Dissertation
Family language policy and the bilingual language practices of Korean-English transnational families
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2021
DOI: 10.17077/etd.006081
Abstract
Though bilingual populations in the U.S. have increased in recent years, the number of non-Spanish foreign language programs at the elementary and middle levels has dropped significantly. Because it is a less common second language in the U.S., Korean language education is severely limited even in major urban areas. This disparity is especially critical for Korean-speaking families who wish to maintain their native language (L1), particularly since language shift and loss generally occur when non-native English-speaking children are exposed to a different dominant language like English at school. With this background in mind, the current dissertation study is centered upon two main purposes. Grounded in a sociocultural perspective, I examined how sociocultural and educational backgrounds affect how Korean-English bilingual transnational parents construct language ideologies, shape their family language policy (FLP), and develop their language maintenance strategies. Also, in accordance with a sociolinguistic approach, I examined family dynamics in relation to language ideologies through verbal interaction. Each parent and child who participated in this study took an agentive role by making corrections through code-switching and negotiated cultural values by making indexical meanings through code-switching.
The study was conducted among seven transnational Korean-English bilingual families in a Midwestern city in the U.S. Each family had at least one child who was enrolled in grades K-6, with the understanding that most Korean communities lack access to Korean as a second language in the public-school curriculum. I collected interview data from the parents and children as well as family conversation data from each family unit. For data analysis, I divided the families into three FLP groups: a Korean-dominant group, a bilingual group, and an English-dominant group. I applied theme-based data analysis and conversation data analysis for each data type.
This study deepens our understanding of how parents’ diverse educational and cultural backgrounds contribute critically to their language ideologies and, by extension, their family language policy. Each family also employed various FLPs based on their social circumstances while negotiating, contesting, or sharing their prioritized languages and their associated cultural values in the process of developing their language ideology.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Family language policy and the bilingual language practices of Korean-English transnational families
- Creators
- Kye Gon Lee
- Contributors
- Pamela M. Wesely (Advisor)Carol Severino (Committee Member)Dae S. Hong (Committee Member)David C. Johnson (Committee Member)Leslie A. Locke (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Teaching and Learning
- Date degree season
- Spring 2021
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.006081
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- xiii, 241 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2021 Kye Gon Lee
- Language
- English
- Description illustrations
- illustrations
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-227).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
This study examines how Korean immigrant families make language choices (in English and Korean) and how these decisions impact children’s language practices. The specific focus is to understand how parents’ backgrounds shape their language decisions for their children. Depending on how positively family members viewed their cultural experiences, families in this study made different decisions in their particular social and cultural spheres and employed different strategies for maintaining their bilingualism. Overall, this study shows how not just parents but also children co-construct their language decisions within their family by embracing their linguistic, cultural, and social backgrounds. This study also emphasizes that family language decisions and their language strategies contribute to their children’s bilingual development and maintain cultural values by using both languages.
- Academic Unit
- Teaching and Learning
- Record Identifier
- 9984097367702771
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