This book investigates how transnational English learning experiences can influence students'
identities. More specifically it delineates how Korean early study abroad undergraduates
perceive English and how they have formed their ethnic identities based on their early study
abroad experiences. They tend to see themselves in between two cultures languages and this
in-between-ness is the most distinctive common characteristic of their identities. However
their in-between-ness means more than being connected to both Korea and America or hybridizing
Korean and American discourses. As transnational elites who cross the borders freely they are
in a position to be cosmopolitans who can take advantage of the in-between-ness becoming keen
critics of dominant cultures in both contexts and potentially social activists who can stand
up for social justice. In short the early study abroad experience should be understood not
just in terms of language learning but as a process by means of which learners develop social
awareness in multiple language-related contexts that can lead them beyond their own
circumscribed world of elitism to a position of responsibility for sharing what they have
experienced and learned for the benefit of society.
