Language ideology of bilingual education policies for ethno-linguistic minorities in South Korea

Abstract

Drawing from the national and regional governments’ bilingual education policy documents for the languages of ethno-linguistic minorities, we investigated the intersections between bilingual education in the languages of ethno- linguistic minorities and language ideologies embedded in the selected policy documents. Applying a textual analysis of the data (Fairclough, 1995, 2003; Wodak & Meyer, 2009), we (a) explored the ways neoliberal language ideologies discursively (re)reproduced in the Korean national government’s bilingual education policy for teaching the languages of ethno-linguistic minority students and their families in the school, and (b) examined how a regional government interpreted the national ideological agenda. In doing so, we (c) analyzed the ways that the national and regional governments applied the language-as-resource framework to legitimize bilingual competency and bilingualism as a social norm in South Korea as well as a global norm in the globalized new economy where South Korea is situated.