This study aims to conduct a narrative inquiry on foreign learners’ experiences in using Korean terms of address to explore the implications of the experience-based, meaning-making process of the education on using titles in Korea. To this end, the ...
This study aims to conduct a narrative inquiry on foreign learners’ experiences in using Korean terms of address to explore the implications of the experience-based, meaning-making process of the education on using titles in Korea. To this end, the puzzles of this study were as follows: First, explore how Korean language learners use different terms of address in various circumstances and relational contexts; second, explore the interpersonal functions of Korean terms of address that the learners discovered from their own experiences; third, explore the potential experience-based intercultural educations on terms of address.
Narrative inquiry, which focuses on constructing knowledge based on experiential awareness, was considered most appropriate for this study of discovering personal and practical knowledge constructed from participants’ experiences. Following the methodology of narrative inquiry, the inquiry was conducted in four stages: “Being in the Field,” “From Field to Field Text,” “From Field Text to Interim Research Text,” and “From Interim Research Text to Research Text.”
To explore the experiences of using Korean terms of address in various circumstances and relational contexts, the research participants were chosen as learners who have work experiences in Korea. The researcher carefully considered their gender, cultural background, and age. Research texts were collected through in-depth interviews. Each participant had two interviews in total, but in necessary cases, the last interview was added. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, most of the participants had an online, non-face-to-face interview. The in-depth interviews of this study was not a unilateral process where the interviewer makes questions and interviewee answers. Instead, it was a process of discussing and examining meanings based on reflective thinking. The interim research texts and research texts were also constructed with the participants’ involvement.
The narratives of the research participants’ experience of using address terms can be understood as follows. First, the participants formed meaning by choosing certain address terms and excluding others based on their intention, taking into account the system of Korean address terms. The participants’ narratives based on common and different experiences show the context of choosing and excluding address terms. Second, the participants exerted intercultural ability when experiencing the Korean culture through terms of address, which is a cultural language. They perceived their own culture and discovered other cultures by examining their use of address terms, and obtained communication skills by interpreting the meanings of address terms. Also, they built critical thinking on the culture reflected by address terms and the education on address terms.
The results of this study suggest the necessity and significance of learners’ experience-based intercultural education in terms of address. Based on their interactive and intersubjective experience, the participants discovered the relational context that affects the selection of address terms and the functions of address terms that establish roles and relationships. Personal and practical knowledge constructed from experience can be shared in the intercultural educational process. Education on terms of address using learners’ experience can be conducted as follows: first, establish objective standards while examining the terms of address in the participant’s mother tongue; second, discover differences and similarities by comparing the language cultures; and third, reach a mutual understanding by discovering the “common” area between the two cultures.
This study has personal, practical, and social justification. First, for personal justification, I achieved personal growth by objectifying my reference when examining the Korean language culture from others’ perspectives. Second, this research is meaningful in academic terms as it combines theories of systemic functional linguistics with education on Korean address terms, expanding the theoretical understanding of the research on address terms education. Also, it has educational significance as it discusses the possibility of education on address terms from an intercultural approach. These are the practical justifications of this study. Third, this study is socially justified as it shows Koreans’ perception of multi-culture that emphasize “difference with foreigners” through the use of terms of address.