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This article discusses a comparison of the two focal primary school third-grade Korean bilingual students' language use with their previous language use when they were first-graders by examining their heritage language (HL) use at a Korean language school. For children of immigrant families in the U.S., there has been a pervasive hypothesis that their heritage language (HL) might be jeopardized due to their minimum exposure to it and its reduced status in the U.S., which can easily lead them to experience HL shift or loss (Montrul, 2018; Valde´s, 2014). However, the present study shows that the focal third graders who were attending all-English schools during the week did not appear to lose their HL. Instead, the comparison of findings indicated that they had developed a certain degree of oral proficiency in their HL, including vocabulary knowledge, thanks to the parents' involvement and practices towards their children's HL learning as well as other socio-cultural influences on the students' HL language use and development over the years.

This qualitative study employed a discourse analysis methodology to compare Korean bilingual students in first and third grades by examining different functions and forms of translanguaging in Korean heritage language (HL) classrooms in the U.S. By identifying linguistic functions and forms of each translanguaging occurrence, the study presents that the bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices in support of their meaning- and sense-making processes. Overall, six translanguaging functions were commonly identified by the first and third graders, but different forms of translanguaging are presented in each grade in support of the functions. The comparison findings from constant comparative analyzes display that the older graders employed translanguaging in more varied forms and for more various purposes than the younger graders because they recognized when to use which language by regulating a higher level of their cognitive thinking skills. As a result, the third graders' translanguaging performance appears to be more strategic and sophisticated than its use by the younger graders. The findings provide pedagogical and methodological implications for educators in bilingual and HL education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]