Cover not available

Article published In: The Korean language and multilingual communities in Australasia and beyond
Edited by Seong-Chul Shin
[Korean Linguistics 19:2] 2023
► pp. 140–162

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

Korean mothers’ attitudes towards their dual heritage children’s maintenance of heritage languages in New Zealand

 | University of Auckland
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 30 October 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/kl.00004.par
Abstract
This study investigates family language policy (FLP) in three dual heritage and interlingual families in New Zealand. It focuses on the language use of three Korean migrant mothers and their attitudes towards their children’s multilingualism and heritage languages (HLs). Each family’s FLP took a “one person, one language” approach, with the mothers consistently using Korean but occasionally switching to English. All three mothers in this case study showed positive attitudes towards their children maintaining their HLs, and used various strategies to encourage their children’s exposure to the HLs. However, each of the mothers conceptualized the positions of the children’s HLs somewhat differently, which influenced language socialization at home. Moreover, despite their strong commitment to bilingual or multilingual parenting, the mothers had low expectations for their children’s HL proficiency, reflecting the minority status of HLs in the wider society.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Family language policy and language attitudes among dual heritage families
  • 3.The study
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1HL use in the home
    • 4.2Parental language attitudes
    • 4.3Family language policy negotiations
    • 4.4HL investment with lowered expectations
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • References
References (35)
References
Braun, Virginia & Victoria Clarke. (2006). Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3:2.77–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curdt-Christiansen, Xiao Lan. (2015). Family Language Policy in the Chinese Community in Singapore: A question of balance? Multilingualism in the Chinese Diaspora Worldwide, ed. by Wei Li, 255–275. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2016). Conflicting Language Ideologies and Contradictory Language Practices in Singaporean Multilingual Families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 37:7.694–709. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Danjo, Chisato. (2021). Making Sense of Family Language Policy: Japanese-English bilingual children’s creative and strategic translingual practices. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 24:2.292–304. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Bres, Julia. (2015). The Hierarchy of Minority Languages in New Zealand. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 36:7.677–693. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dumanig, Francisco Perlas, Maya Khemlani David & Thilagavathi Shanmuganathan. (2013). Language Choice and Language Policies in Filipino-Malaysian Families in Multilingual Malaysia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 34:6.582–596. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farr, Joanna, Laura Blenkiron, Richard Harris & Jonathan A. Smith. (2018). “It’s My Language, My Culture, and It’s Personal!”: Migrant Mothers’ Experience of Language Use and Identity Change in Their Relationship with Their Children: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Journal of Family Issues 39:11.3029–3054. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gharibi, Khadij & Corinne Seals. (2020). Heritage Language Policies of the Iranian Diaspora in New Zealand. International Multilingual Research Journal 14:4.287–303. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gu, Mingyue Michelle & Yawen Han. (2021). Exploring Family Language Policy and Planning among Ethnic Minority Families in Hong Kong: Through a socio-historical and processed lens. Current Issues in Language Planning 22:4.466–486. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guardado, Martin. (2017). Heritage Language Development in Interlingual Families. Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education, ed. by Peter Pericles Trifonas & Themistoklis Aravossitas, 503–519. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jones Díaz, Criss & Ute Walker. (2018). Spanish in the Antipodes: Diversity and hybridity of Latino/a Spanish speakers in Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand. The Routledge Handbook of Spanish as a Heritage Language, ed. by Kim Potowski, 463–478. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
King, Kendall & Lyn Fogle. (2006). Bilingual Parenting as Good Parenting: Parents’ perspectives on family language policy for additive bilingualism. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 9:6.695–712. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
King, Kendall A. & Lyn Wright Fogle. (2013). Family Language Policy and Bilingual Parenting. Language Teaching 46:2.172–194. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
King, Kendall A., Lyn Fogle & Aubrey Logan-Terry. (2008). Family Language Policy. Language and Linguistics Compass 2:5.907–922. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kwon, Jungmin. (2020). Negotiating Family Language Policy and Ideologies of Multilingualism: Perspectives of a Korean mother and a Korean American child in a multiracial family. Language Arts 97:6.351–362.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lanza, Elizabeth. (1997). Language Mixing in Infant Bilingualism: A sociolinguistic perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lao, Christy. (2004). Parents’ Attitudes toward Chinese-English Bilingual Education and Chinese-Language Use. Bilingual Research Journal 28:1.99–121. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Boh Young. (2013). Heritage Language Maintenance and Cultural Identity Formation: The case of Korean immigrant parents and their children in the USA. Early Child Development and Care 183:11.1576–1588. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakamura, Janice. (2020). Language Regrets: Mixed-ethnic children’s lost opportunity for minority language acquisition in Japan. Multilingua 39:2.213–237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Mi Yung & Lee Jin Choi. (2022). Study Abroad, Heritage Language Learning, and Identity: A study of a mixed-heritage learner of Korean. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 19:3.286–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Mi Yung & Katalina Chung. (2022). Identity and Heritage Language Learning: A case study of mixed-heritage Korean university students in New Zealand. Multilingua. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Seong Man & Mela Sarkar. (2007). 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. Language, Culture and Curriculum 20:3.223–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Romanowski, Piotr. (2022). Paternal Agency in Heritage Language Maintenance in Australia: Polish fathers in action. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 25:9.3320–3332. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwartz, Mila. (2010). Family Language Policy: Core issues of an emerging field. Applied Linguistics Review 1:1.171–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith-Christmas, Cassie. (2014). Being Socialised into Language Shift: The impact of extended family members on family language policy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 35:5.511–526. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spolsky, Bernard. (2004). Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2009). Language Management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spoonley, Paul. (2015). New Diversity, Old Anxieties in New Zealand: The complex identity politics and engagement of a settler society. Ethnic and Racial Studies 38:4.650–661. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Statistics New Zealand. (2018). 2018 Census Totals by Topic: National highlights (updated). Accessed March 1, 2020. [URL]
Tsushima, Rika & Martin Guardado. (2019). “Rules…I Want Someone to Make Them Clear”: Japanese mothers in Montreal talk about multilingual parenting. Journal of Language, Identity & Education 18:5.311–328. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wallace, Kendra R. (2001). Relative/Outsider: The art and politics of identity among mixed heritage students. Westport, CT: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhan, Ying. (2021). The Role of Agency in the Language Choices of a Trilingual Two-Year-Old in Conversation with Monolingual Grandparents. First Language 41:1.21–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Donghui & Diana T. Slaughter-Defoe. (2009). Language Attitudes and Heritage Language Maintenance among Chinese Immigrant Families in the USA. Language, Culture and Curriculum 22:2.77–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Maseko, Busani & Liqhwa Siziba
2024. Family language policy tensions in Ndebele-Shona intermarriages. Social Sciences & Humanities Open 10 ► pp. 101059 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue