Studying issues of heritage language (HL) maintenance is gaining more significance than ever as our lives become significantly more complex and dynamic because of frequent migration and the transnational diasporas that such migration creates in its wake. HL maintenance is important in multicultural environments because familial relationships depend heavily on successful communication among family members. Viewing HL maintenance as a social practice, this exploratory qualitative study attempts to understand how participants are involved in their children’s HL maintenance by investigating, comparing, and contrasting the participants’ attitudes and practices. This study recruited eight Korean immigrant families with different lengths of residence in Greater Vancouver, an area that has seen a steady growth in the numbers of Korean immigrants. Combining social practice theory and qualitative research, this study uses discourse analysis to explore the participants’ language ideologies and beliefs about HL maintenance. This study also explored actual parental involvement in their children’s HL acquisition and maintenance. Furthermore, this study examined participants’ technology use as a means of HL acquisition and maintenance. In particular, the participants’ online conversations were examined to explore language use. This study supports the view that the parental role is important, even paramount, in children’s HL maintenance, but goes beyond this to show how technology can play a positive role in HL acquisition and maintenance. There are three central findings. First, a match between parental attitudes and behaviours concerning HL acquisition and maintenance and contributes to their children’s HL maintenance. Second, a mismatch or inconsistency between parental attitudes and behaviours correlates with children’s HL attrition or loss. Third, language revitalization can occur through HL and cultural practices in various online activities such as synchronous and asynchronous online communication, including access to Korean websites and playing games in Korean. To conclude, examining HL maintenance as a social practice offers new insights into the complexity and dynamics of the social practices of HL maintenance in the lives of Korean immigrants in Canada.

Studying issues of heritage language (HL) maintenance is gaining more significance than ever as our lives become significantly more complex and dynamic because of frequent migration and the transnational diasporas that such migration creates in its wake. HL maintenance is important in multicultural environments because familial relationships depend heavily on successful communication among family members. Viewing HL maintenance as a social practice, this exploratory qualitative study attempts to understand how participants are involved in their children’s HL maintenance by investigating, comparing, and contrasting the participants’ attitudes and practices. This study recruited eight Korean immigrant families with different lengths of residence in Greater Vancouver, an area that has seen a steady growth in the numbers of Korean immigrants. Combining social practice theory and qualitative research, this study uses discourse analysis to explore the participants’ language ideologies and beliefs about HL maintenance. This study also explored actual parental involvement in their children’s HL acquisition and maintenance. Furthermore, this study examined participants’ technology use as a means of HL acquisition and maintenance. In particular, the participants’ online conversations were examined to explore language use. This study supports the view that the parental role is important, even paramount, in children’s HL maintenance, but goes beyond this to show how technology can play a positive role in HL acquisition and maintenance. There are three central findings. First, a match between parental attitudes and behaviours concerning HL acquisition and maintenance and contributes to their children’s HL maintenance. Second, a mismatch or inconsistency between parental attitudes and behaviours correlates with children’s HL attrition or loss. Third, language revitalization can occur through HL and cultural practices in various online activities such as synchronous and asynchronous online communication, including access to Korean websites and playing games in Korean. To conclude, examining HL maintenance as a social practice offers new insights into the complexity and dynamics of the social practices of HL maintenance in the lives of Korean immigrants in Canada.

