Student Opinions of a High School Korean Class: “Silver Linings” in Mixed

Heritage/Non-Heritage Language Classes

Claire Chik (University of California, Los Angeles)

Dedicated HL/L2 Courses“To place heritage speakers together with students of Russian as a FL is to fail the needs of the former and to intimidate the latter (Kagan & Dillon, 2003, p. 6).”

HL find the pace too slow, become bored, and do not progress (Kagan and Dillon, 2003, p. 3).

Non-HL are intimidated by HL students’ proficiency (Mazzacco, 1996, p. 3; Valdés, 1995, p. 299).

In Practice…

Budgetary & enrollment considerations – two distinct populations are placed within the same class (e.g., Bowles, 2011; Potowski, 2002; Van Deusen-Scholl, 2003).

In LA County schools, for instance:

California Dept of Education(2012-2013)

Language First/Second Year Advanced For Native Speakers

Korean 27 schools/64 classes

10 schools/19 classes 1 school/2 classes

Chinese 62 schools/199 classes

34 schools/66 classes 2 schools/5 classes

Japanese 29 schools/101 classes

17 schools/35 classes 0

Spanish 427 schools/3,539 classes

198 schools/745 classes

205 schools/1,260 classes

This Study Korean 1 Korean 2 Korean 4/5

Total # of students

23 21 24

HL students 19 13 22

Non-HL students

4 8 2

Because of this reality

There is “an emerging area of research that indicates that the key to providing effective instruction in mixed contexts lies in offering activities that are responsive to the needs of both types of learners (Carreira, 2013, p. 8).”

Student VoicesPino & Pino (2000): surveys; HL & non-HL studentsWhile there were some misgivings, the majority of students “seemed to be fairly well satisfied and little interested in separate classes” (p.5).

Potowski (2002): surveys & focus group interviews; HL students & TAsMore negative HL student reactions concerning corrective feedback & expectations of what they should know in terms of grammar; TAs untrained

This Small Pilot Study

High school setting in LA CountySurveys and one-on-one interviews with teacher and students:

Korean 1 Korean 2 Korean 4/5

Survey Interv Survey Interv Survey Interv

HL students

14 (19) 2 8

(13) 1 17(22) 6

Non-HL students

3(4) 0 7

(8) 0 2(2) 2

4 Areas

1. Learning Environment

2. Pedagogical Appropriateness

3. Study Relations

4. Social Relationships

1. Learning Environment

I like having beginners in Korean/students who speak Korean at home in the class.

HL/Non-HL

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Disagree

3 18 15 2

3 4 4 1

Do you like having home speakers of Korean in the class?

Zack (Non-HL, Korean 4/5)Yeah….All the students in the class are friendly and they help each other.

Margot (Non-HL, Korean 4/5)

Yeah, I do. Like it motivates you, I guess, like to be better. Cause at first it’s kind of intimidating like, but then I guess I’m not there for them and they’re not there for me, so I don’t think they care, like they’re not going to laugh at you if you’re bad or anything, like, and a lot of times they help ya like if you don’t know how to say something, or like don’t understand what people are saying they’ll like translate…They’re real helpful…It’s nice.

Do you think there should be separate classes for speakers/non-speakers of Korean at home?

Harriet (HL, Korean 4/5)

I don’t thinks so because I believe if you separate them I don’t think they’ll learn as much…my level and their level would be of course different but then if you separate them then it might just be easy, like it just won’t be challenging…they won’t learn as much as we’re learning.

HL Linguistic InsecurityCarreira (2001) “…the fragile linguistic self-esteem of heritage language speakers” (p. 127).

Allan (HL, Korean 4/5)I’m not good at reading…my friends would make fun of me, ‘Oh my gosh, Zack (non-HL student) is faster than you!’ …and even my teacher would laugh when I read.

But also:They do it in a nice way…it’s like family…and I guess I feel comfortable with them and no one is kinda a bully or anything.

2. Pedagogical Appropriateness

The teacher said she “makes an environment” that takes differences into account.

Used “same content different task” or “reciprocal teaching,” a technique for managing group work; e.g. with a reading passage, different students are assigned different tasks so all students are challenged and none intimidated. Mostly has groups that are mixed ability.

Assessment:Anyone who does the work and studies

hard can earn an A or B

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Disagree

25 12 1

10 2

HL/Non-HL

Teacher BackgroundMs. Shin was trained:

• Credentialed teacher in single subject – teaching Korean

• MA in App Ling

Ted (Korean 1)The teacher’s wonderful!

3. Study Relations

I can learn from students who speak the language at home.

