English Ideology and the Audience of Performance

Abstract

This study examines language ideologies of Korean adolescents who positioned themselves ‘successful’ English learners. The language ideology that both construct and are constructed by language use will demonstrates how and for whom Korean adolescents learn English through their critical discourse on experiences of English learning. This study uses qualitative data that were collected with fifteen adolescents, drawn from the written questionnaire and interviews with the method of coding the data according to emerging patterns or conceptual categories. The results demonstrate that participants’ purposes of learning and performing English are different depending on the audience, enacting a certain ideological function. This study reveals the linkages between language, ideology, and neoliberal logics in Korean society and gives a chance to view the English ideologies in Korea with a critical perspective.