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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 22, No. 0, pp.619-636
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2022
Received 22 May 2022 Revised 23 Jun 2022 Accepted 30 Jun 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.22..202206.619

Bifurcated Language Policy and Practice: English Only Policies vs. De Facto Translingual Practices in English-Medium Instruction Classrooms at a Korean University

Jung Sook Kim
Assistant Professor Multiculturalism and Social Policy Daegu Univ., Tel: 053-850-4603 jungskkim@daegu.ac.kr


© 2022 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study investigates the discourse of the English-medium instruction (EMI) policy and practices at a Korean university from a trans-turn perspective. It analyzes the discourse across different levels of language policy concerning EMI: macro-level language ideology, meso-level language management, and micro-level language practice. The study reveals that the language policy is hierarchically bifurcated among differentially valorized languages and that EMI is entangled with native-speakerism and elitism. Further, it demonstrates that de facto translingual and trans-semiotizing practices were enacted in the EMI spaces, which emerged from the EMI instructors’ struggles with the discrepancy between the imposed policy and practice. The findings suggest that despite the perceived monolingual ideology of English Only, an EMI classroom, by its nature, is a heteroglossic space in which multilingual resources are mobilized, and thus, translingual/trans-semiotizing practices are inevitably allowed for meaning negotiation. This study makes a case for the significance of these translingual and trans-semiotic features in multilingual contexts in embracing l inguistic diversity as a total semiotic repertoire for meaning-making.

Keywords:

translingual practices, semiotic repertoire, English-medium instruction (EMI), language ideology, language policy, critical discourse analysis

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea/ the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2021S1A5B8096275).

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