No family Is an Island

Exploring Two Chinese-American Families’ Heritage Language Maintenance

Bibliographic Data

ID21147992
AuthorsHuizhen Wu (0000-0001-5858-1969, