The Globalisation of Desire: The Many Uses of Global and National Discourses by Korean Learners of English

Abstract

This research project utilises a poststructuralist approach and key assumptions from the postcolonial paradigm to explore how global/national (local) discourses of the English language within the national context of the Republic of Korea are engaged with and used by Korean learners of English to narrate their individual pursuit of English education and construct the 'Self' as a learner of English. Applying critical discourse analytic methods, this research traces discourse for and about the English language, the Korean nation-state and the 'learner' through three discursive domains – the globalising discourses of three intergovernmental organisations, national discourses of learning within the Korean context, and the English education storylines of thirteen Korean learners of English located nationally and transnationally. Specifically, this research questions: 1) What are the implications of an engagement with global/national discourses for the post-colonial subjectivities of Korean learners of English? 2) Which broader discourses bind with discourses of English in speaking of 'learners' and 'learning' and Korean learners of English within this context? 3) What are the consequences of these findings for the theoretical framing of this research, non-Western learners of English as a second language and the global position of English?