Abstract:
Using a questionnaire self-filled by their parents, the present study examined the language performances and parental attitudes of 52 typically developed Korean-English bilingual children living in Auckland, New Zealand. The study investigated parental ratings of their children’s language performance and the factors that could impact this. In addition the study considered how the parents of those Korean-English bilingual children viewed the maintenance of their heritage language, and how such perceptions could influence their children’s language performance. The results showed that in general the children who participated in this study performed better in Korean than English. However, such performances were strongly correlated to a number of factors, of which the most influential were age, members of core family and language exposure. Increased exposure in one language increased the child’s performance in that language, and amount of language exposure was strongly correlated with the child’s age and the ethnicity of their fathers. Increased age and having a Kiwi father increased the children’s exposure to English, but decreased their exposure to Korean, which in turn affected their performance in the two languages respectively. The results also indicated that the participating parents attached high importance to their children learning to speak Korean. Despite their limited knowledge about raising bilingual children, they showed high willingness to learn and participate. Parents who had high expectations engaged more during their children’s Korean learning process hence the child had more exposure in Korean. However, the results also showed that exogamous families had lower expectations which resulted in their children’s decreased performance in Korean. The findings in this study suggest Korean parents value their heritage language and want it to be acquired by their children. Such positive attitudes motivated their engagement in their children’s Korean learning process, which in turn helped their children to successfully acquire and maintain their heritage language.
