Heritage background, motivation, and reading ability of upper-level postsecondary students of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean

Abstract

In upper-level university foreign language (FL) courses, FL and heritage language (HL) students are often merged into the same classroom in a single-track system. This study investigates whether HL background is a critical factor that may prevent instructors from teaching reading effectively in single-track upper-level university courses. This issue was explored based on reading ability self-ratings and motivation data collected from 123 FL and HL upper-level postsecondary students of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The study suggests that HL background per se does not seem to be a critical factor that differentiates the reading ability self-ratings and motivation profiles of such FL and HL students. Overall, students in both groups are strongly motivated to read or at least strongly interested in reading in the target language because of its extrinsic values (knowledge-based and instrumental values). For both groups of students, those who give themselves higher self-ratings seem to be more intrinsically involved in reading in that language. The study concludes by discussing pedagogical implications and making suggestions for future research.

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