Minority Students’ English-Learning Experience

Abstract

There has been a rapid increase in the number of minority students in South Korean tertiary institutions in the past two decades. These students include international students and North Korean refugee-background students, among other groups. The latter group may look Korean and speak a Korean variety, but they are distinctly different from mainstream South Korean students as they typically enter college with varying degrees of disrupted education. This chapter examines North Korean students' experience of learning English at a South Korean university. By analyzing interview data collected from the students and their English instructors, the results shed light on the students' efforts to acquire English as valuable capital for successful integration into South Korean society, as well as the challenges they face in their English-learning endeavors. The chapter concludes with pedagogical implications, which highlight an asset-based approach for students with nontraditional backgrounds.