Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Since mid-1990, in line with its economic growth, South Korea has been undergoing a change in
its social situation. Increasing the number of foreign migrant workers and international marriage
is transforming South Korea into a more diverse and multicultural society. According to the
press release of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and National
Statistical Office, the total number of foreign residents living in Korea on November 1, 2015 was
1.71 million which is found to be 3.4% of the total population. This is the rate that has increased
more than three times compared with 2006, and it is continuing to accelerate. After 2020, the
In addition, due to the continuous inflow of North Korean (NK) refugees, the cultural
diversity of residents in South Korea has been promoted further. It is because since the day when
the Korean war Armistice Agreement was signed, South and North Korea have been maintaining
different political stances and the political events destroyed the cultural and linguistic
homogeneity of people. The sharp difference in political philosophy has divided the Korean
peninsula into two parts along the 38th parallel so that North and South Korea have been in a
prolonged conflict, ceasing political, economic and cultural interchanges for over 67 years. As a
result, the two nations have formed dissimilar values and attitudes of life—the elements of little
‘c’ culture and have not experienced mutual exchanges until now. Among younger generations,
In the past, due to the scarcity of food and harsh living conditions, the number of North
Koreans living in SK had steadily increased in SK. On the other hand, in the future, we expect
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Portfolio II—Knowledge Application Essay, Hyejin Yoon
that the increasing mutual exchange between South and North Korea in all areas will make SK a
more culturally diverse country. After the historic inter-Korean summit followed by “talks of the
century” between the American president and the North Korean leader, South and North Koreans
became full of hope for ending the 1950-53 Korean War and bring permanent peace to the
between the both sides’ leaders seems to be accelerating the transformation from longing into
reality.
rapidly becoming a place where various cultures coexist, most Koreans are still not ready for
ethnic diversity and express negative perceptions towards a multicultural society (Jang, 2015).
Jang (2015) addressed three types of pessimistic views towards multiculturalism: Double-faced
was proved that the Koreans were likely to be confined to ethnocentric ideas.
When the visceral image of an innocent three-year old boy’s corpse that washed up on
the shore of a beach in Turkey, the around the world was devastated with an outpouring of grief.
Like other nations did, the majority of Koreans expressed their grief, conveying heartfelt
sympathies. However, the attitude toward over 500 Yemeni refugees who arrived on SK soil
was quite different from the one to the victimized child. More than 700,000—1.3% of the total
population filed together a Cheong Wa Dae—Blue House petition against granting asylum for
the Yemeni refugees in less than a month. The basic argument that people provided was related
to cultural differences, especially the refugees’ religion—Islam was a widespread concern and
terrorism also. I would not like to judge their argument per se but like to express my concerns
about their reaction relying on ‘affect bias’, because they quickly expressed their stance and set a
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Portfolio II—Knowledge Application Essay, Hyejin Yoon
course of action without the benefit of extensive research and critical thinking (English, 2015).
Koreans’ xenophobia has a long history, so it has naturally and gradually permeated all
levels of society. In order to minimize risk to national security, Korea had walled itself off from
the rest of the world except for only one country—China over three centuries. Korea has long
been considered as the “Hermit Kingdom” until early 20 century and the deeply ingrained sense
Multiculturalism and Schools. The ethnic diversity toward a multicultural society has
led to changes in the education/learner population. The increase in the number of multicultural
families has begun to make demands on the educational system in Korea. Due to the “Us vs.
Them” paradigm that Koreans possess, often mixed-race children are not accepted as a member
of a group. To be specific, in the survey of 190 migrants, as a place where racial discrimination
mainly takes place, education facilities such as schools are ranked as the top (Gyeonggi-do
Foreigner Human Rights Supports Center, 2016). Therefore, the social requirement to ameliorate
the condition of education as it relates to these new families and refugees is being systematically
importance of teachers’ roles in society. Especially, teachers’ IC is highlighted more than before;
teachers who have positive beliefs regarding diversity are able to impart their IC to their students
and other scholarly research to date, our understanding about SK teachers’ difficulties as they
work with NK refugee youths remains incomplete: I could not find any research with regard to
the cultural gap between SK teachers and NK students. Missing are descriptions of SK IL
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Portfolio II—Knowledge Application Essay, Hyejin Yoon
teachers’ actual experiences with attempting to being ‘good/effective’ IL teachers in their
instruction for NK students. Given the huge gap of achievement in English between SK and NK
students (Shin et al., 2012), it is highly recommended that SK IL teachers be trained and
prepared to serve this different group of students. Hence, I argue that the current lack of research
the key issues at the core of teachers’ professional development as a cultural-mediators in SK.
Literature on Culture
Culture plays such a prominent part in every aspect of our lives and we are easily
hoodwinked into believing that our convictions are true and universal. However, by being
gradually freed from the grip of unconscious culture, individual’s intercultural sensitivity
conceptualizing IC and exploring the frameworks of it, it is necessary to delve into the
2010, p. 1). It is because once people acknowledge the influence of culture on their daily
beginning of 20 century. For example, Ayisi (1992) defined that culture is “… that
complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, moral, cultural tools, customs,
and all other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (p. 1).
Among many cultural notions, it is meaningful to examine the one of Edward T. Hall
(1989), because he was an original thinker whom many scholars consider to be the
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Portfolio II—Knowledge Application Essay, Hyejin Yoon
founder of the study of intercultural communication. He introduced a concept which he
to Hall (1989), mankind has been adding to their weaknesses by evolving various
“extensions” (p. 25), cultural elements such as languages, mechanical systems, and social
structures that affect how one perceives one’s culture. Humans are caught in a trap called
“extension transference” (p. 28), thus culture is becoming lived in an unconscious way.
Once the extensions are internalized, the author explained, cultural influences on humans’
political acts, decision-making, prioritizing and ways of thinking are not consciously
heavily and uncritically rely on culturally available schemata. As a result, human beings
marginalize themselves and lose their ability to control their culture. So long as direct
conflicts do not occur in intercultural and interethnic encounters, culture does not easily
Conceptualization of IC. Over the last 30 years, many scholars used and defined
the term intercultural competence, but they could not reach a consensus on a single
(behavioral) (Chen & Starosta, 1997). Lustig and Koester (2006) explain that intercultural
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Portfolio II—Knowledge Application Essay, Hyejin Yoon
competence requires knowledge, motivation, skills in communication and germane
discovery and interaction) and Savoir s’engager (critical awareness). However, in terms
combination of ‘inter’ and ‘cultural’. Due to the prefix ‘inter’ indicating ‘between’, the term
(Hill 2006; Pusch 2004). A number of scholars who are working on IC have been criticizing the
fact that “such a limited, modern (vs. postmodern) and positivistic vision sets aside an important
aspect of social interactions: power” (Dervin & Hahl, 2015). Shi-Xu (2001) had taken into
account the tendency in research ignoring the phenomenon that “intercultural communication is
situate in the context of imbalance in power and inequality” (p. 287). In short, the “intercultural
communication” never takes place in a “power vacuum” environment (Shi-Xu, 2001, p. 287).
Therefore, EL teachers should be aware of the oppression of the power dynamic which exists
between communicators who possess the power of language and ones who do not.
Due to the power of the culture which English-speaking people possess, the dominance of
English has been observed in different areas, which has been constructed over a long period of
time. However, As the global language, English is no longer only for people who live in
English-speaking countries which occupy the Inner Circle of Kachuru’s (1992) three-circle
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model, rather it is an international language used for communication between people from
various languages and cultures (Crystal, 1997; Jenkins, 2015; McArthur, 2003; Pennycook,
IC. McKay (2002) suggested rethinking goals and perspectives of teaching English as an
international language, by claiming that once a language is internationalized, the language is “no
longer linked to a single culture or nation but serves both global and local needs as a language of
wider communication” (p. 24). Macedo (2000) warned that if people’s mind sets are hostage to
the neocolonialist language, they are likely to lose their own languages and cultures and it could
be related to the matter of losing dignity. In this sense, exploring to what extent IL teachers are
aware of linguistic imperialism and in what way they analyze and modify the text book which is
the main teaching and learning resource based on critical perspectives would be an effective way
Ayisi, E. O. (1992). An introduction to the study of African culture. East African Publishers.
Brody, J. (2003). A linguistic anthropological perspective on language and culture in the second
language curriculum. In D.L. Lange & R. M. Paige (Eds.), Culture as the core:
Multilingual Matters.
Chen, G. M., & Starosta, W. J. (1997). A review of the concept of intercultural sensitivity.
Byram and A. Feng (Eds.) Living and studying abroad: Research and practice (pp. 232-
Dervin, F., & Hahl, K. (2015). Developing a portfolio of intercultural competences in teacher
DiMaggio, P. (1997). Culture and cognition. Annual review of sociology, 23(1), 263-287.
English, A. (2015). The affective influence of risk perception and the collapse of compassion.
Gyeonggi-do Foreigner Human Rights Supports Center. (2016). The actual conditions of racial
Hill, I. (2006). Student types, scholl types and their combined influence on the development of
Jang, J. (2015). Korean perceptions on foreign immigrants. IOM Migration Research and
Jenkins, J. (2015). Global Englishes: A resource book for students (3rd edition). New
York: Routledge.
Macedo, D. (2000). The colonialism of the English only movement. Educational Researcher,
29(3), 15-24.
McArthur, T. (2003). Oxford guide to world English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Longman.
Pusch, M. D. (2004). Intercultural training in historical perspective. In Landis, D., Bennett, J. M.,
& Bennett, M. J. (Eds.), Handbook of intercultural training (pp. 13-36). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
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Shin, J., Kim, K., Par, S., Kim, Y., Lee, J., Cho, Y., Kim, H., Lee, Y., & Choi, S. (2012).
results of National Academic Achievement Test. KICE Research Report, RRE 2012-13.
Trudgill, P., & Hannah, J. (2017). International English: A Guide to Varieties of English Around