The Influence of Contextual Perception on Language Choice Patterns among Bilingual Korean Students

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted with Korean bilingual students who were residing in New Zealand as migrants. A total of 177 primary to tertiary students were surveyed using questionnaires and interview sessions over three months to find out their patterns of language choice between Korean and English. The domains of language choice were classified into two categories of 'Korean norms sensitive' contexts and 'Korean norms free' contexts. This was done according to some hypothetical Korean norms in the Korean communities in New Zealand which were supposed to affect the students' language choice behaviour. The results showed that students chose Korean more in the Korean norms sensitive contexts than in the Korean norms free contexts, which supports the argument that the Korean norms hypothesised would affect students' language choice behaviour. Interestingly, despite the common belief that the 'Home' domain would be the best place to maintain ethnic language, English was most frequently chosen by students among the four Korean norms sensitive domains. The results of the present study bring some implications for matters related to bilingualism not only in Korea but also in English·speaking countries for Korean researchers and teachers as well as for students and parents.