Korean University Students’ Perceptions of the Korean Variety of English (KVE)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of 30 Korean university students on the Korean Variety of English (KVE). To examine their awareness and use of KVE, all participants took part in an online classroom activity in which they re-wrote a story written in inner circle English to a story that used KVE. After the completion of this activity, the participants took part in focus group discussions in order to discuss their opinions about the use of KVE versus the use of inner circle English. The findings revealed that in the classroom activity the participants demonstrated a substantial awareness of many lexical features of KVE but only a slight awareness of syntactic features of KVE. Regarding the use of KVE, the majority of participants had overall negative perceptions but expressed the belief that using KVE was appropriate in certain circumstances. The pedagogical implications of the study are discussed.