Sunyoung Yang

Interests

Research

Korea, East Asia, popular culture, new media and technologies, Internet, Artificial Intelligence (AI), user participation, gender, labor, neoliberalism, the politics of aesthetics

Teaching

Korea, East Asia, popular culture, new media and technologies, youth culture, gender, class, labor

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Yang, S., & Chung, H. (2021). Social Media in South Korea: How Have Online Platforms Changed Society?. In Asia Internet History: Fourth Decade (2010s).

Journals/Publications

• Lee, K., & Yang, S. (2024). Radical cyberfeminists as language planners: South Korea’s Womad. Current Issues in Language Planning, 25(4). doi:10.1080/14664208.2024.2328390
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  In response to tumultuous gender relations in South Korea, many feminist and anti-feminist communities have increased their online presence since the 2010s. At the extreme end of this spectrum is the radical cyberfeminist community Womad. In this paper, we examine Womad’s online dictionary, which prescribes specific language to be used on their platform, which we interpret as an example of micro language planning. Our analysis of their dictionary reveals that similar to previous feminist language reforms around the world, Womad’s new words correct lexical asymmetries that present men as the norm and eliminate words that invoke patriarchal connotations. However, what distinguishes Womad’s language reform are their words that denigrate men, which sharply contrasts with linguistic anti-sexism. Womad’s separatist and consciousness-raising agenda is distinctly evident in their dictionary, and as a radical group, they are not motivated by widespread acceptance of their reform. Instead, their intention is to combat patriarchy by challenging existing gender norms and expanding the space for diverse feminisms through their radical approach. Specifically, Womad’s transgressive language serves as an important tool in achieving their goals. Due to policing by other users and administrators, Womad can ensure that their language planning efforts are maintained within their community.
• Ryu, J., Lee, K., & Yang, S. (2024). Korean-as-a-Foreign-Language Learners’ Engagement with Machine Translation Output. RELC Journal. doi:10.1177/00336882241298006
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  Researchers and practitioners in foreign language learning continue investigating evolving technologies like machine translators and other artificial intelligence-assisted programs in classrooms. However, less attention has been given to less commonly taught languages, which often lack relevant resources compared to widely taught foreign languages such as English, despite machine translators’ potential in facilitating foreign language writing. This exploratory case study aims to address this gap by examining how US university students learning a less commonly taught language, Korean, use machine translators to revise their writing. Students were trained in a modified version of the Guided Use of Machine Translation model, which requires active engagement from students in selecting, comparing, revising, and justifying their writing choices. By analyzing their cognitive and behavioral engagement, the study sheds light on students’ approaches to incorporating machine translators’ output as feedback into their writing process. The findings suggest that students primarily focus on differences in word choice between their original writing and machine translators’ output over other areas such as particle usage. Students generally demonstrated the ability to accurately identify and correct their errors. Various revision strategies were implemented but adopting exact machine translators’ output was more commonly used, while students also exercised autonomy in their language choices.
• Lee, K., & Yang, S. (2022).

  The intertextuality and interdiscursivity of “mirroring” in South Korean cyberfeminist posts

  . Discourse & Society, 33(5), 671-689. doi:10.1177/09579265221096028
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  This study examines the phenomenon of “mirroring” used by Womad, a cyberfeminist community in South Korea. Mirroring involves the reversal of gender to spotlight misogynist practices that might otherwise go unnoticed. To better understand mirroring, we introduce selected posts from Ilbe, a male-dominant online forum, known for denigrating Korean women and then analyze Womad’s posts on similar topics following approaches in critical discourse analysis and feminist post-structuralism. Our analysis examines two main linguistic strategies of mirroring that Womad uses to disrupt gendered ideologies. First, we focus on the use of intertextuality in Womad’s posts through their adoption of Ilbe’s masculine register to combat misogyny by targeting men. Interdiscursivity is another important strategy Womad users deploy to foreground the inequities entrenched in Korea’s long-standing patriarchy. Ultimately, mirroring offers critiques of gender inequity and misogyny through active engagements with everyday linguistic practices online while opening up new possibilities for gender politics.
• Ryu, J. C., Kim, Y. A., Eum, S., Park, S., Chun, S., & Yang, S. (2022).

