The Korean proficiency of heritage learners appears different from that of non-heritage learners. It seems that this difference comes from the rich-input language environment where heritage learners are provided with at home. The distinction of language environment will affect on the learners’ verbal competence, especially on their listening competence. This can also explain why heritage learners show their better listening competence than their counterparts do in the class. Therefore we could expect that heritage learners may get the higher scores in the TOPIK test compared to non-heritage learners. One could predict that these two groups will show even greater gap especially in the listening test. However could we identify our expectation to the actual test results of these two groups? If the language proficiency difference was based upon the difference of language environment, the difference of Korean language use could be related to the geographical difference. Would the Korean proficiency of heritage learners in the higher occupancy ratio area of Korean Americans be higher than that in the less densely populated areas. Since the districts of Korean consulate General in LA and New York have more Korean Americans compared to other areas, the heritage learners in these areas are expected to hold the higher Korean language competence. Upon these expectations, we would like to present the two research questions on general heritage learners’ language proficiency and those of heritage learners in the densely populated area of Korean Americans such as New York and LA as below. (1) Do Korean heritage learners and non-heritage learners show distinction in their Korean language proficiency by language skills? (2) Do heritage learners of Korean in LA and New York where Korean Americans are densely populated hold the higher test scores than those in other areas?
1. 서론
2. 연구 방법
3. 연구 결과
4. 논의 및 적용
5. 결론
참고 문헌