‘세계화시대의 영어학습’ 열기에 대한 비판적 담론분석 - 사회적 기호화과정(social symbolization)의 탐색

Critical Discourse Analysis of "English- learning" Boom: In the lens of Social Symbolization

  Since the IMF crisis devastated Korea, the tide of globalization has changed every aspect of Korean society. This overwhelming trend of ‘globalization" has been affecting the educational sector, especially in terms of the "English-learning boom" in Korea. This phenomenon has been criticized by educators because the excessive and reckless expenditure on ‘English-learning" in the private sector has been yielding far-reaching and undesirable effects on society. This paper aims at focusing on the issue of the ‘English-learning boom" of Korea, by analyzing it in terms of a critical discourse analysis. It takes the perspective of post-colonial discourse analysis by criticizing neo-liberalism and social-Darwinism, which are whimpering around Korea with the ideology of globalization. To do so, this paper takes two examples of the ‘English-learning" fever in Korean society: the boom of ‘English village" construction and the anxiety over ‘early exposure to English". Regarding these two examples, this paper attempts to analyze them in the lens of ‘social symbolization of discourse," which could explicate the trajectory of how social discourses are idealized, symbolized, represented, and reproduced. This paper argues that the ‘English-learning boom" of Korea is a product of complicated construction of social discourse, which is strongly influenced by the neoliberal ideology of linguistic and cultural imperialism.