Exploring Korean dual language immersion programs in the United States: parents’ reasons for enrolling their children

This study explores parents’ reasons for enrolling their children in a Korean dual language immersion (KDLI) program. The research focuses on parents’ reasons for choosing a school and a KDLI program, respectively, to examine whether a KDLI offering significantly affects parents’ decision to enroll their children in a specific school and to investigate which factors parents tend to prioritize when selecting a KDLI program over other language immersion programs. Given the various contexts in which individual KDLI programs operate, this study also compares different parent groups characterized by Korean ethnicity and school characteristics in terms of their responses. The study surveys more than 450 parents of students enrolled in 7 elementary-level KDLI programs in southern California to determine the extent to which parents’ reasons vary across different groups and examine whether group differences exist between Korean and non-Korean parents as well as between parents whose children attend high socioeconomic and low socioeconomic status schools. The study discusses the findings by comparing the results to prior literature and identifies implications for KDLI and DLI programs in general.