So-Yeon Ahn

Preschool world language learners’ engagement with language: what are the possibilities?

What does development of language awareness among very young world language learners look like, especially when they have relatively infrequent exposure to the language they are learning? Adopting an ‘engagement with language’ (EWL) perspective and attending closely to classroom discourse, our research analyses interactional data drawn from several Head Start preschool classrooms (children aged 3–5 years) in order to both establish what sorts of explicit language awareness such young learners display in episodes of EWL and point out what other opportunities for cultivating language awareness are latent, but ultimately unexploited, in the classroom discourse excerpts presented. Our analysis is the basis for the claim that world language education more broadly, especially in the case of young learners, can be enhanced if curriculum and instruction intentionally focus on developing language awareness and deepening EWL.

Criticality for global citizenship in Korean English immersion camps

Given a heavy social, ideological pressure for parents to pursue better English education for their children in the globalized world, short-term English immersion camp programs have emerged as an educational option in South Korea, promoted as environments for intercultural communication between native English-speaking teachers and local Korean students. Examining teacher recruitment materials and promotional materials of 52 English camps, this paper explores how intercultural communicative competence and global citizenship relate to and interact with each other and how these concepts are implicated in Korean English immersion education. The paper further examines what these English camps promise and deliver in terms of preparing English learners for global citizenship via English education. Viewing the cultivation of criticality at the heart of the development of intercultural communicative competence and the shaping of global citizens, the paper argues the need to revisit the concept of criticality in language teaching and learning, familiarize teachers, and students with the practice of criticality, and as a result, raise their critical awareness of the world. Thus, criticality with its emphasis on overcoming stereotypes, relating to and understanding otherness, and gaining a deeper understanding of ones own cultural values could better prepare our learners for the globalized era.

South Korean university students’ perceptions of different English varieties and their contribution to the learning of English as a foreign language

ABSTRACT This study explored South Korean university students’ perceptions of different English varieties and their speakers, student attitudes towards the learning of English and its varieties, and the role of these attitudinal variables in the learning of English as a foreign language. One-hundred-one students who were enrolled in four sections of a semester-long English course completed a country-rating task and a perception questionnaire of recorded English speech samples (European-American-, Indian-, Italian-, and Korean-accented English assigned to each section). Student attitudes towards the learning of English and its different varieties were also examined. The results from the country ratings and the speech-perception questionnaire suggest the influence of extra-linguistic factors (familiarity, geographic proximity, and global/local sociopolitics) on student attitudes. Different sets of attitudinal variables predicted the teacher and student assessments of the learning of English. Teacher-assessed learning was predicted by students’ desire to communicate with other speakers, regardless of the variety they spoke, as well as their beliefs that communication takes two parties and that English serves as a means for upward mobility. The students’ self-assessments, however, were related to their beliefs in their high achievement in English and their views of English as a lingua franca and of non-Standard English as legitimate.

Bridging notions of language play and language awareness

Abstract: This article explores the interface between language play and language awareness. Grounded in an understanding of two kinds of language play, ludic language play and language play as rehearsal, it shows how the shared theoretical underpinnings and distinctive features of both overlap with the concept of language awareness. Spanning across cognitive, affective, and social dimensions of learners’ language awareness, both types of language play highlight learners’ conscious perception and sensitivity to linguistic forms and functions, attention, noticing, alertness, and particularly engagement. The paper contends that there is a close connection between language play and language awareness, and thereby argues that language play episodes, whether for the purpose of amusement or private rehearsal, could yield insights into students’ knowledge about language and their ability to reflect on it through engagement with language. Finally, the paper outlines implications for research on language play episodes and for their use in teaching to incorporate humor into the language classroom.

Young learners’ portrayals of ‘good English teacher’ identities in South Korea

Abstract In the climate of shifting language policies and constant influx of native English-speaking teachers to South Korea, the question of what constitutes a “good” language teacher (GLT) arises. To this end, the present study examines how 577 young English learners (K-6th grade) come to demonstrate their understanding of GLT by making use of visual images and written narratives. A social semiotic, multimodal approach to analysis is employed to scrutinize how these textual and visual narratives construct and/or presuppose a certain image of teacher identity and, as a result, display societal ideologies (Jewitt 2009). The findings yield two dimensions with regard to the objects associated with GLTs, an emotional/abstract dimension and a teaching-related dimension, and the differing use of these objects in relation to teacher gender indicating students’ awareness of teacher roles and gender. Moreover, the ways in which learners place themselves in the storied worlds seem to provide evidence for how teacher identity is, in fact, co-constructed with the notion of learner identity. Thus, the study underscores the complex nature of GLT identity construction and further highlights the benefits of using both textual and visual methods to gain better insights into learners’ beliefs about, attitudes towards, and perspectives on teachers, students, and language learning.