A Diary Study of Korean Heritage Learners' Motivation

The present study, attuned to issues of learner motivation and identity from a sociocultural perspective, investigate how the complex linguistic, ethnic and social backgrounds of heritage learner were associated with their motivations for learning Korean through interactions with native Korean-speaking conversation partners. This study utilized elements of qualitative analysis for selected diary entries kept by 8 heritage language learners of Korean after they conversed in pairs with their native-speaking conversation partners. A total of 32 diary entries were the Qualitative data source in this study, providing opinions and perceptions important to the heritage language learners. In-depth interpretations of selected diary entries suggest that heritage learners' motivation for Korean language learning was found to greatly depend on their ethnic and linguistic factors. Results indicated that heritage learners had considerable external motivation (e.g., pleasing family members) as well as internal motivation (e.g., identity considerations), which sometimes provoked the high level of anxiety about coping with the academic, personal, social demands of learning Korean. Korean identity motivates heritage learners, so instructors might take that into account in employing (or resisting from deploying) certain cultural themes in instruction.