Exploring the relationship between electronic literacy and heritage language maintenance

This paper focuses on the electronic literacy practices of two Korean-American heritage language learners who manage Korean weblogs.Online users deliberately alter standard forms of written language and play with symbols, characters, and words to economize typing effort, mimic oral language, or convey qualities of their linguistic identity such as gender, age, and emotional states.However, little is known about the impact of computer-mediated nonstandard language use on heritage learners' linguistic development.Through in-depth case studies of two siblings, the study examines the linguistic and pragmatic practices of these learners online and the perceived effects of non-standard forms of computer-mediated language on their heritage language development and maintenance.The data show that electronic literacy practices provide authentic opportunities to use the language and support the development of a social network of Korean speakers, which results in greater sociopsychological attachment to the Korean language and culture.The informants report that the deviant language forms found in e-texts enable them to engage in online interactions without the pressures of having to spell the words correctly.However, they express frustrations in not being able to distinguish between correct and non-standard forms of the language, which appear to be affecting their offline language use. THE KOREAN CONTEXTThe Republic of Korea has one of the fastest-growing cybercommunities in the world.According to the Korea Network Information Center, over 63% of the entire South Korean population are Internet users, and 95% of individuals in the 6-29 age bracket report using it on a daily basis.Internet sites that enable users to create "personal spaces" to share and document their changing lives and keep connected with people they know are immensely popular among Koreans.A case in point is "Cyworld," an upgraded blog that features chatting, commentaries, pictures, music, a guest book, avatars and links to other homepages prompting users to network with their friends, family, and colleagues.As of August 2005, there are over 11 million Cyworld registered users.Participation in online forums such as Cyworld engages its members in a social process of learning through shared practices, internally constructed membership, and the formation of personal and group identities (Holmes Wenger, 1998).New forms of expression are constantly being negotiated and shared among online users, making it difficult to keep current with the changing face of electronic text.Computer-mediated communication is unique in that, despite its similarities to oral speech, it invites substantial deregulation effects on communication, which can foster the use of creative, non-standard language play (Sproull Herring, 2001;Song, 2002;Sproull Kim, 2005;Park, 1989).Educators across grade levels in Korea are reporting that students display electronic textual features in their school work: they have difficulty with spelling and with the proper word spacing used to delineate word boundaries due to non-standard ways of Internet language use, which flout conventional norms of literacy practices (Ahn, 2000;Choi, 2003;Kim, 2005;Noh, 2000).For young children and Korean as foreign/second language learners who have not fully acquired literacy in the language, exposure to electronic texts may have adverse effects on their language development.However, Meskill, Mossop, and Bates (1999) state that "children in the age of electronic text are developing unique skills and strategies for inventing novel forms of understanding these texts that are quite often independent of formal instructional ('school') literacy training" (p.4), thus, highlighting the positive ways in which the development of electronic texts can benefit students' cognitive flexibility and skills.