Study abroad, heritage language learning, and identity: a study of a mixed-heritage learner of Korean

ABSTRACT

This narrative study focuses on how Gina, a Korean learner with a Korean immigrant mother and a European-descent New Zealander father, constructed her identities and engaged with Korean as a heritage language (HL) before, during, and after studying abroad in Korea. Gina’s transformative experiences illustrate the links between HL learning and learners’ understanding of themselves in racial/ethnic/cultural terms. The study highlights raciolinguistic ideologies’ complex influence on the HL development and identity (re)construction of learners who consider themselves to have multiple racial/ethnic/cultural heritages. Although Gina’s HL learner identity hampered her classroom education during study abroad, her family background provided her opportunities outside the classroom that strengthened her sense of belonging and encouraged her (re)construction of her identities. The study provides practical implications for study-abroad program developers and educators concerning the raciolinguistic ideologies that HL learners who identify as having multiple heritages might bring to their HL learning and participation in study-abroad programs. Being aware of raciolinguistic ideologies, preparing students for how their own and others’ ideologies might impact their experiences during study abroad, and providing the means for multiheritage HL learners to share their experiences could all contribute positively to these learners’ continued identity (re)construction, HL development, and study-abroad experiences.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Laurie Durand and Alec Redvers-Hill for their editorial assistance. All remaining errors are our own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The term HL here broadly refers to “nonsocietal and nonmajority languages spoken by groups often known as linguistic minorities” (e.g., Koreans in New Zealand; Valdés, 2005, p. 411).

2. We use the terms “mixed heritage” and “multiheritage” to refer to having more than one racial, ethnic, cultural, or linguistic heritage or identification.

3. “European” is frequently used in New Zealand to describe White/Caucasian people, and Gina used “European (New Zealander)” to refer to her father, her grandparents, her cousins, and mainstream New Zealanders, rather than the terms “White” or “Caucasian.” She sometimes used “White” when discussing herself.

4. The program is designed to provide an immersion environment for foreigners and overseas Koreans with a high school diploma. It offers four hours of language instruction five days a week, covering the four language skills but emphasizing speaking, and includes field trips and cultural activities (e.g., trip to Nami Island, concerts, kimchi making, temple stay) in order to enhance learners’ understanding of Korea and Korean culture.

5. New Zealand is a predominantly White, monolingual, English-speaking country: 70.2% of the population identify as European, 95.4% speak English, and 77.4% can only speak one language; meanwhile, 15.1% identify as Asian, 0.75% (approximately 35,664 people) identify as Korean, and 0.66% state that they can discuss everyday things in Korean (Statistics New Zealand, 2018).