언어시험의 사회정치적 역할 연구: 한국이민귀화적격시험(KINAT)에 관한 대중매체 자료를 기반으로

초록

Although Korea has had language requirements for migrants in order to select the potential citizens among newcomers, little research has taken place in the area of multilingualism & multiculturalism, second language testing, or Korean language for specific purposes. The main question addressed in this article is to explore whether language testing for citizenship is used as a neutral tool or as a device of social policy. On the basis of textual analysis of relevant newspaper articles and policy-implementing documents, we explored the purpose, content and procedures of KINAT(Korea Immigration and Naturalization Aptitude Test), and citizenship applicants' attitudes toward the testing practices as well. It is shown that such a test does not assess linguistic and sociocultural knowledge required for full participation of the applicants to Korean communities. Rather, it plays as a social and political mechanism for distinguishing the eligibles from the ineligibles in the name of social cohesion and security, which would allow for the classification of social groups.

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