Studying issues of heritage language (HL) maintenance is gaining more significance than ever as our lives become significantly more complex and dynamic because of frequent migration and the transnational diasporas that such migration creates in its wake. HL maintenance is important in multicultural environments because familial relationships depend heavily on successful communication among family members. Viewing HL maintenance as a social practice, this exploratory qualitative study attempts to understand how participants are involved in their children’s HL maintenance by investigating, comparing, and contrasting the participants’ attitudes and practices. This study recruited eight Korean immigrant families with different lengths of residence in Greater Vancouver, an area that has seen a steady growth in the numbers of Korean immigrants. Combining social practice theory and qualitative research, this study uses discourse analysis to explore the participants’ language ideologies and beliefs about HL maintenance. This study also explored actual parental involvement in their children’s HL acquisition and maintenance. Furthermore, this study examined participants’ technology use as a means of HL acquisition and maintenance. In particular, the participants’ online conversations were examined to explore language use. This study supports the view that the parental role is important, even paramount, in children’s HL maintenance, but goes beyond this to show how technology can play a positive role in HL acquisition and maintenance. There are three central findings. First, a match between parental attitudes and behaviours concerning HL acquisition and maintenance and contributes to their children’s HL maintenance. Second, a mismatch or inconsistency between parental attitudes and behaviours correlates with children’s HL attrition or loss. Third, language revitalization can occur through HL and cultural practices in various online activities such as synchronous and asynchronous online communication, including access to Korean websites and playing games in Korean. To conclude, examining HL maintenance as a social practice offers new insights into the complexity and dynamics of the social practices of HL maintenance in the lives of Korean immigrants in Canada. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines how Japanese language schools in the Greater Vancouver area function in the diversification of their pupils’ backgrounds. The schools provide curricula which mainly consist of practices of Japanese language and cultural learning. Applying the content analysis of qualitative data derived from interviews with the school principals, the thesis investigates what emphasis the schools put on their educational policies and practices of the curricula. The maintenance of the learners’ heritage language and culture have been argued as a primary function of heritage language schools such as the Japanese language schools. However, currently most of the Japanese language schools accept Japanese as a heritage language (JHL) learners who are not limited to those children of whom both parents are of Japanese descent and whose first language is Japanese. In addition, the schools accept learners who wish to learn Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) as well. The complexity of the learners’ backgrounds indicate that the schools’ function cannot be explained only as the heritage language/culture maintenance of those who are Japanese descent. The results of this study reveal that the school principals greatly consider the importance of nurturing pupils’ intercultural competence (Byram & Zarate, 1997; Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). In the current situation of the Japanese language schools, pupils naturally gain intercultural experiences inside and outside the classrooms. The schools’ intercultural perspective enables us to reframe heritage language education to that which is connected to learners’ development of accepting cultural differences. / Graduate / 0282 / mayok@uvic.ca

American-born Korean-Americans show one of the highest rates of heritage language attrition among immigrant groups in the United States. This literature review aims to identify factors that influence Korean heritage learners' motivation to maintain or disengage from heritage language learning, particularly focusing on language learning settings, learning opportunities, and learners' experiences and perceptions about the language and learning. First, it reviews research that informs about the current status of Korean mainly as a heritage language in American K-16 schools where learner motivation and language learning are positioned. The second section explores the circumstances of Korean language use and exposure taking place in the Korean community setting. The third section explores the ways in which heritage language maintenance is influenced by Korean heritage learners' diverse experiences in association with the perceived language vitality, ethnic and linguistic identity formation, and individual differences in learning goals and backgrounds. On the basis of the literature review, the last section discusses the argument that the systemic relations of the K-16 education community, the Korean community, and individual learners are critical in understanding Korean heritage learners' involvement in language learning and development. Finally, this Report concludes with recommendations for the enhancement of learning opportunities and motivation for Korean learners and with suggestions for future research in the nascent field of Korean education and research in the United States. / text

