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Heritage language (HL) education has gained attention in recent years, although little is known about the students who enrol in such programmes. This study examines one group of adults attempting to develop their HL proficiency in order to discover their motivation for studying the language and the challenges they encounter. Twenty‐four Korean‐American students enrolled in beginning to advanced levels of Korean in one heritage language programme were surveyed. The results indicated that the respondents have both family‐ and career‐related reasons for developing their HL, including the desire to improve communication with parents and relatives, to develop closer association with the Korean‐American community, and to expand career options. These adults also reported a number of obstacles to achieving higher levels of HL proficiency, including low levels of language confidence and unrealistic expectations of other HL speakers. The results are discussed and implications are presented for heritage language education.
Cho et al. (Wed,) studied this question.