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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 24, No. 0, pp.305-324
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2024
Received 06 Dec 2023 Revised 20 Dec 2023 Accepted 11 Apr 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.24..202404.305

Cultural and Linguistic Sensitivity in Second Language Development: A Case of Korean L1 Prepubescent Learners of English

Eunjung Kim ; Mun-Hong Choe
(1st author) English Teacher, Gwangju Mujin Middle School kej12020@gmail.com
(corresponding author) Professor, Dept. of English Language Education, Chonnam National University munhong@jnu.ac.kr


© 2024 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 case study has observed three Korean-speaking prepubescent learners of English as a second language (L2) in the United States over a year, with the goal of investigating the relationship between their ability to notice and accommodate cultural differences and their development in L2 proficiency. Using a mixed method combining quantitative scales, interviews, and observation notes, the study seeks to identify the role that age of immersion plays in the learners’ adaptation to a second culture and the extent to which individual differences in cultural and linguistic sensitivity impact their L2 learning. Results from the measurement scales support that individual differences in cultural and linguistic sensitivity predict L2 development to a significant degree. In particular, those who have a higher transcultural sensitivity in affective and behavioral dimensions are likely to achieve more in L2 proficiency. Also, those who show a preference for the productive-creative and interpersonal-practical functions of language develop faster in oral communication skills than those who are oriented toward ideational-intellectual functions. Qualitative observations suggest that the characteristic differences in the young learners’ second culture and language learning can be described, albeit rather impressionistically, in terms of a gradual change from immersive to observational learning and from skill learning through nonreflective rehearsing to knowledge building through meaning-based representing.

Keywords:

cultural sensitivity, linguistic sensitivity, second language acquisition, individual difference factor, age of onset

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022S1A5A2A01038147).

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