Non-HL

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Disagree

5 5 2

Zack (non-HL, Korean 4/5)Interviewer: Do you like having home speakers of the language in class?Zack: Yeah. It makes it more easy.Interviewer: Easy? Zack: Kinda, cause they help. So it makes it not more easy but like less strenuous…cause the teacher can’t like be with you all the time. So if you sit next to people who can help you all the time, then even if you’re just writing or reading and they like tell you right, you’re still like getting used to how it sounds.

HL StudentsTed (Korean 1)If they [non-HL students] need help with like vocabulary or anything or if they’re writing a script for a play or something then I’d just go and help them out. Like they usually ask questions on like “Oh what’s this word?”

Lynne (Korean 4/5) In some ways it makes me feel proud because, wow, someone’s actually asked me who’s not that good.

HL StudentsAlona (Korean 4/5)I was actually very flattered when she [Margot, non-HL] asked me, so I really liked helping her and if I didn’t know anything then I’d like ask my mom or like Charlotte (HL) or Pam (HL).”

Caroline (Korean 2)It was okay helping them [non-HL students] with the easy parts – the harder parts I had to ask Ms. Shin.

4. Social Relationships

I have made friends with some of the students who speak/don’t speak the language at home.

HL/Non-HL

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Disagree

13 21 4

7 5

HL Students

Harriet (HL; Korean 4/5)I made new friends. Like Zack (non-HL) like I didn’t know him and like became friends with him.”

Janice (HL; Korean 4/5) (describing a video project that had to be completed out of class) They all [her group members] came over here [her house] and we had fun. And with Margot (non-HL) using her lovely Korean.

HL Students

Ted (Korean 1)Having non-HL students in the class is “a good chance to interact with the people cause I mean many of the people who don’t speak Korean they kind of they’re either older or they just don’t hang out with us so umm it’s a good time to like make friendships and stuff.”

Non-HL StudentsMargot (Korean 4/5)Apart from Alona (HL), her best friend, also met with “Elaine (HL) and Janice (HL) and Catherine (HL) a couple times.” At Alona’s house: “Alona’s mom helps me sometimes…She’ll help me translate things.” When she visits her Korean friends they and their families “talk slower around me so I can like try to like understand.” Her boyfriend is also Korean.

Beyond the Classroom

For many students, Korean became more than an academic subject – it influenced activities and interactions outside of the classroom. The mixed HL/non-HL format provided systematic, sustained contexts and opportunities for cross-cultural interactions.

Lee (1996)

“My data suggest that Academic High was racially factionalized…there was little in the way of interracial socializing. Students spoke to each other in classes, but interracial friendships were the exception” (p. 111).

Mixed HL/non-HL – cut across this tendency, creating interracial friendships that extended into the after-school hours & into the community.

Conclusion/Caveats/Future Research

• Mixed classes ideal? • Could HL students advance faster in dedicated HL

classes?• With proper training, mixed classes can work; • Students don’t know any other teaching situation;• This is a very small study – need more classes,

more students, and more extensive ethnographic study;

• Need more fine-grained analysis of HL/Non HL ratios of students.

ReferencesBowles, M. (2011). Exploring the role of modality: L2-Heritage learner interactions in the Spanish language classroom. Heritage Language Journal 8(1), 30-65.Carreira, M. (2007). Teaching Spanish to native Speakers in mixed ability language classrooms. In K. Potowski & R. Cameron (Eds.), Spanish in contact: Policy, social and linguistic inquiries (pp. 61-80). Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Carreira, M. (2013). Advanced proficiency: A practitioner’s perspective on this special issue. Heritage Language Journal, 10(2), 1-14.Carreira, M. (2014). Basic principles for teaching mixed classes. Retrieved from http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/files/guide.carreira.2013.doc Kagan, Olga and Dillon, K. (2003). A New Perspective on Teaching Russian: Focus on the Heritage Learner. Heritage Language Journal, 1(1). Lee, S. (1996). Unraveling the “model minority” stereotype: Listening to Asian American youth. New York, NY: Teachars College Press.Mazzacco, E. 1996. The Heritage versus the Non-heritage Language Learner: The Five College Self-Instructional Language Programs Solutions to the Problem of Separation or Unification.” ADFL Bulletin, 28(1), Fall 1996, 20-23. Pino, B., & Pino, F. (2000). Serving the heritage speaker across a five-year program. ADFL Bulletin, 32(1). Potowski, K. (2002). Experiences of Spanish heritage speakers in university foreign language courses and implications for teacher training. ADFL Bulletin, 33(3).