“That’s Not How We Speak”: Korean-American Youth Reposition Hybrid Speech as Evidence of Multilingual Fluency

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Translanguaging as Praxis: Negotiating Multilingualism, Power, and Pedagogy

Abstract

This study explores how Korean-American youth perceive South Korean media portrayals of Kyopo (overseas ethnic Koreans) and Kyopomal (a hybridized Korean-American ethnolect). Drawing on native gaze and ethnolinguistic agency, we examine how youth respond to deficit narratives that depict their language use as "inauthentic.” Focus group interviews with nine Korean-American youth reveal how participants resist stereotypes of Kyopos as linguistically deficient, express emotional reactions to misrepresentation, and assert that only insiders can critique Kyopomal. Youth described their language use as strategic and context-dependent, reframing Kyopomal/hybridity as a marker of multilingual, multicultural fluency. This study contributes to multilingualism research, offering insight into how youth assert agency and negotiate identity through intentional language practices in response to intra-ethnic media narratives.

Authors

• Hala Sun, Michigan State University

• Hye-In Yang, Michigan State University