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Korean Language Studies: Motivation and Attrition

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Korean Language Studies: Motivation and Attrition Korean Language Studies: Motivation and Attrition Julie Damron Brigham Young University Justin Forsyth University of British Columbia Abstract The purposes of this study were to determine attrition rates of students learning Korean in university courses, their motivations to study the target language, why many drop out, and what educators can do to address and decrease high rates of attrition. A survey was administered to 129 students enrolled in lower-level (101–202) Korean language classes during the years 2005–2010 at a large, private university in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Self-identifying heritage students comprised 45.7% of those who completed the survey. Surveys were administered to students via email and returned in the same manner; as such, they represent a response and convenience sample. Five of the 12 survey questions utilized a 5-point Likert scale. The overall attrition rate from class to class during this time period was 85%. Students identified that the most motivating factors in their decision to take Korean were “It’s an important language,” “Future career benefits,” and “I have Korean heritage.” More students desired to learn only basic words and phrases than any one other proficiency category. The most common reason for quitting Korean was that it didn’t fit students’ schedules. Likewise, students indicated that had a following course been offered at a different time or if a language lab offering tutoring were made available, they might have been influenced to continue taking Korean. Surveys also addressed language-learning anxiety. Based on the results gathered, this study makes suggestions for improving Korean language instruction in order to reduce student attrition. 162 Damron & Forsyth Introduction Korean is one of many Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs) in America, distinguishing it from Spanish, French, and German. Since the start of the Korean War and the related diaspora of Koreans to the United States and elsewhere, it has become more common for major universities to offer Korean classes to their students. However, Korean is difficult for most native English speakers to learn—perhaps more so than Germanic or Romance languages. This is due in part to a very different sentence structure and a non-cognate vocabulary base. The United States’ Defense Language Institute, for example, puts Korean in the Category IV language class with Arabic and Chinese; at the Institute, 64 weeks of instruction are expected to bring a native English speaker to limited working proficiency in these languages, compared to the 26 weeks required for the same proficiency in Spanish, French, Portuguese, or Italian.1 The difficulty of Korean versus other languages is clearly evident as the attrition rate for Korean language classes is very high, even among the over 80% of students who are heritage language learners in Korean programs throughout the United States (You, 2001, as cited by Lee and Han, 2007, p. 35). For example, between the years of 2005 and 2010 at Brigham Young University, language attrition in the first four semesters of the Korean language course was 85% compared to attrition rates in languages such as Spanish, French and German, that range from about 12% to about 24% depending on the university and the source. In order to better understand these trends, this study sets out to determine the attrition rates of students learning Korean in university courses, their motivations to study the target language, why many drop out, and what educators can do to address and minimize relatively high rates of attrition. 1 Campbell, C. (Associate Provost) (2010, January 29). Defense Language Institute overview. Language proficiency: Common questions, common goals. Lecture conducted from Flagship Zero to Two Project and the Texas Language Center, Austin. Korean Language Studies 163 Literature Review Initial Motivations for Enrolling There are many reasons why students decide to enroll in language courses. These motivating factors often include the following2 (in no particular order): 1. To connect with their heritage 2. To communicate with family members (grandparents, etc.) or a significant other 3. To fulfill general education or graduation requirements 4. To satisfy an interest (inspired by pop culture, the media, other academic disciplines, etc.) in the language of choice 5. To follow the suggestion of a friend or acquaintance 6. To learn a language for the sake of language study itself 7. To enhance future career opportunities 8. To prepare for future study and academic work (e.g., comparative literature, history, linguistics, or Asian studies) 9. Because the language seems important and/or to obtain communication skills in that language 10. To enhance “one’s own personal culture though the study of the literature and philosophy of another people” and/or “to increase one’s understanding and appreciation of another culture” (Zelson 1973, p. 79) Certainly, students will experience and express various motivating factors for enrolling in language study courses, and these students will each be motivated by different factors. A current trend in second-language research is to study heritage language learners (HLLs)3 and non-heritage language learners (non-HLLs) separately because their experiences and motivations before entering the classroom (as well as in the classroom) are 2 This list is derived from professional literature, including Zelson (1973), as well as the authors’ thoughts and experiences teaching and learning Korean. 