More Than Words: Chinese Immigrant Parents’ Heritage Language Strategies Amid Identity and Change

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Identity, Culture and Sustaining Language

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how Chinese immigrant parents in the U.S. value and enact heritage language maintenance (HLM) amid evolving sociopolitical conditions. Drawing on interviews with participants from diverse backgrounds, the study employs Family Language Policy and language ideology as guiding frameworks. Findings reveal that parents’ efforts are shaped by cultural confidence, racialized experiences, and China’s rising global visibility. Simultaneously, they engage in diverse practices enabled by digital tools and transnational mobility, such as participating in online classes, forming peer networks, and traveling to China. By linking parental values with everyday strategies, this study illustrates how heritage language maintenance is a dynamic, context-sensitive process shaped by sociopolitical forces and the evolving conditions of immigrant parenting in a globalized world.

Author

• Yige Zou, University of Washington