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Article published In: Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education
Vol. 5:2 (2020) ► pp.153–174

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English and internationalization of Korean universities

Emergent multilingual practices and second language learning

 | Murray State University
Published online: 7 October 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.19001.son
Abstract
The internationalization of higher education in South Korea has brought marked changes to the linguistic and cultural diversity of university campuses. This ethnographic case study examined language policies, language use, and intercultural interactions in two localized English-Medium-Instruction courses that incorporated both English and Korean as mediums of instruction. The results drawn from interviews with ten participants and observations of classroom interactions show that English was a primary medium for students’ academic literacy and Korean as an additional communication tool in the absence of any explicit Medium of Instruction policy. They also illustrate how the different statuses of the two languages limited students’ investment in learning Korean as a second language and created unequal intercultural interactions between speakers of different languages. The results illuminate how a neoliberal ideology adopted and enacted at a national and institutional level through internationalization translated into implicit policies and practices at different levels on campus.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Neoliberalism and English in the internationalization ofKorean universities
  • 3.Challenges of internationalization
  • 4.The current study
    • 4.1Contexts and participants
    • 4.2Data collection and analysis
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1A wavering language requirement and implicit MoI policy
    • 5.2English as a primary medium for academic literacy in the classroom
    • 5.3Second language learning and intercultural interactions
  • 6.Conclusion and implications
  • Acknowledgement
  • Note
  • References
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