Linguistic and Social Adjustment of a Korean Student Returnee

Linguistic and Social Adjustment of a Korean Student Returnee

  This study investigates how one Korean elementary school child adjusted to a South Korean public school after spending five years abroad in the United States in an English as a Second Language (ESL) situation. It also examines the participant’s individual cultural adjustment to the host country as well as to the home country. Data from the focal child, her mother, father, and sister was collected through interviews that recorded their experiences of two countries that differed linguistically, culturally, and socially. Deprived of familiar support and guidance from peers, returnee students often experience the distress of losing a sense of their past selves. The focal child’s individual narratives also confirm that her sojourn between two countries is not a temporary interruption but a continual negotiation toward understanding various aspects of herself.