여성결혼이민자의 문화적응과 언어 문제

Abstract

Kyung-woon Jeong. 2009. A study on the linguistic ability and cultural adaptation of female married immigrants in Korea. Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language, 34, 89~111. This paper examines the linguistic and non-linguistic barriers or difficulties which female married immigrants are faced with in the process of adapting themselves to the Korean society. Here, their adaptation process is classified into four stages: initial stage, adaptation stage, stability stage, and maturity stage. In the initial stage, they have little idea of Korean, and they would have no other way than to acquire Korean for themselves if their family members did not help them. In this stage, Korean people's discipline-centered attitude and view of them as 'others different from us' dissuades the immigrants from acquiring Korean. Two or three year stay enables the immigrants to be familiar with Korean to some degree. However, they can speak and listen to Korea just a little, but most of them still remain poor at written Korean. In this adaptation stage, their repeated conceptions and exclusive child-rearing deprive them of any chance to learn Korean systematically. In the stability and maturity stages, the female immigrants show some improvement in the writing and reading ability in Korean, but they do not reach the fluent mastery of advanced Korean. This does not lead to the achievement of their social and vocational selves. In these stages, their influent uses of Korean give birth to a lot of troubles about the education of children. What is required to improve their command of Korean are some more realistic policies, varied support for their acquisition of Korean, and a systematized training of Korean instructors for foreign immigrants. (Chonnam National University)