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Chapter 29 - From Bilingual Speakers to Korean Heritage Language Learners

from Part VI - Language Pedagogy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2022

By
Hi-Sun Kim
Edited by
Sungdai Cho  and
John Whitman
Sungdai Cho
Affiliation:
Binghamton University, State University of New York
John Whitman
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Chapter 29 examines the recurring attributes in current definitions of HL learners. These include early and significant exposure to the HL, proficiency in the HL, bilingualism to some degree, dominance in a language other than the HL, and an ethnic/cultural connection to the HL. From sociolinguistic journey, Korean heritage language (KHL) learners often end up with high receptive language skill, low to moderate accuracy in their speaking, and zero metalinguistic knowledge, and consequently enroll in Korean language in college to (re)learn their HL language. This poses pedagogical challenges, as KHL learners are linguistically distinguished from L2 learners due to their language experience. This chapter explores issues in language acquisition, language attrition, and language processing of Korean-English bilingual children and how such experience sheds light in understanding the pedagogical issues related to the language processing of young adult KHL learners.

Keywords

heritage language learnersKoreanbilingualslanguage maintenance and attritionheritage language acquisitionlanguage developmentheritage language pedagogy
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics , pp. 832 - 848
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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