  The assessment of memes as digital multimodal composition in L2 classrooms

  . Journal of Second Language Writing. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2022.100914
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  Digital multimodal writing has become predominant in our students’ lives in and outside the L2 classrooms. While many L2 educators integrate various multimodal projects into their curriculum, internet memes and their assessment have not been explored in depth in L2 settings, although memes have potential to be valuable multimodal writing tasks. The purpose of this study is to better understand how memes can be incorporated and assessed in L2 classrooms. Twenty-seven student-created memes in a low-intermediate Korean as a Foreign Language course at a large university were collected and analyzed. The findings indicated that the student-created memes successfully addressed the multimodal aspect of the meme genre, universal and specific cultural references, and language aspects specific to the genre of memes. Our analyses of the memes suggest three key components to assess this multimodal writing project in addition to its overall task/functions: 1) multimodal aspects that include understanding the interplay between multiple modes for an effective message in a given context; 2) cultural aspects, demonstrating cultural knowledge and its application, recognizing the semiotic importance of multimodal expression in the target community; and 3) language aspects as an effective communication medium, demonstrating genre knowledge of the specific task and language accuracy.
• Yang, S. (2018). "Loser Aesthetics": Korean Internet Freaks and Their Gender Politics. Feminist Media Studies.
  More info

  In the aftermath of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, a new Internet freak culture emerged in South Korea in response to the rapid development of the Internet as well as the country’s neoliberal reforms. At this time, images of losers, freaks, and other surplus populations circulated online. This article examines the gender politics of Internet freaks through an analysis of one online fan forum, the Lee Joon Gi gallery of DCinside.com. Lee’s fan forum acquired a reputation through sexually charged posts from its female-user base in the late 2000s and is still active today. By appropriating attributes of online male culture and forms of communication, such as absurd statements, rudeness, and aggressive sexual expression, the users of this fan community created a carnivalesque space for themselves and subverted rigid Korean gender ideologies. Such parodies have transformed the fear of misogyny and sexism in the offline world into laughter online and become fertile ground for changes in gender politics in online spaces.
• Yang, S. (2017). Networking South Korea: Internet, Nation, and New Subjects. Media, Culture & Society.

Presentations

• Yang, S. (2018, August). The Internet Made in Asia: The Cosmopolitics of Engineers. The Academy of Korean Studies Colloquium. South Korea.
• Yang, S. (2018, July). Humanities and Social Sciences Perspectives on Internet Governance. Asia Pacific School on Internet Governance.
• Yang, S. (2018, July). The Internet Cultures in South Korea. The Academy of Korean Studies.
• Yang, S. (2018, November). Humor and Laughter: Mediating Different Political Stances in South Korean Online Communities. The 2018 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting.
• Yang, S. (2017, April). Loser Aesthetics: Internet Freaks and Cultural Politics in South Korea. Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Colloquium. The University of Arizona.
• Yang, S. (2017, June). Not a Human but a Worm: The Rise of Right-wing Internet Politics in South Korea. The 2017 Association for Asian Studies (AAS)-in-Asia Conference. Seoul, South.
• Yang, S. (2017, June). Not a Human but a Worm: The Rise of Right-wing Internet Politics in South Korea. The Association for Asian Studies-in-Asia conferences. Seoul, South Korea.
• Yang, S., & Yang, S. (2016, November). Online Figures of Korean Internet Users. The 2016 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN.

Other Teaching Materials

• Yang, S., Ryu, J., Kim, Y. A., Chun, S., Eum, S., & Park, S. (2021. Instructor Manual: Exploring Socioscientific Issues in Language Classrooms. The Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy.