A LONGITUDINAL STUDY: EMERGENT BILINGUALS’ HERITAGE LANGUAGE USE AND LEARNING OVER TIME

Authors

Abstract

This article discusses a comparison of the two focal primary school third-grade Korean bilingual students’ language use with their previous language use when they were first-graders by examining their heritage language (HL) use at a Korean language school. For children of immigrant families in the U.S., there has been a pervasive hypothesis that their heritage language (HL) might be jeopardized due to their minimum exposure to it and its reduced status in the U.S., which can easily lead them to experience HL shift or loss (Montrul, 2018; Valdés, 2014). However, the present study shows that the focal third graders who were attending all-English schools during the week did not appear to lose their HL. Instead, the comparison of findings indicated that they had developed a certain degree of oral proficiency in their HL, including vocabulary knowledge, thanks to the parents’ involvement and practices towards their children’s HL learning as well as other socio-cultural influences on the students’ HL language use and development over the years.

Keywords: Heritage language, Korean students, immigrant family, bilingualism, biliteracy.

REFERENCES

August, D., & Shanahan, T. (2010). Response to a review and update on “Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the national literacy panel on language minority children and youth.” Journal of Literacy Research, 42(3), 341-348.

Beaudrie, S., Ducar, C., & Potowski, K. (2014). Heritage language teaching: Research and practices. McGraw-Hill Education Create.

Bloome, D., Carter, S. P., Christian, B. M., Otto, S., & Shuart-Faris, N. (2004). Discourse analysis and the study of classroom language and literacy events: A microethnographic perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.

Brown, L. (2011). Korean honorifics and politeness in second language learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Brown, L., & Winter, B. (2018). Multimodal indexicality in Korean: “doing deference” and “performing intimacy” through nonverbal behavior. Journal of Politeness Research, 15(1), 25–54

Carreira, M., & Kagan, O. (2017). Heritage language education: A proposal for the next 50 years. Foreign Language Annals, 51(1), 152-168.

Cho, G. (2015). Perspectives vs. reality of heritage language development: Voices from second-generation Korean-American high school students. Multicultural Education, 22(2), 30-38.

Cummins, J., & Persad, R. (2014). Teaching through a Multilingual Lens: The Evolution of EAL Policy and Practice in Canada. Education Matters, 2, 3-40. 

Elabbas, B., Montrul, S., & Polinsky, M. (2013). Heritage languages and their speakers: opportunities and challenges for linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 39(3-4) 129– 181.

Fogle, L., & King, K. (2013). Child agency and language policy in transnational families. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 19, 1-25.

García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Gandara, P., & Hopkin, M. (2010). Forbidden language: English learners and restrictive language policies. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Gee, J. P. (2012). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Golberg, H., Paradis, J., & Crago, M. (2008). Lexical acquisition over time in minority L1 children learning English as a L2. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 1–25.

Goldenberg, C. (2011). Reading instruction for English language learners. In M. Kamil, P. D. Pearson, E. B. Moje, & P. Afflerbach (Eds.), The handbook of reading research (Vol. 4, pp. 684–710). New York, NY: Routledge.

Gort, M., & Sembiante, S. (2015). Navigating hybridized language learning spaces through translanguaging pedagogy: Dual language preschool teachers’ languaging practices in support of emergent bilingual children’s performance of academic discourse. International Multilingual Research Journal, 9, 7–25.

Guardado, M. (2010). Heritage language development: Preserving a mythic past or envisioning the future of Canadian identity? Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 9(5), 329-346.

Guardado, M. & Becker, A. (2015). ‘Glued to the family’ the role of familism in heritage language development. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 27(2), 163-181.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (1st ed.). London: Edward Arnold. 

Hua, Z., & Wei, L. (2016). “Where are you really from?”: Nationality and Ethnicity Talk (NET) in everyday interactions. In Z. Hua & C. Kramsch (Eds.), Symbolic power and conversational inequality in intercultural communication, Applied Linguistics Review, 7(4), 449-470.

Kim, C., & Pyun, D. (2014). Heritage language literacy maintenance: A study of Korean-American heritage learners. Language, Culture, and Curriculum, 27(3), 294-315.

Kondo-Brown, K. (2011). Maintaining heritage language perspectives of Korean parents, Multicultural Education, 19(1), 31-37.

Lee, C. (2021). Role of immigrant parents’ attitudes and practices in emergent bilingual students’ language use and translanguaging. In G., Onchwari, & J, Keengwe (Eds.), Bridging Family – Teacher Relationship for ELL and Immigrant Students (pp. 182–206). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Lee, J. S., & Jeong, E. (2013). Korean-English dual language immersion: Perspectives of students, parents, and teachers. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 26(1), 89-107.

Lee, J. S., & Wright, W. (2014). The rediscovery of heritage and community language education in the United States. Review of Research in Education, 38(1), 137-165.

