Heritage Language Learners’ Attitudes, Motivations, and Instructional Needs: The Case of Postsecondary Korean Language Learners

While a growing body of literature testifies to the effects of service-learning in language education, little empirical research has examined the implementation of service-learning courses in minority heritage languages. This chapter discusses the first implementation and effects of Korean service-learning course for Korean heritage language learners at an institution of higher education. Participants engaged in service activities at one of four community sites with different missions. By analyzing students’ post-service surveys and course assignments, as well as the community partners’ post-service surveys, we were able to demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of the service-learning course for Korean heritage language students. Conducting service-learning at authentic work contexts in Koreatown in Los Angeles was found to enhance the language learners’ linguistic and socio-cultural awareness and develop their social responsibility and sense of kinship in a multicultural and multilingual metropolitan area such as Los Angeles. Moreover, by working on projects requiring Korean language skills, Korean heritage language learners developed their academic-professional proficiency, such as the use of formal speech styles, and realized other linguistic subtleties in Korean. The results from this study contribute to the current body of work on service-learning by adding a perspective from a population that has barely been represented in previous research.

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Assessing the Language Proficiency of Tribal Heritage Language Learners: Issues and Concerns for American Indian Pueblo Languages

Current Issues in Language Planning ◽

10.2167/cilp139.0 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 327

Author(s):

Christine Sims

Keyword(s):

American Indian ◽

Language Learners ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Heritage Language Learners

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College‐level placement for heritage language learners

Foreign Language Annals ◽

10.1111/flan.12523 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jingjing Ji

Keyword(s):

Language Learners ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Heritage Language Learners ◽

College Level

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"There is no space for being German": Portraits of Willing and Reluctant Heritage Language Learners of German

Heritage Language Journal ◽

10.46538/hlj.7.2.2 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 162-182 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Roswita Dressler

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Language Learners ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Secondary Level ◽

Significant Part ◽

Heritage Language Learners ◽

Post Secondary ◽

Language Identity ◽

German Speaking ◽

German Speaking Country

Some heritage language learners (HLLs) are comfortable identifying themselves as such, while others are decidedly reluctant to adopt this term (Piño & Piño, 2000). HLLs in this paper are defined as those students having a parent or grandparent who speaks German or those who have spent a significant part of their childhood in a German-speaking country (as suggested in Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005, p. 13). This paper highlights case studies of six HLLs of German at the post-secondary level who are participants in a motivation study (Dressler, 2008). Three students are ‘willing’ HLLs. The additional three case studies are of students that I will call ‘reluctant’ HLLs of German, and this paper explores the reasons behind their reluctance and the components of self-identification, which include language identity (Block, 2007; Pierce, 1995); language expertise; affiliation and inheritance (Leung, Harris, & Rampton, 1997); cultural artifacts (Bartlett, 2007) and positioning (Block, 2007).

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