The Emotional Work of Heritage Language Maintenance: Insights from a Longitudinal Study of Chinese–Canadian Bilingual Parenting

Abstract

Drawing on data from a three-year longitudinal study of 56 Chinese–Canadian families with early elementary school-aged children, this study explores Chinese immigrant parents’ lived-through emotional experiences of heritage language maintenance (HLM). Informed by Vygotsky’s concept of perezhivanie, thematic analysis of annual interview data reveals the mixed and refracted nature of parental emotions involved in Chinese language preservation and bilingual child-rearing. These emotional experiences were profoundly shaped by the intersection of environmental, personal, and situational factors and were deeply entangled with parents’ perceptions of and attitudes toward their children’s heritage language learning and use at home. The emotional work involved significantly influenced the parents’ language and literacy planning and HLM practices. By foregrounding the emotional dimensions of heritage language education, this study offers important implications for educational stakeholders seeking to support immigrant parents both emotionally and practically in raising bilingual children in the host country.