This study investigates what characteristics are considered important for a hypothetical multilingual person to be perceived as a "native" speaker of English. The data was collected from 521 participants from the United Kingdom, Singapore and South Korea, responding to a survey comprised of 30 questions with opportunities for qualitative…

The current study looked at an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher's emotional intelligence (EI) and emotional labor (EL). A Korean elementary fifth-grade classroom was observed eight times in a non-participant way. Further, the teacher and the students were interviewed in a semi-structured way, and the teacher was asked to write…

There has been an influx of school-aged North Korean refugees defecting to South Korea in recent years. Research examining their integration into South Korean schools has shown that these students consider English to be one of the biggest obstacles to their academic endeavors. However, not much attention has been paid to examining the difficulties…

This article investigates the intercultural competence and identities of undergraduate heritage language learners (HLLs) studying abroad under the auspices of the U.S. Flagship Program. Based on survey responses and interviews with HLLs from Flagship Programs across the country, the article aims to assess the preparation of HLLs for study abroad…

This study investigates the concept of teacher identity of native-English speakers in South Korea by examining public texts, mainly English immersion camp advertisements and teacher recruitment materials. To this end, a social semiotic multimodal analysis was employed to scrutinize how these public narratives and visual images, populated with…

Drawing from a larger ethnography of North Korean young adults learning English in Christian educational programs in South Korea, this article explores the power relations between evangelicals and minority people and the political economy of missionary English teaching. This article follows Christian educational programs that provided various…

The purpose of this study was to examine how Korean science and engineering students view English-medium instruction (EMI) and Korean-medium instruction (KMI). The participants were 174 undergraduate students enrolled in EMI and KMI classes offered by the same instructor at a Korean science and engineering school. Interviews and questionnaire…

Native English speaking language teachers who live and work in various parts of the world often express a desire to learn the language of their host country. Without sustained levels of motivation, however, their desires are unlikely to be realized. This article reports the findings of a longitudinal case study of an American English language…

The current study examined how a North Korean defector attending a college in South Korea transformed her identity while learning English. This study was grounded in the notion of second language learning as a struggle of a socially constituted being in which the language learner constantly structures and restructures his or her social identity.…

Drawing on the data collected through classroom observations, participants' written journals, and in-depth interviews, this study examines the hyphenated identity constructions of 1.5- ("ilcem osey") and 2nd-generation heritage language learners. The study observes that ethnic and racial exclusion in a White dominant society was more…

This study aims to explore the nature of the identities constructed by EFL learners through picture-book read-alouds and the possible relationship between these identities and their literacy learning. Eight Korean students were encouraged to connect with stories through picture-book workshops. Before and after the picture-book read-alouds, tests…

Most research on language and identity has been conducted in contexts in which English is an official language. As a result, the Western-derived framework guiding identity research may not be representative for L2 learners/speakers in localized settings. To address this potential disparity, this qualitative study examines L2 identity construction…

Social class has been underresearched in the field of applied linguistics. The central goal of this forum was to stimulate more conversation about social class as it impacts language learning and teaching. In this article, I comment on 3 salient themes that have emerged in the 5 articles: (1) agency and structure in language learning and teaching,…

In this article, I draw on Bourdieu's (1984, 1991) notion of "habitus" in order to explore the relationship between social class, language learning, and language teaching in the context of the global economy. To illustrate my points, I use "Early Study Abroad" (ESA), the transnational educational migration that Korean…

The purpose of this article is to explore Korean English learners' identity and pedagogical implications of the findings. After a brief explanation about why the manners of examining English learners' identity can be diverse according to their sociocultural context, as an agency of Korean English learners' identity representation, their…