Taking foreign language beyond the classroom and into everyday life: Non-heritage language learners of Korean in the foreign language context

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2024-05

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When Korean language instruction first emerged in the United States, classrooms were typically dominated by heritage language learners with the presumed motivation to communicate with family members and other native (L1) Korean speakers. More recently, however, the range of language learners of Korean has been diversifying and more non-heritage language learners have been studying the language. As the backgrounds of learners expand, research on different learners’ motivations, learning outcomes, and experiences have followed (Kim, 2021; Nikitina Furuoka, & Kamarudin, 2019; Wang & Pyun, 2021). These studies primarily focus on the role of popular culture, classroom experiences, and academic uses of Korean as an additional language. However, studies have yet to examine how such language learners might use Korean outside of academic contexts after formal study has been completed. Accordingly, this study explores such language use through interviews with participants who continue to use Korean after learning it formally in the classroom. In addition to interviews, this study analyzes participants’ language use in the form of text message data to explore how these learners position themselves in conversations with L1 and second language (L2) Korean speakers in light of their non-heritage status. The findings of this study suggest that when removed from the academic domain of language use, non-heritage users of Korean in foreign language (FL) contexts use Korean in their daily activities and establish and maintain relationships with communities of other L1 and L2 Korean speakers. The findings also suggest that when using Korean, they recognize their position as foreigners to the culture and language, but this identity does not become the source of interactional problems.

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