“the President Is out of His Mind” Membership Categorization Analysis of Korean Mothers‟ Assessments on the South Korena English Immersion Policy Proposal

INTRODUCTION According to Crystal (2003), English is arguably the world's first ―global language,‖ a language that is used more commonly than any other language and one recognized with a powerful status in every country. English in South Korea of course is no exception. As a country where English is used as a foreign language, South Korea has become one of the largest consumers of English with the English education market being estimated at over 10 billion dollars a year (Korea Times, 2008, February 24), with approximately 15,000 youngsters sent for study abroad programs in 2007 to study English (Korea Times, 2008, June 18). This English fever of South Koreans has even led to claims in research that Korea is in transformation from a Korean monolingualism to an incipient Korean-English bilingualism (J. S. Lee, 2006). Such a claim is contestable, but it was close to being officially realized in South Korean president's 2008 policy proposal, when he called for English immersion to be implemented in all public schools. Although the plan was withdrawn after meeting with intense public opposition, it still persists with significant repercussions in Korea's society. Not only have individual schools started to incorporate English immersion classes into their curriculum, but the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced last February that Seoul's public elementary, middle and high school English classes will all be taught in English, starting in 2012. It is also true that the state government of Seoul has been supporting a $30,000 research project since August 2008 on the efficacy of ―Content and Language Integrated Learning‖ (Korea Times, 2008, August 24). These moves lead to the belief that it is not entirely impossible for the government to initiate a second attempt of recognizing English immersion classes for the LEE-MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIZATION ANALYSIS OF KOREAN MOTHERS' ASSESSMENTS ON THE SOUTH KORENA ENGLISH IMMERSION POLICY PROPOSAL 34 whole nation. Given the continuing interests in English immersion, the present study attempts to investigate this social issue from a micro-perspective, focusing on how the actual consumers of Korea's English education are experiencing the effects of the policy proposal. This interview-based study will focus on bringing to life the perspectives of two Korean mothers, Junghee and Hyunjoo. Adopting a discursive, ethnomethodological approach, I will apply Membership Categorization Analysis to explore how two Korean mothers from different socioeconomic backgrounds use various categories and devices to construct a particular assessment of the English immersion policy …