TY - JOUR
T1 - Language ideologies of Korean mothers with preschool-aged children
T2 - comparison, money, and early childhood English education
AU - Lee, Mun Woo
AU - Kim, Haemee
AU - Han, Moon sub
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This study examines parental ideologies regarding early childhood English education in South Korea. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with 31 Korean mothers of preschool-aged children and were studied using critical discourse analysis. The findings show that the mothers’ ideologies for their children's English education represented two themes: ‘comparison to others’ and ‘the role of money’. The mothers valued their children's English education, because they believed that college entrance exams were a competition and that their children's performance was highly important. ‘Comparison to others’ was also a psychological burden, namely the mothers’ needed to match or exceed others’ parental skills to feel a sense of self-confidence. The mothers also considered their children's English education their responsibility, which in context, reflected their social class status as represented by ‘money’. This concept of parental responsibility thus delimited the definition of good motherhood in the Korean context in a very restricted way. This study critically demonstrates how neoliberalism takes hold in a particular context and how it can become intertwined with ideologies about English education.
AB - This study examines parental ideologies regarding early childhood English education in South Korea. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with 31 Korean mothers of preschool-aged children and were studied using critical discourse analysis. The findings show that the mothers’ ideologies for their children's English education represented two themes: ‘comparison to others’ and ‘the role of money’. The mothers valued their children's English education, because they believed that college entrance exams were a competition and that their children's performance was highly important. ‘Comparison to others’ was also a psychological burden, namely the mothers’ needed to match or exceed others’ parental skills to feel a sense of self-confidence. The mothers also considered their children's English education their responsibility, which in context, reflected their social class status as represented by ‘money’. This concept of parental responsibility thus delimited the definition of good motherhood in the Korean context in a very restricted way. This study critically demonstrates how neoliberalism takes hold in a particular context and how it can become intertwined with ideologies about English education.
KW - Early childhood English education
KW - Korean mothers
KW - language ideologies
KW - neoliberalism
KW - preschool-aged children
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078629621&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85078629621&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01434632.2020.1713137
DO - 10.1080/01434632.2020.1713137
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078629621
SN - 0143-4632
VL - 42
SP - 637
EP - 649
JO - Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
JF - Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
IS - 7
ER -