‘침묵의 통치성’ 탐색: 대학 행정자료에 나타난 유학생의 언어능력을 중심으로

초록

Exploring the Silent Governmentality: Focusing on International Students' Language Proficiency in University Administrative Data. This study examines how required target language proficiency and language testing are represented in university administrative documents concerning international students and migrants. It also explores whether such materials can serve as meaningful data for analyzing language governmentality. While previous research has shown that policy documents and media discourse actively construct narratives that justify and normalize language assessment regimes, university-produced texts tend to display lower discursive density and fewer explicit justificatory narratives. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of governmentality and subsequent discussions of language governmentality in language policy and assessment research, this study analyzes how universities translate external regulatory standards into operational procedures. The analysis shows that university documents rarely engage in discursive problematization or ideological justification of language proficiency requirements. Instead, they primarily present procedural instructions and administrative conditions, such as standardized test score thresholds (e.g., TOPIK levels), required documentation, and compliance guidelines. These texts function less as sites of discursive production than as instruments that implement externally defined regulatory frameworks. Despite their apparent simplicity, university texts reveal important mechanisms through which language functions as a technology of governance. Language tests and certification systems operate as institutional criteria across multiple stages of university administration, including admission, academic continuation, and ‘침묵의 통치성’ 탐색 133 graduation. In this process, universities act as intermediary actors that internalize external evaluation standards and reproduce them through everyday administrative procedures. To capture this phenomenon, the study proposes the concept of “silent governmentality,” referring to forms of governance that operate not through explicit ideological discourse but through procedural regulations that appear neutral and technical. University documents thus illustrate how language governance can be sustained through routine administrative practices even when its political rationalities remain largely unarticulated. Future research should combine university administrative texts with policy discourse, media narratives, and experiential data from international students to provide a more comprehensive account of language governmentality in higher education.

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