Korean mothers' perspectives on, and experiences with, their children's English study abroad: a qualitative study

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Rochester. Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, 2018.The global spread of English (Blommaert, 2010), the emphasis on English language proficiency in various professional and educational fields (Hu & McKay, 2012), and the symbolic value of English (Bourdieu, 1994) all entail the importance of English language, including in Korea. Therefore, Korean mothers heavily invest in their children’s English development, especially in the form of English Study Abroad (ESA) experiences, which have become an important response to the global push for learning English. Extending previous research on the effects of globalization and drawing on sociolinguistics of globalization (Blommaert, 2010) and symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1986), this study explores Korean mothers’ perspectives on and experiences with pressure about their children’s English education; how they respond to this pressure; and how these responses influence family life. The data were drawn from in-depth interviews with 15 Korean middle-class mothers, five from each of three categories of study abroad: “wild-geese” families where the father stays in the home country to earn money while the mother and children live abroad; “parachute-kids” where the child studies abroad alone; and “summer-camp” study abroad experiences. The study used modified grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) as the analytic framework for the data. The study’s main findings show that Korean mothers constantly seek distinctive ways to mobilize their resources for the purposes of class reproduction by gaining their children’s distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) through forms of ESA. A key finding is the identification of an emerging subculture of tight competition among middle-class mothers in the social field of Korea, a phenomenon I call “competitive cooperation.” In addition, the study documents how the unequal distribution of resources, access, and opportunities for English education (Blommaert, 2010) in Korea reinforce the asymmetry of power relations among mothers. Implications from this study for policy makers and educators include improving education approaches to teaching English as well as understanding the emotional impact on Korean mothers