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Neoliberal transformation of language as a“soft skill”to enhance the value of one’s human capital(Urciuoli,2008,2010)constructs language learning as self-development project to boost the individual competitiveness in the job market.Although such investment in neoliberal human capital development is constrained by material conditions,neoliberal discourse of language skills and self-development obscures the unequal social structures.Increasingly,language learning becomes a site for reproducing social inequalities under the neoliberal economy in many nations,including China.Using Bourdieu’s(1984,1991)notion of symbolic domination and distinction,this paper examines the increased role of English in social reproduction in South Korea regarding rapid neoliberalization of the society,and ways in which a series of(English)education policy contributed to further exacerbating social polarization based on English.Although China presents a unique case to understand the effects of neoliberalism on language education and social inequality given its maintenance of the longstanding political system despite its ongoing transition to market economy,the experiences of Korea will shed light on understanding the Chinese situation and language policy research in contemporary China.
Neoliberal transformation of language as a “soft skill ” to enhance the value of one’s human capital (Urciuoli, 2008,2010) constructs language learning as self-development project to boost the individual competitiveness in the job market. Almost such investment in neoliberal human capital development is constrained by material conditions, neoliberal discourse of language skills and self-development obscures the unequal social structures. creasingly, language learning becomes a site for reproducing social inequalities under the neoliberal economy in many nations, including China. Using Bourdieu’s (1984 , 1991) notion of symbolic domination and distinction, this paper examines the increased role of English in social reproduction in South Korea regarding rapid neoliberalization of the society, and ways in which a series of (English) education policy contributed to further exacerbating social polarization based on English.Although China presents a unique case to understand the effects of neoliberalism o n language education and social inequity given its maintenance of the longstanding political system with its ongoing transition to market economy, the experiences of Korea will shed light on understanding the Chinese situation and language policy research in contemporary China.