abstract: This qualitative study follows an instructor and four Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) learners in an elementary-level, mixed Spanish course at a community college over the course of 11 class visits. In studying how language ideologies shape oral corrective feedback (oral CF) practices, data were collected through ethnographic observations (field notes, researcher memos), classroom audio recordings, and semi-structured interviews (student, teacher). Specifically, this study analyzes (1) language ideologies prevalent in the classroom context in relation to the conceptualization of errors, (2) the instructor’s goals for oral CF, (3) how the instructor provides oral CF and in what contexts, and (4) how the mixed class environment relates to oral CF. To do so, the data were analyzed via a bifocal approach in coding interview and classroom discourse (Razfar, 2003) and engaging in Critical Discourse Analysis (van Dijk, 2016) informed by frameworks in Linguistic Anthropology (Irvine, 1989; Kroskrity, 2004, 2010; Leeman, 2012) and Second Language Acquisition (Ellis, 2009; Li, 2017; Lyster & Ranta, 1997). The findings demonstrate how oral CF becomes ideologically charged in a classroom context primarily designed to impart foreign language instruction. Under the guise that SHL learners’ varieties represent negative characteristics (e.g., low socioeconomic strata, Mexicaness, immigration), oral CF is used to eradicate their Spanish varieties. Findings also illustrate the (in)congruency of the instructor and learners’ perceptions of oral CF and what takes place in the classroom. In some cases, SHL learners demonstrated language pride and resisted the imposition of a foreign variety but reported hegemonic beliefs about their own varieties. Exemplifying how the instructor and SHL learners contribute to the complex dynamics of ideologization of oral CF, this study advocates for the adoption of Critical Language Awareness frameworks (Martínez, 2003; Leeman, 2005) in mixed language classrooms that encompasses this practice (e.g., focus-on-form instruction). Additionally, in acknowledging that teachers and educational institutions play a key role in the (re)production of dominant language norms, this study calls for the creation of instructional guidelines for oral CF as a pedagogical practice. Such guidelines must include critical discussions with students about the relationship between “correct,” “correcting,” and “being corrected” and asymmetrical power relationships. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2019

Instructional quality is essential for student learning. Pedagogical Content Knowledge, which is considered the interim between knowledge and pedagogy has been found to have a positive impact on instructional quality and subsequently student achievement. Studies in Pedagogical Content Knowledge have been mainly targeted on mathematics and science, leaving the language education domain underrepresented. From a comparative perspective, this study investigated Greek heritage language teachers ́ Pedagogical Content Knowledge, taking into consideration their teaching experience. Data collected by interviews, undertaken by nine participants, showed that teachers employ their Pedagogical Content Knowledge mostly by adapting the material, instruction, and assessment to the individual needs of the students. The analysis also suggested differences between more and less experienced teachers. More experienced teachers were found to be more comfortable and autonomous in the classroom, while less experienced teachers mentioned feeling insecure and fearing unexpected situations. More experienced teachers also established more advanced Pedagogical Content Knowledge, because of their ability to connect the new information with previous knowledge of the students as well as using personalized assessment for students. The data also showed that heritage language teachers in Sweden face many challenges in their teaching, with heterogeneity in language proficiency being the most persistent. The implications suggested in this study aim to improve heritage language learning and developing a supportive system for teachers and students in order to avoid the language shift that is present threatens the vitality of heritage languages.

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Migration flows have created various educational needs worldwide. One such is HeritageLanguage Education as people claim their right to connect with their cultural, traditional,religious and linguistic background while they reside abroad. Ethnic communities haveestablished settings in which they aim to sustain their ethnolinguistic capital. The presentthesis explores how heritage language teachers perceive their role in two HeritageLanguage Community Schools, in Athens and in Stockholm. Based on a qualitativedesign, the research focuses on sociolinguistic phenomena such as language use andmaintenance, and ethnic identity creation. Data were collected in Athens and Stockholmthrough semi-structured interviews with nine teachers. The analysis of findings revealsself-perceptions of teacher role that include cultural and linguistic connotations. Teacherscontribute to language use and maintenance and to some extend to ethnic identityformation. Teacher practices and experiences strive not only for linguistic developmentbut for group’s ethnolinguistic vitality as well. The study concludes that there is a needfor further research on teachers of Heritage Language Education since the topic has notgotten the attention it deserves.

Heritage Language Education is considered the cornerstone of Canada’s multiculturalism policy. In Ontario, the mission to preserve the cultural capital of the various ethnic communities is carried out primarily by non-profit organizations and groups with limited official support. My thesis is the autobiographical inquiry of an internationally educated teacher who is involved in a Greek language credit program in Toronto. My commitment to understanding the needs of the new generation of learners guided me through a series of professional development initiatives and the creation of an educational blog which is currently used by students, parents and teachers of the Aristoteles Credit School. By presenting my experiences as I navigated the multidimensionality of HLE in Ontario, I hope to offer a case of a bottom-up reform attempt which is based on transformative pedagogy and brings heritage language education to the epicentre of community activity and educational change in the 21st century.