South Korean perceptions of “native” speaker of English in social and news media via big data analytics

Abstract This study investigates the South Korean perception of “native” speaker of English (NSE), namely won-eo-min and ne-i-ti-beu in Korean, with an examination of the use of such terms in the news and social media. To do this, the study examined news topics covered in the South Korean news media including newspapers and television news channels that mention or discuss these terms. Secondly, words used along with these two terms in social media forums such as Twitter or weblogs were examined. In order to realise this, two major data mining programs called the BIGKinds program (Korea Press Foundation, Big Kinds: News Big Data & Analysis, https://www.kinds.or.kr/; accessed 14 May 2018) and the Social Metrics program (Daumsoft, Social metricsTM, http://academy.some.co.kr/login.html; accessed 1 May 2018) were employed. This study shows that the concept of the “native” speaker in the forms of won-eo-min and ne-i-ti-beu is deeply manifested in the minds of South Koreans, especially when talking about the pronunciation of “native” speakers as the model of “correct” pronunciation of English. Such perceptions need to be critically revisited in an era where English is the most common medium of communication in the global community.