Bilingualism, Biliteracy, and Academic Self-Efficacy Among Adolescent Korean Heritage Language Learner

This study focused on Korean-American adolescents enrolled in heritage language schools and considered how their language practices relate to their academic self-efficacy. A mixed methods design was employed, utilizing 30 self-reports of speaking, reading, writing, listening, and vocabulary competence in both the English and Korean languages. Descriptive and inferential statistics of the gathered data were analyzed to capture an understanding of the sample under study. Among those that completed the surveys, eight volunteers participated in semi-structured interviews in order to capture a more in-depth perspective of their bilingual environments, heritage language development, and academic experiences. Following the student interviews, three teachers of the heritage language schools were interviewed in order to obtain additional views regarding the evolution of students' Korean proficiency and further insight into students' language development experience, as well as the challenges of supporting heritage language development for learners. Findings suggest that while attendance at heritage language schools may provide opportunities for students to experience positive interactions with co-ethnic peers and function as a support system, attendance itself is not sufficient for extensive heritage language maintenance or development. Almost all of the students displayed higher self-ratings in English proficiency compared to Korean proficiency. While areas of English mastery, vocabulary in particular, were found to have a strong relationship with academic self-efficacy, this was not the case for Korean. Indeed, interviews with both the teacher and student participants revealed that the students did not have sufficient opportunities to foster their Korean language learning; Korean was utilized in compartmentalized areas of their lives. The weak Korean skills of the participants overall may explain why Korean proficiency did not appear to correlate with greater academic self-efficacy levels. These findings not only bring to light the current state of the language practices among the Korean-American diaspora and confirm the state of rapid language shift, but also raise important questions regarding the support of heritage language development and suggest future implications for schools, family, community, and research.