Korean as a Heritage Language

Abstract

This chapter examines the development of the ways in which we have defined heritage language in the field of applied linguistics, our understanding of the profiles of heritage language learners, and how they have influenced our approaches to Korean heritage language education. It highlights the expanding boundaries of the characteristics of Korean heritage language learners and speakers (e.g., intergenerational immigrants and their children, mixed-race individuals, adoptees, culturally affiliated individuals, dual-language immersion students). In addition, it reviews empirically documented language practices that are prevalent among Korean heritage language users. Based on the changing demographics of heritage language learners and speakers and the growing evidence of a Korean heritage language ethnolect, we argue for the pressing need to move away from a deficit perspective of heritage language speakers’ linguistic systems as one being less perfect than the native speakers’ and to recognize the unique functions, markers, and uses of Korean as a heritage language among its speakers. A consideration of these issues is timely, as they will inevitably disrupt our traditional approaches to heritage language education. We conclude with suggestions for how recent developments in our understanding of heritage language learners of Korean can be applied to transform the instructional approaches and practices in Korean as a second/foreign language education as well as to define directions for future research.