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7 - Bilingualism in Korean-American Children and Maternal Perceptions of Education

from Part II - Bilingualism, Literacy Ecologies, and Parental Engagement among Immigrant Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2019

Elizabeth Ijalba
Affiliation:
Queens College, City University of New York
Patricia Velasco
Affiliation:
Queens College, City University of New York
Catherine J. Crowley
Affiliation:
Teachers College, Columbia University
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Summary

This chapter explores the parenting styles, teaching practices, and academic expectations of Korean mothers with their children. Five Korean mother–child dyads were recruited. The authors gathered empirical evidence from observations and analysis of social-language mother–child interactions during play, aiming to identify direct teaching and child-focused behaviors. The children’s language assessment included receptive vocabulary and analysis of language samples. Results revealed that Korean immigrant mothers favored a direct teaching style during focused interactions with their children. The Korean-American children’s receptive vocabulary scores fell within the normal range on standardized testing normed on monolingual English-speaking children. Language differences among the Korean-American children were evident in narrative discourse, where two children with language delays had reduced sentence length. Interviews with the mothers and ethnographic observations revealed active planning for bilingualism. All mothers exclusively used Korean at home and sent their children to early childhood settings where Korean was spoken. English was introduced in preschool at the age of 4. Observations of the home environment revealed the strong emphasis that mothers placed on early literacy, which was primarily conducted in their home language. All mothers shared concerns about school integration and dual-language acquisition as their children transitioned to school.
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Chapter
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Language, Culture, and Education
Challenges of Diversity in the United States
, pp. 124 - 138
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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