This study examines public perceptions and language ideologies regarding English use in Korea‘s linguistic landscape by analyzing 2,191 online news comments concerning the English-only menu controversy in 2023. The analysis reveals that negative comments (89%) significantly outnumbered accepting ones (11%). Critical responses view English use as displaying pretentiousness and cultural subservience while posing a threat to Korean linguistic and cultural identity. Critics raise concerns regarding language use, such as incorrect English usage, inconsistent bilingual practices, and discrepancies between displayed and actual proficiency. They also point to issues of information accessibility and the broader trend of excessive English use in Korean society. By contrast, accepting perspectives justify English menu use based on business owners’ autonomy, strategic marketing, the basic comprehensibility of the English used, and the naturalness of English use in the global era. The findings highlight that monolingualism prevails, with English perceived as distinctly “foreign,” while also revealing contradictions in public attitudes, including overreliance on foreign validation of Korean, conflicting views on linguistic hierarchy, and ambivalent attitudes toward English proficiency. This study contributes to a better understanding of public perceptions of English in Korea‘s linguistic landscape and the ideological dynamics underlying language choice in public spaces.

The present study examines English loanwords appearing in a Korean television drama, Start-up, to understand how English is incorporated into Korean discourse in the settings of everyday life. Data analysis revealed that the drama contains a relatively high number of English loanwords presumably due to the protagonists' young age and the tech-based start-ups that it features. One of the distinct characteristics of English loanwords in their forms is the extensive use of ‘English-hada’ words and other types of words combining Korean and English elements. In addition, the use of English often extends beyond the word level to phrases or even sentences. The functions of English loanwords in the drama were found to fill a lexical gap in the Korean language, strengthen the sense of belonging and bonding among the members of a particular generation or group, create a humorous atmosphere, and symbolize professional competence and thus an elevated level of the speakers' social status.

Researchers in second language acquisition have claimed that the teacher-student setting of the typical L2 classroom may not provide an optimal environment for negotiation of meaning. This claim, however, has been based on quantitative analyses without examination of the actual negotiation process. From a different point of view, namely, a socioconstructivist perspective, this study focuses on how a teacher supported students during negotiations of meaning and how the students contributed to those negotiations in an intermediate ESL classroom. The findings show that the teacher’s scaffolding played a crucial role in constructive negotiations. She continuously checked the students’ levels of comprehension and searched for better ways to resolve comprehension problems. In addition, she assisted the students as they modified their utterances to resolve communication breakdowns. She also offered help by mediating the students’ successful communication between each other. For their part, the students contributed their own scaffolding to assist class members who were having difficulty comprehending and producing language during their negotiations with the teacher. Those findings suggest that collaborative negotiation of meaning between teacher and student in the classroom is rich in learning opportunities.