but it closely relates to gaps in institutional norms and structural assumptions for college students and social values in SK. Therefore, NKRs’ English learner identities are a good lens through which we understand the meanings of becoming NKRs in SK and how they negotiate their alignment with what SK celebrates as the institutional norms, such as English. This qualitative ethnographic study aims to examine the interrelationship between English ideologies and learner identities of eight 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. Data analysis was conducted with thematic coding. 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 participants responded to this ideology in various ways. 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.