Marketing the Wang-chobo Identity: Problematic Construction of English Learner Identities in the Advertising Discourse of South Korea’s English Learning Platforms

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the advertisement discourse of the three most popular online English learning platforms in South Korea and problematize their framing of Koreans as incapable learners of English. The method of critical discourse analysis and multimodal discourse analysis were used to examine how text and visuals in the advertisement discourse portrayed three powerful ideologies of neoliberalism, native- speakerism, and self-deprecation in play. It was found that the idealization of the native speaker standard was interconnected with the self-deprecating tendency of Korean learners of English, who are pressured by the neoliberal logic of self- development to learn English but are not able to attain the unreachable goal of native-like proficiency. Likewise, the study problematized language ideologies in the discourse around English learning in South Korea in order to help Korean learners of English see their English learning experience as valid and valuable, and themselves as capable English speakers.