South Korean early study abroad students and their parents in Singapore negotiate and redefine the values of Mandarin, English, and Singlish used in Singapore in an attempt to forge their own transnational identities. In this process, these Korean migrants tend to place more emphasis on metapragmatic discourses; that is, how to speak the languages appropriately. They then use such metapragmatic evaluations to justify their use of the local varieties and practices of language in Singapore. Their discourses are based on two language ideologies -pragmatism and sociolinguistic competence - which are examined here as alternative forms of language legitimacy that coexist with the dominant notion of legitimate language. These multiple language ideologies provide the basis for Korean migrants' emerging notions of the 'Asian global,' a desirable transnational subject who is more practical and sociocentric than the conventional image of high-ranking elites, with greater adaptability to various local situations. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2012.

Migration Metapragmatic discourses Transnational identity Singapore South Korea language ideology

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