Abstract:

This article presents four Korean adult students’ personal narratives about their experiences in Canadian university programs. Using Bourdieu’s critical social theory, Bakhtin’s dialogism and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory as a conceptual frame, I focus on the students’ perceptions of identities, cultural capital and different social relations of power embedded in their language learning contexts. The students share certain commonalities such as being Korean and educated in Korea. However, their diverse investment in, evaluation and negotiation of their second language discourse practices, challenge stereotypic, monolithic labels and attributed identities as second language learners.

Author: Heekyeong Lee