Heritage Language Learning and Self-identity

Open Access
- Author:
- Jin, Xiunan
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- March 07, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Gail Louise Boldt, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Uju Anya, Committee Member - Keywords:
- heritage language
self-identity
language learning proficiency
curriculum and pedagogy
culture
identity construction - Abstract:
- Many immigrant families (most of whom are minorities) are concerned with the first language (L1) maintenance of their children living in a new country. Some of them still use their mother-language at home and go to the heritage language school weekly to learn heritage language (HL) and cultural traditions. Meanwhile, some of them lose their chance to learn or use their heritage language because of the low exposure of mother-language in the environment of majority language and culture. In this study, I aim to research factors that impact heritage language learning by analyzing interview data from four subjects, two American-born Chinese, one American-born Korean, and one Chinese-born ethnic Koreans, to understand the relationship between HL learning and self-identity. The goal of this study is to contribute to curriculum and pedagogy design for HL learning. The results show that parental and family involvement play a big role of HL language learning. School climates effect one’s cultural identity as well. The qualitative analysis also indicates that one’s HL language proficiency do not positively correlate to his/her cultural identity because of the intricate relationship between identity construction and HL learning.