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Volume 1, Issue 1 April 2020, pp. 14–30

Articles

Factors affecting immigrants' host country language proficiency: Focusing on the differences between migrant workers and marriage-migrant women in South Korea

In Young Yang ¹, Seongseog Park ², Sungjun Lee ³, & Byeonggon Min ⁴

¹ Seowon University, SOUTH KOREA
² Chuncheon National University of Education, SOUTH KOREA
³ Seoul National University, SOUTH KOREA
⁴ Seoul National University, SOUTH KOREA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.29140/mle.v1n1.125

Abstract

This study aims to reveal significant factors affecting the Korean language proficiency of immigrants in Korea by comparing the two immigrant groups, migrant workers and marriage-migrant women, that constitute the largest sector of the foreign-born population in Korea. A comprehensive survey was conducted on a total of 136 migrant workers and 136 marriage-migrant women. A statistical analysis was followed adopting stepwise multiple regression on six independent variables (age at arrival, length of residence, education level, linguistic distance, intensity of target language use, and learning time at institutions) and one dependent variable (self-reported language proficiency). Results show that length of residence in Korea and intensity of target language use significantly contributed to the Korean language proficiency of marriage-migrant women, whereas age at arrival, intensity of target language use, and education level played a significant role in the development of language proficiency of migrant workers in Korea. Educational implications are discussed, and suggestions are made for expanding language educational support for migrant workers.

Copyright

© In Young Yang, Seongseog Park, Sungjun Lee, Byeonggon Min

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Suggested citation

Yang, I.Y., Park, S., Lee, S., & Min, B. (2020). Factors affecting immigrants' host country language proficiency: Focusing on the differences between migrant workers and marriage-migrant women in South Korea. Migration and Language Education , 1(1), 14–30. https://doi.org/10.29140/mle.v1n1.125

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