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English Education and Social Reproduction: An Ethnography of Adolescents in a Korean Public School

This research examines the relationship between English and social reproduction through a group of Korean adolescents in a public school. . Drawing upon both Bourdieu’s legitimate language (Bourdieu, 1977, 1991), and language ideology (LippiGreen, 1997), and their application to sociolinguistic studies (Heller, 2007; Heller & Martin-Jones, 2001), I address how social reproduction occurs through English education by focusing on two social categories: Returnees from Early Study Abroad (ESA) and Underachievers in English. They embody differential access to English by social class. Based on a one and a half-year ethnography, I focus on students’ language learning practices and identity construction across four sites: English classrooms, the English Speech Festival, Afterschool Class, and a summer English camp. I analyzed the ways in which school reproduces the “English gap” by social class. This dissertation challenges the assumption that input-oriented English education policy should address the widening English gap along social class.