Korean mothers’ attitudes towards their dual heritage children’s maintenance of heritage languages in New Zealand

Abstract

Abstract This study investigates family language policy (FLP) in three dual heritage and interlingual families in New Zealand. It focuses on the language use of three Korean migrant mothers and their attitudes towards their children’s multilingualism and heritage languages (HLs). Each family’s FLP took a “one person, one language” approach, with the mothers consistently using Korean but occasionally switching to English. All three mothers in this case study showed positive attitudes towards their children maintaining their HLs, and used various strategies to encourage their children’s exposure to the HLs. However, each of the mothers conceptualized the positions of the children’s HLs somewhat differently, which influenced language socialization at home. Moreover, despite their strong commitment to bilingual or multilingual parenting, the mothers had low expectations for their children’s HL proficiency, reflecting the minority status of HLs in the wider society.