Positioning of female marriage immigrants in South Korea: a multimodal textbook analysis

Abstract

This study examines a series of government textbooks used to teach Korean language and culture to spouses of South Korean nationals living in Korea. A multimodal analysis of textbook images and narratives explores how strictly defined gender identity discourses are constructed and circulated through these government textbooks in ways that not only seek to reinforce gender conventions, but also advance a conservative, assimilationist curriculum for these immigrants. The analysis reveals ways in which female marriage immigrants are positioned primarily as housekeepers; how they are subordinately positioned vis-a-vis in-laws and their husbands; and finally, how intercultural miscommunications are presented as the fault only of the immigrants. In this, the burden for intercultural communication and learning is placed solely on the immigrants in the multimodal narratives presented in the textbooks, without reciprocal burden ever placed on the spouse or spouse's family, or effective ways of negotiating intercultural miscommunications being shared. Images and text work together in multimodal ensembles to craft narratives that position immigrant women in ways that textual or visual analysis alone would not fully capture. Thus, the study argues the use of multimodal analytical approach in examining language textbooks as a way of deconstructing broader discourses and disrupting problematic discourses.