Korean Discourse and Identity: Lessons from Heritage Language Research

Abstract

Many studies in heritage language research have demonstrated the strong link between heritage language and ethnic identity (Cho 2000, Phinney et al. 2001, Tse 2000). Studies show that speakers with greater proficiency in a heritage language tend to have a stronger sense of ethnic identity (Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang 2001, Tse, 1997). But other studies report a lack of correlation between ethnic identity and heritage language proficiency (Mah 2005, Smolicz 1992, Jo 2001, Brown 2009), or that higher proficiency is linked instead to bicultural identities (Lee 2002), suggesting that fluency in a heritage language cannot always predict stronger ethnic identity ties. These diverse findings are perhaps not surprising to the social constructionist who views identity as discursively constructed rather than an innate property of a person or group. Research on social interaction has produced insights into how identities may be taken on, rejected, co-opted or challenged (see Bucholtz and Hall 2004). A heritage language, therefore, must entail more than where a speaker grew up or what languages were spoken there. And its relationship to identity must be considered as a complex achievement, one that is displayed (or not displayed) in one’s social interactions and as part of one’s social repertoire .....