Title Page

Contents

Abstract 6

Silenced Agents: Korean Women's Lived Experiences of Opposition to their Use of English in a Hyper-Competitive Society 7

Disambiguation of Terms 21

Methods 27

History of grounded theory: Sherlock Holmes in the social sciences 27

Branches of grounded theory: Glaserian, Straussian and Constructivist 32

Glaserian grounded theory. 33

Straussian grounded theory. 34

Constructivist grounded theory. 34

Stages and steps in grounded theory research 35

Coding. 35

Conceptualizing and categorizing. 36

Theorizing. 38

Why grounded theory was chosen to examine Korean women's silencing 38

Grounded theory as used in this study 38

Guiding philosophy. 38

Participants and setting 39

Selection Criteria. 39

Identification of potential co-authors. 44

Validation strategies 45

Prolonged engagement. 45

Triangulation. 47

Positioning. 48

Participant review. 49

Rich, thick description. 50

Data Collection 52

Initial interviews and cycle 1. 54

Secondary interviews and cycle 2. 62

Focus group interview and cycle 3. 62

Participant observations and interview sketching/ memoing. 63

Results 64

Open Coding and Cycle 1 64

Axial Coding and Cycle 2 68

Focus Group and Cycle 3 90

Discussion 94

Discursive Framing 94

Intersectionality 102

Economic Influences and Impacts 104

Identity Splitting 105

Conclusion 112

References 124

Appendices 145

Appendix A. Consent Form 145

Appendix B. Data Collection Cycle 12 Inital One-On-One Interviews 150

Appendix C. Data Collection Cycle 12 Secondary One-On-One Interviews 151

Appendix D. Data Collection Cycle of Co-author's Focus Group Interview 152

Appendix E. Initial Interview Set Question Categories 153

Appendix F. Semi-Structured Questions for Axial Coding and Second Round Interviews 156

Appendix G. Focus Group Discussion Topics and Questions 157

Table 1. Co-author Self-Identity Chart(displaying co-author chosen pseudonyms) 142

Table 2. List of initial open codes with example phrases. 143