어학연수 성공 담론의 재구성: 어학연수생의 자리 찾기 과정을 중심으로 = Reconstructing the Meaning of Success in Studying English Abroad: A Study on Study-Abroad Students’ Discursive Repositioning

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

As the importance of oral English skills increases in the Korean job market, studying English abroad is now considered an effective method of improving those skills. Drawing on the ethnographic data of young Korean adults studying English in Toronto, Canada, this study examines how they negotiated the meaning of success constructed by neoliberal self-development discourse and justified their educational investment. The discourse of successful English study abroad requires students to study ‘harder’ than before by indexing learning ethics with behaviors such as “Use English only” and “Don’t meet with Koreans.” However, the majority of Korean students fail to do so not only because of the large number of Koreans studying and living in Toronto but also because of everyday interactions signaling negative evaluation of Korean students sticking to those principles. In order to avoid falling into a ‘failure’ case, they try to display that they were studying ‘hard enough,’ through behaviors indexical with good attendance in the language school. Through this reconstruction of the meaning of success, they repositioned themselves as ‘hard-working’ students while denigrating those who were frequently absent, spoke Korean only, and hanged out only with Koreans. This study suggests that the process of self-development in neoliberal discourse involves constant negotiations of self-positions as the repositioning serves as evidence that one does not fail in the self-development project.

국문 초록 (Abstract)

취업 시 영어 구술 능력에 대한 중요성이 높아지면서 어학연수는 효과적인 언어 습득의 기회로 여겨진다. 본 논문은 영어 어학연수를 취업을 위한 교육투자로 바라보며, 특정 학습윤리를 설파하는 어학연수 성공 담론 속에서 어학연수생이 자신의 위치를 찾아가는 과정을 캐나다 토론토 한국인 어학연수생 문화기술지 현장 조사 자료를 통해 보여준다. 비판사회언어학에 기반한 본 연구는 어학연수생에 대한 표상과 자리 찾기 과정을 지표성이라는 개념을 이용하여 분석한다.
어학연수 성공 담론은 과거 어학연수 경험에 비추어 현시기 어학연수생이 ‘더 열심히’ 혹은 ‘독하게’ 노력하도록 요구한다. “독하게 하기”는 어학연수 중 “영어만 쓰기,” “한국인 만나지 않기”로 지표 된다. 하지만 대부분의 어학연수생은 연수 도시에 사는 한국인과 같은 환경적인 조건뿐만 아니라 한국인을 만나지 않는 한국인 학생에 대한 부정적이고 시기심 어린 평가로 인해 ‘독한’ 학생이 되기가 쉽지 않다. 이러한 조건에서 한국인 친구도 사귀며 영어 사용만을 고집하지 않는 대부분의 한국 학생은 한국인만 만나고 한국어만 쓰며 무엇보다 어학원을 열심히 다니지 않는 학생을 ‘노는’ 학생이라 칭하며, 자신을 ‘독한’ 학생과 ‘노는’ 학생 사이에서 ‘열심히 하는’ 학생으로 위치시킨다. 본 논문은 이러한 ‘성공/실패’라는 표상에서 ‘독한/열심히/노는’이라는 표상으로 변화됨에 주목하며, 신자유주의 시대 자기계발은 요구되는 자격과 기술을 획득하기 위한 노력뿐만 아니라 스스로 실패하지 않았음을 증명하기 위해 자신의 위치를 설정하고 조정해야 하는 과정임을 드러낸다.

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