ABSTRACT

This paper explores how immersion and engagement with different cultures in the home environment impacts Korean children’s intercultural learning. More specific attention is given to the experience of nine Korean children whose families have voluntarily served as homestay host families and hosted foreign guests for more than seven years. This qualitative inquiry is drawn from data including participant observations, semi-structured interviews with children and their parents, and the collection of artefacts and documents. Four themes were identified regarding the impact of homestay hosting experiences on the focal children: (1) experiencing intercultural encounters in the home environment; (2) building close, long-lasting intercultural relationships; (3) recognising preconceived prejudices and undoing cultural stereotypes; and (4) challenging a singular and oversimplified representation of cultures. Given the modern, global context in which children engage in frequent contacts with individuals from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, the findings demonstrate the necessity of fostering intercultural learning among school-aged children and suggest homestay programmes are a potential means for developing students’ intercultural learning in a local context.

摘要

本文探讨了如何在家庭环境中融入和参与不同的文化如何影响韩国儿童的跨文化学习。特别关注了9名韩国儿童的经历，他们的家庭自愿担任寄宿家庭并接待外国客人超过7年。该定性查询来自以下数据：参与者的观察，对儿童及其父母的半结构化访谈以及手工艺品和文件的收集。确定了关于寄宿家庭体验对重点儿童的影响的四个主题：（1）在家庭环境中经历跨文化的相遇；（2）建立密切，持久的跨文化关系；（3）认识到先入为主的偏见，消除文化上的成见；（4）挑战单一和过分简化的文化表现形式。鉴于儿童在现代全球环境中经常与来自不同语言和文化背景的人进行接触，研究结果表明在学龄儿童中促进跨文化学习的必要性，并建议寄宿家庭计划是发展学生跨文化学习的一种潜在手段在当地情况下。