The role of university in a Korean heritage language student’s identity development

Abstract Drawing on autobiographical narratives of a second-generation Korean heritage language (HL) student who grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, this study examines the role of university study in HL students’ identity development. In her narratives, the participant describes feeling inferior about her Korean HL and culture as a child but finding that university offered space for the (re)construction and positive reinforcement of her HL and cultural identities over time. The university provided her with a multicultural community, and HL and other identity- and heritage-culture-related courses, which enabled her both to (re)construct her sense of self and to critically examine the challenges she faced in a White European-dominated society. The findings shed light on second-generation immigrant-background students’ HL and related identity development processes, and the importance of creating bilingual and bicultural educational spaces in tertiary education for their ongoing identity development.