Identity and Voluntary Language Maintenance Efforts: A Case of Bilingual Korean-American University Students in Hawai‘i

Abstract

Summary Reporting on the experiences of four bilingual Korean-American university students enrolled in Korean language classes in Hawai‘i, this case study focuses on their identity development and voluntary efforts to achieve heritage language (HL) competence. According to the participants’ narratives, they all experienced regression in their HL abilities and language shift from Korean to English after entering school. However, they began to regain HL skills as adolescents, which was possible due both to their voluntary engagement with HL literacy and speaking practices and to the abundance of opportunities to learn and speak the HL in the home and community. Transnational connections with their heritage nation, including Korean media and visits to Korea, were key in motivating and facilitating their voluntary HL learning. Their narratives further show that the HL played an important role in the participants’ ability to construct a strong sense of ethnic identity, and that they tended to view themselves as part of two distinct cultures. They were connected to the norms and values of both the receiving country’s culture and the culture of their heritage nation. As second-generation immigrant children, they learned to utilize their bilingual and bicultural knowledge to navigate between the two cultures in a flexible manner, to construct situated identities, and to avoid conflicts and achieve collective identity, solidarity, and group membership. The study’s insights into the role of voluntary effort in HL learning and identity development have implications for HL education.