ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the perspectives that Korean immigrant mothers with emergent bilinguals face in maintaining their children’s Korean heritage language (KHL), employing a translanguaging approach. Drawing on a large ethnographic study, the chapter highlights the cases of four immigrant mothers. The data analysis reveals that the immigrant mothers’ challenges and ambivalent beliefs on maintaining KHL are intertwined with mainstream school practices that center English monolingualism. The chapter assists educators and researchers in challenging the deficit discourses around immigrant parents’ struggles and efforts to maintain heritage language and seeking ways of acknowledging the language agency of emergent bilinguals. The chapter also provides several insights on how immigrant parents and schools can reconceptualize heritage language use as a fluid language practice to contribute to building an equitable space.
