Do you consider yourself a domestic or heritage language learner?

I: Uh, my question, my first question to you is, um, given the differences or how heritage and domestic language learners are defined, what do you consider yourself? And I can, uh, redefine them as you need me to. S: Yeah. U::m, kind of both, because I am half Korean, um, so I was exposed to it early on, but then, ‘cause I did live in Korea when I was younger, um, but when I moved back to the States, um, I forgot all my English, so I had to quickly learn that. My mom didn’t speak Korean to us because we were forced, my sister and I were forced to learn it for school. Um, so we kind of, you know, forgot it. Um, but then my grandparents moved over, so it’s kind of borderline. ((laughing)) I: So is, uh, your dad is, is Korean? S: My mom is Korean. I: Your mom’s Korean. S: My mom’s Korean, my dad’s American. I: And your, and your dad’s American. S: Yes. I: Ok. And so you were born here. S: Mm-hm. I: And how long did you live in Korea when you were (little)? S: Two years. I: Two years. And then moved back to the States. S: Mm-hm. I: And, and now you have your Korean grandparents also living here? S: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. I: So do you, have you always been surrounded by both languages? S: Yeah, pretty much, yeah. Yeah.

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Reflections – All five of these students engage with Korean culture and language outside of the classroom. This real-life interaction seems to act as a motivation to their language learning. What out-of-class resources are you aware or have you taken advantage of that provide opportunities for your students to use the language in more naturalistic settings? What have been your students’ reactions to these resources or experiences? Have you been able to link these out of class experiences with your required curriculum? In your experience as a language learner and/or language teacher, what role has informal language learning played in language development?

Lindsey and Eric are both domestic students who were adopted from Korea. Lindsey describes studying Korean as a way of getting back to her roots. Eric speculates that his affinity for spicy food and pronunciation skills may be due to his Korean heritage. Do you think that domestic learners who are adopted from countries where the language they are learning is spoken have a motivational advantage over domestic students who begin the study of the language with no such ties? Why or why not? Would you predict that these students identify themselves as domestic or heritage language learners? Is it necessary to know the backgrounds of your students in order to be an effective language teacher? How important is it to understand how they identify themselves?

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