언어 또는 언어교육 관련 다문화연구의 동향과 과제

Trends and issues in multicultural studies focusing on language or language education

This paper aims to understand the general trends in multicultural studies focusing on language/language education. For this end, 416 academic papers published in Korea were selected and analyzed in terms of publication types and years, target language, research methods. and target population. A thematic analysis was also conducted to grasp a picture about the kinds and distributions of topics covered in the literature. The results show that 1) the recent studies tend to adopt more diverse research methods compared to earlier ones, 2) the growth rate of the relevant publications has been decreasing since 2010, 3) the studies have paid too much attention to the ability and acquisition of Korean language of multicultural population, and 4) the topics addressed were also limited to certain areas such as linguistic and instructional aspects of language. The adoption of diverse research methods may make it possible to view multiculturalism from multiple perspectives. The findings, however, point to the need of more research on neglected areas in the current literature, including languages other than Korean, sociocultural aspects of language and language learning, and domestic population's understanding about multilingualism.