Parents’ planning, children’s agency and heritage language education: Re-storying the language experiences of three Chinese immigrant families in Australia

Abstract

This study delves into the heritage language experiences of Australian-born Chinese immigrant children under the framework of family language policy. Storytelling as a narrative inquiry method is used to reveal the lived experiences of the protagonists in relation to heritage language and culture. The three family stories involved for case studies reveal different levels of parent agency in Chinese immigrant families regarding their children’s home language use and heritage language education. It is noted that the level of child agency corresponds with the level of their parent agency. Where parents strongly advocate and practice heritage language maintenance, stronger agency is observed in their children to continue the use and learning of their heritage language. In addition, maintaining harmony while parents are implementing family language policies and providing children with formal instruction in heritage language are conducive to heritage language development, particularly in terms of its literacy.

Parental emotionality and power relations in heritage language maintenance: experiences of Chinese and African immigrant families in Australia

“…The tripartite model of FLP (Spolsky, 2012 ), which comprises language ideology, language practice, and language management, largely frames existing scholarship on heritage/minority language maintenance, parent–child interactions of immigrant families, and child bilingual development (Wang, 2017 ; Curdt-Christiansen, 2018 ; Shen and Jiang, 2023 ). Language practice refers to what families actually do with language, i.e., what choice they make from their linguistic repertoire; and language management is conceptualized as specific efforts or strategies they make to implement their language practice (King et al, 2008 ; Shen and Jiang, 2023 ). Underlying the two components is language ideology, the driving force of language policy regarding families' decisions and planning for the use of languages (Curdt-Christiansen, 2018 ; Shen and Jiang, 2023 ).…”

“…Language practice refers to what families actually do with language, i.e., what choice they make from their linguistic repertoire; and language management is conceptualized as specific efforts or strategies they make to implement their language practice (King et al, 2008 ; Shen and Jiang, 2023 ). Underlying the two components is language ideology, the driving force of language policy regarding families' decisions and planning for the use of languages (Curdt-Christiansen, 2018 ; Shen and Jiang, 2023 ). Immigrant families, regardless of their ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, conventionally relate the rationale of heritage language maintenance to ideological beliefs of language as the symbol of identities, as the tie of families, and as the vehicle for economic empowerment (Borland, 2006 ; Et-Bozkurt and Yagmur, 2022 ; Romanowski, 2022 ).…”

“…What strategies the families adopt and what actions they take largely determine whether heritage languages can be maintained or developed in the younger generation. In the case study of three Chinese children and their families in Australia, the confidence and competence of Leo's (one subject child) heritage Chinese was associated with the high level of parental agency in language management, such as providing books in Chinese classic literature, reading and discussing the characters with the child, and watching television in Mandarin Chinese (Shen and Jiang, 2023 ). As a result, FLP provides the critical domain (Spolsky, 2012 ) or the cornerstone (Et-Bozkurt and Yagmur, 2022 ) of the success of intergenerational language transmission.…”

“…The umbrella term “Chinese” consists of seven major varieties or dialects: Mandarin (the northern), Yue (includes Cantonese), Wu (includes Shanghainese), Kejia [Hakka], Min [Hokkien], Xiang, and Gan, and many of the dialects are mutually unintelligible (Taylor and Taylor, 2014 ). Despite the varieties of Chinese languages, only one writing system (Chinese characters) is used in China, and Mandarin is the corresponding spoken form of this written standard (Shen and Jiang, 2023 ). As the official language of the Chinese government and the medium of instruction in schools, Mandarin has taken precedence over all other varieties and enjoys a unique position of prestige in China (Shen and Jiang, 2023 ).…”

“…Despite the varieties of Chinese languages, only one writing system (Chinese characters) is used in China, and Mandarin is the corresponding spoken form of this written standard (Shen and Jiang, 2023 ). As the official language of the Chinese government and the medium of instruction in schools, Mandarin has taken precedence over all other varieties and enjoys a unique position of prestige in China (Shen and Jiang, 2023 ). Accompanied by the rise of China's economic and political clout in global affairs, Mandarin has replaced Cantonese to become the new lingua franca in the broader Chinese diaspora, such as in the UK (Curdt-Christiansen and Huang, 2021 ), Singapore (Tupas, 2015 ), Ireland (Liu, 2022 ), and Australia (Wang, 2020 ).…”