Since the implementation of the employment permit system in 2004, the number of foreign workers in Korea has drastically increased. These foreign workers possess the following characteristics: First, their reason for staying in Korea is not to study K...
Since the implementation of the employment permit system in 2004, the number of foreign workers in Korea has drastically increased. These foreign workers possess the following characteristics: First, their reason for staying in Korea is not to study Korean but to earn a livelihood. Second, they normally work over 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and thus have trouble finding time to study Korean. Third, private Korean lessons are mostly out of reach because of economic constraints. Fourth, they mostly use Korean when talking to Koreans at work sites, and communication failures can potentially lead to safety-related accidents, low-quality products, maladjustment and other problems. Communication skills are especially required for these foreign workers, but the conditions in which they are in make learning Korean a daunting task. Given the size and the distinctiveness of this particular learning group, foreign workers need to be differentiated from other general purpose learners in academic discussions. Yet in the Korean language education sector, there is little to no research focusing on foreign workers, except for those related to the current status of educational institutions and demand survey for textbook development and syllabus design. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide basic, fundamental information regarding communication research among foreign workers. The subject of this study is limited to Vietnamese foreign workers, the largest group of foreign workers in Korea. The key research questions are as follows: First, what are the communication strategies employed by Vietnamese workers? Second, in what frequency do the workers use each of these strategies? Third, how do these strategies differ depending on the level of Korean proficiency? In order to answer these questions, Vietnamese employees currently working in Korea under the E-9 Visa (non-professional employment) were gathered and evaluated on their Korean proficiency. Based on the results, they were divided into three groups of eight ？ elementary, intermediate, advanced. The Vietnamese foreign workers were given assignments in which they were prompted to use various strategies, and their speech was fully recorded and transcribed. The results were analyzed based on Dornyei and Scott’s model of communication strategy taxonomies (1997), with a few modifications made to align with this particular study. During the research, a pattern outside of the original taxonomy was discovered so that the model had to be revised and the study reanalyzed accordingly.
This study found that the communication strategies used by Vietnamese workers display the following traits: First, an individual speaking an average of 1,120 words excluding fillers employed communication strategies approximately 105.75 times, which amounts to one communication strategy for about 10.59 words spoken. Second, these strategies were most often used by the elementary group, with the frequency declining with higher proficiency. Third, participants exhibited several strategies that were unmentioned in previous research, such as direct speech strategy, directly requesting for time strategy, self-talk strategy, and reinforcement strategy. Fourth, use of fillers was the most frequently employed strategy but this showed wide variation among individuals. Fifth, use of fillers was followed by self-repetition strategy and self-repair strategy in terms of frequency for all three groups. Other strategies commonly found ？ although not as used as frequently as the former three ？ include self-rephrasing strategy, own-accuracy check strategy, message reduction strategy, approximation strategy, and reinforcement strategy. Sixth, in the following nine patterns ？ assignment abandonment, message replacement, approximation, restructuring, asking for repetition, asking for clarification, asking for confirmation, expressing nonunderstanding, reinforcement ？ statistically significant difference was found in the frequency of these patterns depending on the proficiency variable. Seventh, avoidance strategy was used most often by the elementary group, with its frequency declining among the more advanced. On the other hand, circumlocution strategy was used less frequently in the elementary group compared to the intermediate and advanced groups. Also for all three groups, the L1-based strategy came up at an average of one time per person. Eighth, there was a statistically significant difference in the usage percentages of direct strategy, interactional strategy, and indirect strategy depending on the proficiency level. The more advanced groups used a higher percentage of direct strategy and lower percentage of interactional strategy. Ninth, for all three groups, the situation that prompted the most frequent communication strategies was the own-performance problem-related situation, followed by time pressure-related situation, resource deficit-related situation, and other-performance problem-related situation. In the case of other-performance problem-related situation, there was a statistically significant difference in both frequency and percentage among the three groups, with the less proficient group exhibiting the highest number of strategies in this situation.
However, the rather limited sample size of 24 implies that the results of this study should by no means be generalized and that a larger sample would help in confirming the findings. Other limitations of the study include the fact that the speaking proficiency, a skill most closely related to communication, was not evaluated; that the proficiency level of each group was not reflected in the assignments; and that the group differences in the number of words spoken were not fully considered. I hope future studies will be able to complement these aforementioned points and thus contribute to deepening the academic discussion in this area.
|
