Interest in the study of certain Asian languages on the part of many students and parents has resulted in growing numbers of elementary and secondary schools in California beginning to offer these languages (e.g., Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese) as part of their regular foreign language program. According to the California Basic Education Data System (1996), the number of students enrolled in Japanese language classes in public schools has risen from 566 in 1982-83 to 6,451 in the 1995-96 school year (a 1,140% increase). Although not as dramatic, enrollment in Chinese classes has increased from 1,085 to 3,859 students (355.7%) and from 245 to 874 students (356.7%) in Korean classes during the same time period. The increase is most notable in high school foreign language classes and in the first and second years of Japanese language instruction.
There are two possible explanations for the increased interest in Asian language study. The first has to do with the prominence of Asian countries in the economic and political sphere of influence in the world (Walker, 1991). Such prominence possibly influences some students to want to learn an Asian language if they have an interest in international business or travel (Jorden & Lambert, 1991). The second explanation is that a growing number of Asian American students see learning an Asian language as more meaningful than studying an Indo-European language.
Because motivation plays an important role in achieving proficiency in second language learning (Baker, 1992; Gardner, 1985), we examined student motivation for studying Asian languages in order to investigate the question of increasing enrollment in Asian language classes. Although not much research has been done to examine students' attitudes and motivation to learn Asian languages, in particular, several studies provide clues to this critical component of second language learning. Samimy and Tabuse (1992) and Yagi (1991) found that students in Japanese language classes showed higher integrative motivation to learn the language than students studying European languages. Moreover, students in Japanese classes expressed very favorable attitudes toward foreign language learning and showed higher instrumental motivation than students in European language classes. In addition, Samimy and Tabuse determined that students with greater motivation to learn Japanese also received higher final grades.
Information concerning parental involvement in their children's foreign language study was also a central part of our investigation. It is commonly noted that for young learners, parents' involvement in and attitudes toward language learning are two important factors in second language development (Gardner, 1985). For example, Kim (1992) conducted a study of students' attitudes toward learning Korean as a heritage language and discovered that parental attitudes were important contributing factors. Choy (1993) reported that parental involvement in an elementary Japanese bilingual program was critical in the children's acquisition of Japanese. According to Moore, Walton, and Lambert (1992), in a questionnaire survey of appropriately 2,000 students enrolled in high school Chinese language classes, nearly one fourth of the respondents indicated that parental interest was one reason that they enrolled. However, only 6.1% of the high school students stated that "parental interest" was the primary reason for their language study. In another survey of high school students enrolled in Japanese language classes, Jorden and Lambert (1991) reported that students were motivated not by parental pressure, but by interests in foreign language in general and in the opportunities that knowing Japanese might make available to them.
The present study1 reports data obtained from students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade in nine schools, in which at least one of the following languages was taught: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The focus of the study was students' motivations for learning these Asian languages as foreign languages in school, as well as parents' attitudes toward foreign language learning and involvement in their child's language study. In addition, we sought to uncover the role that gender and ethnic heritage language study played in students' motivations for enrolling in Asian language classes.
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