3 According to Valdés (2000), an HLL is a “student of the language raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken, who speaks or merely understands the heritage language, and who is to some degree bilingual in English and the heritage language” (p. 375). 164 Damron & Forsyth different. Reynolds et al. (2009) suggested that heritage is “a widespread motivator for choice of language study” (p. 107). Certainly this is true in Korean language courses across the United States, where, as was mentioned, over 80% of students are HLLs (You, 2001, as cited by Lee and Han, 2007, p. 35). Of the participants in our survey, however, only 45.7% indicated having at least one Korean parent. Many studies have addressed the experiences of Korean HLLs in the language classroom (Jo, 2001; Kim, 2006; Kim, 2001; Kim, 2002; Lee & Kim, 2008; Yang, 2003, to name a few). Korean HLLs enter “the heritage language classroom with high levels of integrational (i.e., to communicate with family and friends) motivation” (p. 122) and cultural connectedness (Damron & Forsyth, 2010; Reynolds et al., 2009). Non-HLLs experience lower levels of cultural connectivity and integrational motivation (and alternatively, higher levels of instrumental motivation, which refers to motivations such as career benefits) (Kim, 2006; Yang, 2003; Kim, 2002). While this comparison provides valid insight into the experiences of students in the second-language classroom, the primary purpose of the present study does not seek to address distinctions between these two types of learners. Reasons for Dropping Out Horwitz (1988) boldly states, “large scale attrition in foreign language programs is a well-known phenomenon” (p. 292). Just as students enroll in second-language classes for a variety of reasons, a combination of factors likely contributes to many students dropping out -85% of students in the case of Korean in the present study. These reasons include the following (in no particular order): 1. Anxiety or stress related to language learning 2. Loss of interest in the target language or more interest in the art, culture, and/or history of countries where the language is spoken than in the language itself4 3. Satisfaction with what has already been learned and a corresponding lack of desire to learn more 4. Graduation from the university or program 4 Aida (1994) listed interest in other aspects of the country besides language as a possible cause for student attrition (p. 165). Korean Language Studies 165 5. Choice of an alternative way to complete general education or graduation requirements 6. Perception of the course or the language as too difficult or too easy 7. Dissatisfaction with what was being learned compared to what students expected or hoped to learn5 8. Lack of confidence in the target language ability (uncomfortable moving up to the next class) 9. Friend or significant other who spoke the target language no longer available 10. Coursework was too time consuming or the next level of the course didn't fit into the student's schedule 11. Incompatibility with the teacher 12. Unavailability of resources for extra help, such as a learning lab offering tutoring 13. Dislike for classroom environment or learning activities One of the factors that likely contributes to a student’s decision to drop out is language-learning based anxiety. Bailey (2003) found that “students who dropped out of their foreign language classes tended to report statistically significant higher levels of anxiety”; their data “suggest moderate to large relationships between components of foreign language anxiety and student attrition” (Cohen, 1988, p. 189). As cited by Aida (1994, p. 156), Horwitz et al. (1991) noted three types of anxiety in the second-language classroom: (1) communication apprehension, (2) test anxiety, and (3) fear of negative feedback. However, Aida cited another study (Macintyre and Gardner, 1989) that found that the second of these, test anxiety, was “a general anxiety problem; it was not significant to foreign language learning” (p. 162). Identifying the real sources of student anxiety that contribute to attrition help the educator address the specific concerns of the anxious language-learner. In a study of students in the Japanese language classroom, Saito and Samimy (1996) found anxiety to be a more significant 5 For example, see Horwitz (1998), p. 291 for a discussion of attrition resulting from discrepancies in expected and actual proficiency and effort expended. 166 Damron & Forsyth factor in intermediate and advanced courses than it was in beginning courses.
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