Abstract:

This study examines stakeholder perspectives of Korean and Chinese heritage language and community language (HL-CL) schools and education in Phoenix, Arizona. This study compares the similarities and differences between Korean and Chinese HL-CL schools in terms of their histories/origins, resources, and types of populations served. It also investigates and compares the benefits of learning HL-CL, the roles of the schools, the schools' current status in fulfilling these roles, the success factors, the major challenges, and future prospects as viewed by stakeholders (principals, teachers, and parents) in Korean and Chinese HL-CL schools.

To explore these topics, this study builds on Conklin and Lourie's framework of language maintenance and language shift. To conduct the comparative study, surveys were administered among Korean and Chinese teachers and parents from five Korean and five Chinese HL-CL schools in Phoenix. The schools that were founded within two years were excluded in order to make the survey data more reliable. In addition, in an effort to triangulate the survey data and strengthen the study's validity, two Korean and two Chinese community schools were chosen in which in-depth interviews were conducted with Korean and Chinese school administrators, teachers, and parents.

The findings of this study show that both Korean and Chinese stakeholders viewed the HL-CL schools and their education as very important in terms of not only maintaining HL-CL, but also building a positive ethnic identity. The findings also demonstrate that high teacher turnover, teacher shortage, and inadequate facilities were major challenges that the schools face. They also indicate that both ethic groups' stakeholders expressed extremely optimistic views concerning the future prospects of their HL-CL schools. Nevertheless, the findings also reveal differences in each ethnic group's viewpoints concerning the schools and offer explanations of these distinctions as well.

This study is unique and significant because no previous study compares HL-CL schools in the two ethnic groups' community schools. In addition, it deepens the understanding of HL-CL schools and their education in the two communities from the perspective of stakeholders.