Key Features:
- First book-length description of the language situations of bilingual Korean-English speaking children
- More generally, portrays children's bilingualism as a dynmic entity which is shaped by many linguistic, social, cultural and educational factors
Summary:
This book sheds light on some of the common myths around being bilingual and explores the processes of dual language development among Korean American children. It sensibly argues that the bilingualism of linguistic minority children is a resource to be cultivated and treasured, not a problem to be overcome.
Review:
This book provides an excellent account of the language situation of Korean immigrant parents and their children in the US, lays out important issues in bilingualism studies and makes recommendations about bilingual education. The book explains comprehensively and accurately the situations controlling the dynamics between second generation Korean-American bilinguals and predominantly monolingual Korean parents.
Soonja Choi, San Diego State University, in Child Language Volume 23/3 - August 2007 This topic is timely and the time is right for a book such as this. It will make a nice addition to the literature.
Professor G. Richard Tucker, Carnegie Mellon University. Shin provides an insightful portrait of Korean American communities in the United States that helps us understand the personal, social, and educational pressures on immigrant families to shift from their home language to English. Her careful empirical study illuminates bilingual development and builds a convincing case for the value of bilingualism for immigrant children and for treating knowledge of a language other than English as an asset for the individual, the community, and our society.
Donna Christian, President, Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC USA
Author Biography:
Sarah J. Shin is Assistant Professor of Education and Co-Director of the M.A. Program in ESOL/Bilingual Education at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where she also teaches in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Ph.D. program. A “1.5 generation” Korean immigrant to the U.S., Dr. Shin's research focuses on various aspects of bilingualism, including bilingual acquisition and socialization, codeswitching, and heritage language education. She also specializes in second language writing, particularly as it relates to the development of writing teachers.
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