Disinclusion : a qualitative study of the acculturative experience of English instructors in South Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The recent increase in migration of ethnic minorities to the countries of East Asia and their subsequent acculturation are topics of growing importance. In South Korea this is so particularly in light of the persistence of Korean attitudes toward ethnic consanguineous homogeneity and the relationship in Korea of ethnicity and identity. To date, research on labor and marriage migrants from the Global South significantly outweighs that conducted generally more highly educated and better-paid migrant English teachers. Models of acculturation developed for and applied to past examples of immigration tend to have ignored the bi-directionality of such thus focusing solely upon the dominant host or accepting-side, and sought to explain acculturation as generally following one of four strategies: assimilation, separation, integration, or marginalization. It is the argument of this study that such models are inapplicable to the case of migrant English teachers. Via qualitative interviews, this study undertakes a joining-side approach to the investigation of migrant English teacher acculturation in South Korea. Three dimensions are identified as having an effect upon this process: time spent in South Korea, marriage to a Korean, and Korean language acquisition. It is hypothesized that via these dimensions participants pursue an inclusive acculturative strategy. However, it was found that while participants do not characterize their acculturation as actively inclusive, neither do they report being actively excluded. The term disinclusion has been coined to refer to this discrepancy, constitutive of an acculturative condition to which English teachers in South Korea are subject and to which they react with a variable response termed the disinclusion reaction. Participants were found to persevere in spite of disinclusion, to respond variably vis-？-vis the study’s dimensions, ultimately resulting in perpetuation of their being subject to disinclusion.