Korean Adolescent Language Usage: Focusing on Identity Construction and Power Relationships

(Lecture in Korean)

Image provided by Sun Young Lee via Gyeongin National University of Education's Teaching PPT Templates.

Sun Young Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Korean Education, Gyeongin National University of Education

Tuesday, March 12, 2019
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

10383 Bunche Hall
UCLA

An examination of the adolescents’ peer group interactions reveals that group solidarity is an important issue for adolescents as social beings. They often used specific expressions in order to identify and construct group solidarity. In addition, different aspects of language usage appeared depending on gender in peer group discussions. The male and female focal students led their peers’ ways of speaking and constructing their leader identity and social power within their peer groups.

The present study approaches the linguistic culture of adolescents from a sociocultural perspective, examining their intentional selection of expressions and the contexts of their use of language. In particular, it aims to elucidate the language use and interactions of adolescents according to their identity construction and peer group power relationships. This study attempts to answer the following research questions. First, how do adolescents construct their identity through linguistic interactions? Second, how do adolescents’ linguistic interactions occur in relation to the power relationships in their peer groups?

Hyung-Wook Kim
koreanstudies@international.ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies