Volume: 20  Number: 3  Page: 223–235  doi:10.2167/lcc337.0

Parents’ Attitudes Toward Heritage Language Maintenance for Their Children and Their Efforts to Help Their Children Maintain the Heritage Language: A Case Study of Korean-Canadian Immigrants

Seong Man Park and Mela Sarkar Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

In this study we explore Korean immigrant parents’ attitudes toward heritage language maintenance for their children and their efforts to help their children maintain Korean as their heritage language in Montreal. Some implications for mainstream school policies and classroom practices are touched on briefly. Data were collected from nine Korean immigrant parents who had a child (or children) between the ages of 6–18 in 2005, using a questionnaire and interviews. The interviews asked about Korean immigrant parents’ attitudes toward heritage language and cultural identity maintenance for their children and attitudes toward the Korean language, the Korean community, and the Korean churches; four items designed to obtain information about parents’ efforts to help their children maintain the heritage language both at home and outside of the home were also included. The findings suggest that Korean immigrant parents are very positive toward their children’s heritage language maintenance. Korean parents believe that their children’s high level of proficiency in the Korean language would help their children keep their cultural identity as Koreans, ensure them better future economic opportunities, and give them more chances to communicate with their grandparents efficiently.

Keywords: language maintenance, Korean immigrants, ethnic community, cultural identity

© 2007 S.M. Park & M. Sarkar

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