A longitudinal study: Focal students' bilingual language use over time and the sociocultural influences on HL development
Characteristics of the two focal students
Out of four 3rd-graders who participated in this study, Toni and Julie were identified as focal students. Both Toni and Julie were former participants as Ist-graders in the pilot study that was conducted in the Ist-grade classroom at the same Korean HL school in Spring 2014.
Toni, the second-generation, male 3rd-grader
Toni was born in the U.S. and considered himself to be English proficient. Toni’s parents had lived in the U.S. for 14 years as permanent residents. During school breaks, the family visited Korea on an annual basis and stayed there for about a month each year. Toni’s mother believed that Toni was able to improve his Korean communicative skills while staying in Korea for a month every year because he had opportunities to meet and talk with his relatives and other Koreans.
Julie, the second-generation, female 3rd-grader
Julie was also born in the U.S. and considered herself to be English proficient. Julie’s parents had lived in the U.S. for 9 years. Julie’s parents were obtaining their Ph.D. degrees and planned to get jobs in the U.S. Similar to Toni’s family, Julie’s family visited Korea on an annual basis during school breaks. Julie’s mother stated that visiting Korea provided Julie with a good opportunity to improve her Korean communicative skills and learn about her heritage culture.
Comparison of two focal students' oral language use between 1st and 3rd grade
Table 6.1 compares Toni and Julie’s language use during classroom interactions when they were 1st- and 3rd-graders. The table displays how often Toni and Julie used Korean, English, and translanguaging when they spoke in both grades.
Table 6.1 Comparison of Toni and Julie’s oral language use between 1st and 3rd grade
|
Only Korean |
Only English |
Word-Level Trans languagi Hg1' (English Words in Korean Speech) |
Word-Level Tra ns languaging1’ (Korean Words in English Speech) |
Frequency ofTLat Sentence-Level (Korean to English and vice versa) |
|
|
1st grade (Spring 2014) |
Toni 36 (12%) |
122 (41%) |
138 (46%) |
4 (1%) |
91 times |
|
Julie 41 (13%) |
98 (32%) |
163 (53%) |
6 (2%) |
87 times |
|
|
3rd grade (Spring 2016) |
Toni 182(51%) |
32 (9%) |
138 (38%) |
8 (2%) |
30 times |
|
Julie 196(49%) |
38 (8%) |
170 (41%) |
9 (2%) |
26 times |
Notes
“ Intrasentential switching within a single utterance when the students inserted English words as they spoke in Korean. ° Intrasentential switching within a single utterance when the students inserted Korean words as they spoke in English. c Intersentential switching between the utterances (Korean to English and vice versa).
A longitudinal study 143
