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

Abstract

Heritage language learners stated that they felt the pressure of expectations that teachers and other classmates place on them as heritage language (HL) learners. King reports that 80–90% of Korean language classrooms are composed of HL learners. The complex range of diversity in terms of the levels of proficiency, motivational orientations, attitudes, and degrees of ethnolinguistic affiliation has made it quite difficult to develop a coherent framework for HL learning and teaching. Motivation has been shown to have a significant impact not only on the rate of second/foreign language learning, but also on the ultimate proficiency attainment. With regard to instructional approaches and the focus of language instruction, many interview informants ranked literacy skill development as a priority because of their lack of confidence in their literacy skills. Content-based instruction has been implemented at different levels of education, elementary to postsecondary, and in a variety settings and forms, from immersion programs to sheltered subject classes to second/foreign language courses.