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ISSN : 1226-4822(Print)
The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea Vol.34 No.2 pp.291-329
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.14353/sjk.2026.34.2.10

Relational Work and Identity Construction in a Multilingual Teaching Assistant Group Chat

Matkhiya Usmonova Rustamovna
Ph.D. Candidate, TESOL, Sookmyung Women’s University; 100 Cheongpa-ro 47-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04310, South Korea

Abstract

This study examines how five multilingual teaching assistants use daily digital interactions to build communities, manage face, and construct identities in a KakaoTalk group chat. Analysis of 442 messages collected over 5.5 months (September 2025 – February 2026) revealed systematic changes: task-focused talk decreased from 32% to 7%, while social talk increased from 19% to 42%. Using qualitative discourse analysis with quantitative frequency tracking, this study identified five recurrent practices: emotional support (8.1%), apology and responsibility management (2.7%), task coordination (20.1%), leadership implementation (4.5%), and cultural sharing (1.6%). A single conflict in October was resolved through a distributed apology (9% of monthly messages) and increased support (13%), illustrating collaborative facework (Goffman, 1967). Drawing on communities of practice theory (Wenger, 1998), relational approaches to politeness (Locher & Watts, 2005), and computer-mediated discourse research (Herring & Androutsopoulos, 2015), the analysis shows that, although English is a shared language, participants draw on culturally embedded resources: Korean members use Korean-specific emoticons, the American member uses global common emojis, and the Uzbek member shares cultural references in 4.1% of their messages. This study contributes to multilingual academic communication research by demonstrating how digital communities form and negotiate their identities on KakaoTalk, an important non-Western platform.

초록

Vol. 40 No. 4 (2022.12)

Journal Abbreviation j. Korea Saf. Manag. Sci.
Frequency Published four times annually in March, June, September, and December
Doi Prefix 10.14353/sjk.
Year of Launching 1993
Publisher The Sociolinguistic Society of Korea
Indexed/Tracked/Covered By

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