Understanding Heritage Language Bilingualism: Comparison of Korean Students' Translanguaging Performance in Primary and Intermediate Grades

• In Event: Translanguaging Research

Abstract

This qualitative study utilized a discourse analysis methodology to compare Korean bilingual children in primary and early intermediate grades through the examination of their translanguaging to explore different incidence and functions of translanguaging between the two grades in Korean heritage language classrooms. Analyzing the students’ translanguaging practices show that there are differences between the two groups in the frequency and functions of their translanguaging. The findings display that the older graders engaged in less translanguaging but employed translanguaging for more varied purposes than the younger graders, resulting in distinct functions of translanguaging between the two graders. Although the students might have been “at different points of a bilingual continuum” (Cummins, 2019, p.22), they all presented heteroglossic paths to becoming bilingual.

Author

• Chaehyun Lee, Southeastern Oklahoma State University