Leija, M., & Fránquiz, M. (2021). Building bridges between school and home: Teacher, parents, and students examining Latinx immigrant experiences, In G., Onchwari, & J, Keengwe (Eds.), Bridging Family – Teacher Relationship for ELL and Immigrant Students (pp. 100–121). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Liang, F. (2018). Parental perceptions toward and practices of heritage language maintenance: Focusing on the United States and Canada. International Journal of Language Studies, 12(2), 65-86.

López, D. (1996). Language: Diversity and assimilation. In R. Waldinger & M. Bozorgmehr (Eds.), Ethnic Los Angeles (pp. 139-163). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Lü, C., & Koda, K. (2011). The impact of home language and literacy support on English-Chinese biliteracy acquisition among Chinese heritage language learners. Heritage Language Journal, 8, 119-231.

McCabe, M. (2016). Transnationalism and language maintenance: Czech and Slovak as heritage languages in the Southeastern United States. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 238, 169-191.

Melo-Pfeifer, S. (2015). The role of the family in heritage language use and learning: Impact on heritage language policies, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(1), 26-44.

Montrul, S. (2010). Current issues in heritage language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 30, 3-23.

Montrul, S. A. (2018). Heritage language development: Connecting the dots, International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(5), 530-546.

Moro, L., Mortimer, E., & Tiberghien, A. (2019). The use of social semiotics multimodality and joint action theory to describe teaching practices: two cases studies with experienced teachers. Classroom Discourse. 1-23.

Murphy, V. (2014). Second language learning in the early school years: Trends and contexts. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Polinsky, M. (2011). Reanalysis in adult heritage language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33(2), 305-328.

Polinsky, M., (2018). Bilingual children and adult heritage speakers: The range of comparison. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(5) 547-563.

Polinsky, M., & Kagan, O. (2007). Heritage languages: In the 'wild' and in the classroom. Language and Linguistics Compass, 1(5), 368-395.

Potowski, K. (2016). Bilingual youth: Spanish-speakers at the beginning of the 21st century. Language and Linguistics Compass, 10(6), 272-283.

Ro, Y. E., & Cheatham, G. A. (2009). Biliteracy and bilingual development in a second-generation Korean child: A case study, Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23, 290-308.

Rodriguez-Mojica, C. (2017). From test scores to language use: Emergent bilinguals using English to accomplish academic tasks. International Multilingual Research Journal, 12(1), 31-61.

Schmid, M. S. (2010). Languages at play: The relevance of L1 attrition to the study of bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 1-7

Scontras, G., Fuchs, Z., & Polinsky, M. (2015). Heritage language and linguistic theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1545‑1564.

Seals, C., & Peyton, J. K. (2017). Heritage language education: Valuing the languages, literacies and cultural competencies of immigrant youth. Current Issues of Language Planning, 18(1), 87-101.

Shin, S. J. (2005). Developing in two languages: Korean children in America. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Shin, S. J. (2014). Language learning as culture keeping: Family language policies of transnational adoptive parents. International Multilingual Research Journal, 8(3), 189-207.

Shin, S. J. & Lee, J. S. (2013). Expanding capacity, opportunity, and desire to learn Korean as a heritage language. Heritage Language Journal, 10(3), 64-73.

Shin, J., & Viruru, R. (2021). A qualitative study of home-school literacy connections between Korean ELL families and their children’s early childhood teachers, In G., Onchwari, & J, Keengwe (Eds.), Bridging Family – Teacher Relationship for ELL and Immigrant Students (pp. 238-264). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Spolsky, B. (2012). Family language policy – the critical domain. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(1), 3-11.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Street, B. V. (1984). Literacy in theory and practice CUP: Cambridge.

Street, B. V. (2001). The new literacy studies. In E. Cushman, G.R. Kintgen, B.M. Kroll, & M. Rose (Eds.), Literacy: A critical sourcebook (pp. 430-442). Boston: St. Martin’s Press.

Szilagyi, J., & Szecsi, T. (2020). Why and how to maintain the Hungarian language: Hungarian-American families’ views on heritage language practices, Heritage Language Journal, 17(1), 114-139.

Tse, L. (2001). Why don't they learn English? Separating fact from fallacy in the U.S. language debate. New York: Teachers College Press.

Valdés, G. (2014). Expanding definitions of giftedness: The case of young interpreters from immigrant communities. New York, NY: Routledge

Veltman, C. (1983). Language shift in the United States. The Hague: Mouton.

Yang, J., Fox, R., & Jacewicz, E. (2015). Vowel development in an emergent Mandarin-English bilingual child: A longitudinal study. Journal of Child Language, 42, 1125-1145.

Yazan, B., & Ali, I. (2018). Family language policies in a Libyan immigrant family in the U.S.: Language and religious identity. Heritage Language Journal, 15(3), 369-388.

Downloads

Published

2021-06-30

Issue

Section

Research Article