English in South Korea

Even though my PhD research on morpho-syntactic patterns of spoken Korean(ized) English has been completed (with the successful defense of my thesis in November, 2017), English in South Korea remains one of my core research interests. Despite the extraordinary and vibrant status of the English language in South Korean society (demonstrated, for example, by the notion of English Fever), research on the forms of English in the South Korean context has been sadly neglected in the study of World Englishes. I thus continue my work in this field so we can further add to our knowledge about this fascinating Expanding Circle variety of English.

After the Defense


A monograph (based on my PhD thesis) has been published in the Varieties of English Around the World (VEAW) series by John Benjamins in July 2019. The book presents fundamental research on the use of English by South Korean speakers. This monograph is the first to provide a rich and contextualized description of the Korean English morpho-syntactic repertoire. It draws on the specifically compiled Spoken Korean English (SPOKE) corpus to shed light on Korean uses of plural marking, articles, pronouns, prepositions, and verbs in spoken English, and demonstrates that English is indeed the language of those who use it. This volume will be highly relevant for researchers interested in Expanding Circle Englishes, Asian Englishes, spoken language corpora, and morpho-syntactic variation.

The Corpus of Spoken Korean English (aka the SPOKE corpus; 60 hours of audio material, 300,000 words by 115 South Korean speakers of English), which I compiled for my thesis, is at the heart of a number of follow-up projects:

I am currently also conducting a survey of language attitudes in South Korea as well as an acceptability study of Korean English morpho-syntactic forms: link (feel free to participate if you are Korean and/or forward this link to anyone who might be interested).

List of publications related to my English in South Korea project:

  • Rüdiger, Sofia. 2021b. "The Use of Like in Korean English Speech." World Englishes 40(4): 548-561. Open Access

  • Rüdiger, Sofia. 2021a. "Non-postcolonial Englishes in East Asia: Focus on Korean Popular Music." In: Schneider, Britta and Theresa Heyd, eds. World Englishes – Volume 1: Paradigms. London: Bloomsbury. 207-223. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350065833.0021

  • Rüdiger, Sofia. 2020. "English in South Korea: Applying the EIF Model." In: Buschfeld, Sarah and Alexander Kautzsch, eds. Modelling World Englishes: A Joint Approach towards Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Varieties. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 154-178. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1453j9w.13

  • Leuckert, Sven and Sofia Rüdiger. 2020. "Non-Canonical Syntax in an Expanding Circle Variety: Fronting in Spoken Korean(ized) English." English World-Wide 41(1): 33-58. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00039.leu

  • Rüdiger, Sofia. 2019. Morpho-Syntactic Patterns in Spoken Korean English. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g62

  • Rüdiger, Sofia. 2018. "Mixed Feelings: Attitudes towards English Loanwords and Their Use in South Korea." Open Linguistics 4(1): 184-198. Open Access

  • Rüdiger, Sofia. 2017. "Spoken English in Korea: An Expanding Circle English Revisited." In: Jenks, Christopher J. and Jerry Won Lee, eds. Korean Englishes in Transnational Contexts. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 75-92. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59788-1_4

  • Rüdiger, Sofia. 2016. "Cuppa Coffee? Challenges and Opportunities of Compiling a Conversational English Corpus in an Expanding Circle Setting." In: Christ, Hanna, Daniel Klenovšak, Lukas Sönning and Valentin Werner, eds. A Blend of MaLT: Selected Contributions from the Methods and Linguistic Theories Symposium 2015. Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press. 49-71. Open Access

  • Rüdiger, Sofia. 2014. "The Nativization of English in the Korean Context: Uncharted Territory for World Englishes." English Today 30(4): 11-14. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078414000340