Abstract
This study examines English language programs offered at a senior citizen center in a working-class neighborhood in Seoul, Korea. Based on classroom observations and interviews with senior citizens and teachers, the study addresses the functional significance of English for an overlooked aging demographic population and discusses the interplay between language learning and social participation as well as language-related ageism and identity issues. The findings of the study indicate that English language anxiety (Lee, English on Korean television. World Engl 33(1): 33–49, 2014) is also observed among senior citizens. However, unlike young professionals, senior citizens’ language anxiety is more domestically prompted and locally based; the elderly fear that they cannot successfully participate in meaningful communication with their grandchildren or act as informed consumers in Korea these days without some knowledge of English. The teachers in the study identify their main teaching objective as helping senior citizens feel less limited in dealing with the increasing presence of English in contemporary Korea. The study concludes that learning English later in life fulfills positive functions of self-actualization and social participation for senior citizens and enables them to reconstruct and reimagine their vigorous past.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adamson, H. D., & Regan, V. (1991). The acquisition of community speech norms by Asian immigrants learning English as a second language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13(1), 1–22.
Cook, V. (2009). Second language learning and language teaching. London: Hodder.
Coupland, N., Coupland, J., Giles, H., & Henwood, K. (1988). Accommodating the elderly: Invoking and extending a theory. Language in Society, 17(1), 1–41.
Coupland, J., Robinson, J. D., & Coupland, N. (1994). Frame negotiations in doctor- elderly patient consultations. Discourse and Society, 5(1), 89–124.
De Bot, K., & Lintsen, T. (1989). Perceptions of own language proficiency by elderly adults. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 83(1), 51–61.
Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The L2 motivational self system. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 9–42). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Ellis, R. (2001). Second language acquisition (6th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology, and second language learning: The role of K. L. and Long, A. Y. (2014). In Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition: Learning to use language in context. New York: Routledge.
Gargesh, R. (2006). On nativizing the Indian English poetic medium. World Englishes, 25(3/4), 359–371.
Geeslin, K. L., & Long, A. Y. (2014). Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition:Learning to use language in context. New York, NY: Routledge.
Glionna, J. (2011, January 5). A complex feeling tugs at Koreans. Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/05/world/la-fg-south-korea-han-20110105.
Ha, P. L. (2009). English as an international language: International student and identity formation. Language and Intercultural Communication, 9(3), 201–214.
Higgins, E. T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94(3), 319–340.
Kachru, B. B. (1983). Models for non-native Englishes. In L. Smith (Ed.), Readings in English as an international language (pp. 69–86). Oxford: Рergamon Press.
Kim, T.-Y. (2012). The L2 motivational self system of Korean EFL students: Cross-grade survey analysis. English Teaching, 67(1), 29–56.
Kim, T. Y., & Kim, Y. K. (2015). Elderly Korean learners’ participation in English learning through lifelong education: Focusing on motivation and demotivation. Education Gerontology, 41(2), 120–135.
Lee, J. (2010). Ideologies of English in the South Korean ‘English immersion’ debate. In M. T. Prior, Y. Watanabe, & S.-K. Lee (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 2008 Second Language Research Forum: Exploring SLA perspectives, positions, and practices (pp. 246–260). Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Lee, J. S. (2014). English on Korean television. World Englishes, 33(1), 33–49.
Lee, J. S. (2016). ‘Everywhere you go, you see English!’: Elderly women’s perspectives on globalization and English. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 13(4), 319–350.
Leung, A., Lui, Y.-H., & Chi, I. (2006). Later life learning experience among Chinese elderly in Hong Kong. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 26(2), 1–15.
Levine, G. (1996). Elderly second-generation speakers of Yiddish: Toward a model of L1 loss, incomplete L1 acquisition, competence and control. Southwest Journal of Linguistics, 15(1–2), 109–120.
Park, J. S. (2009). The local construction of a global language: Ideologies of English in South Korea. Berlin: Moutonde Gruyter.
Patkowsk, M. S. (1990). Age and accent in a second language: A reply to James Emil Flege. Applied Linguistics, 11(1), 73–89.
Purdie, N., & Boulton-Lewis, G. (2010). The learning needs of older adults. Educational Gerontology, 29(2), 129–149.
Ryan, S. (2006). Language learning motivation within the context of globalisation: An L2 self within an imagined global community. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 3(1), 23–45.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54–67.
Scala, M. A. (1996). Going back to school: Participation motives and experiences of older adults in an undergraduate classroom. Educational Gerontology, 22(8), 747–773.
Smakman, D. (2018). Discovering sociolinguistics: From theory to practice. London: Palgrave.
Williams, A., & Giles, H. (1991). Socio psychological perspectives on older people’s language and communication. Ageing & Society, 11(2), 103–126.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lee, J.S. (2020). English Language Programs for Seniors: Motivational Constructs and Teaching Objectives. In: Giri, R.A., Sharma, A., D'Angelo, J. (eds) Functional Variations in English. Multilingual Education, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52225-4_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52225-4_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-52224-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-52225-4
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)