A Study Of Korean Language Policy From The Perspective Of Identity

Language policy and language planning,as a new branch of science,is arousing the concern and attention of scholars in the related areas.After World War ?,many newly emerging countries faced a common language problem,which was the choice between national language and official language.At this period,the research of language policy and language planning appeared as an independent academic study area and then flourished.In the 1990 s,many western scholars started to have a deep exploration of language policy and language planning in some aspects,such as language extinction,language revival,language variation,language contact and language transmission and expansion,from social,economic,political and other different views.The range of the research of language policy and language planning was gradually enlarged.Compared with the West,Chinese language policy research starts later and has fewer achievements.However,when comes to the 21 st century,the research of language policy and language planning gradually arouses the attention of Chinese scholars.Especially in recent years,there is a growing amount of the related research.Among them,the regional study of language policy is a key point which domestic scholars focus on.It successively appears the language policy research of America,Australia,French and EU.But there is still a little language policy research about China's neighboring countries in Asia.Since South Korea is China's neighbor,the language culture,language ecology and language policy of South Korea have many similarities with China's.Through the comprehensive investigation and analysis of South Korea's language policy,we can find what we can take example by and avoid in language planning.Therefore,this paper carefully consults the government work report,legal provision,news report and many other aspects of South Korea along with lots of relevant Korean literature(theses,writings)and then makes an analysis.And this paper puts emphasis on the diachronic and synchronic research of South Korea's national language policy,immigrant language policy and foreign language policy.In the diachronic aspect,this paper analyzes the mechanism of incentives,development and the other of South Korea's language policy from the perspective of national needs,national interests and ideology and so on.In the synchronic aspect,this paper makes meticulous understanding and summarizes the key points and characteristics of the language policy texts of each period using the means of text analysis.Besides,it analyzesseveral language policy effects at the present stage combining the means of questionnaire and interview.On this basis,this paper makes an integrated evaluation of some South Korea's language policies.And this paper raises several major problems faced by the South Korea's language life and language policy in new periods based on the analyses of the chapters above.The problems are as follows: the language right and language resource protection issues which aim at multicultural family members,the unbalanced language development which is caused by the mighty English education,the crisis of native language education,the singleness of language and culture and so on.At last,based on the total arrangement of all problems,it points out the improvement approaches of South Korea's language policy combining the strategic conception of “cultivating world citizen” suggested by the South Korean Government.Summary section summarizes the value orientation features and existing problems and points out the direction of future development of South Korea's language policy.Through the arrangement of South Korea's language policy,we find that South Korea insists on the value orientation led by ethnic identity and power identity all the time on the language policy making.On the early stages of restoration in South Korea,the national language refinement policy and Korean dedication policy led by ethnic identity promote Korean's ethnic identity,strengthen Korean's national pride and self-confidence and consolidate the country's unification in some degree.But at the present stage,South Korea has been broken away from single national society to multicultural society while South Korea's government still insists on the value orientation led by ethnic identity.That is to say,on the specific language policy,it carries the single Korean education to multicultural families' children.This obviously deprives these children's bilingual education rights and causes the waste of South Korea's language resource.However,the value orientation of foreign language education policy led by power identity causes English education to be the only one dominance in South Korea.Instead,others languages develop slowly.The native language identity of the citizens is weakened and it has low toleration of the multi-culture.This paper believes that at the present stage,the value orientation of South Korea's language policy must make an adjustment and build a “national identity” awareness which is beyond the “ethnic identity”.When emphasizing the important status of national language,it should improve other immigrant language's status and protect immigrant families' language rights.Meanwhile,establish theconcept of “multicultural identity”,reinforce the support of other foreign languages,and promote the balanced and multicultural development of South Korea's foreign languages.Only if South Korea has strengthened the “multicultural identity” based on the insistence of “national identity” will it adjust to the present development and maintain the unity of their society and make the “world citizen” strategy come true.When roundly clarifying the evolvement and development of South Korea's language policy,this paper does its best to objectively explain and evaluate it.Not only does it affirm the positive effects of South Korea's language policy,but it also points out the existing problems of the language policy's establishment and implement in South Korea based on the specific data.Because of the fewer research of South Korea's language policy in China,this paper can enrich both the content of the regional study of language policy in our country and the content of language policy and language planning subject.What's more,by researching South Korea's language policy,we can take example by their experience,avoid their mistakes and provide effective reference for the language policy making in our country.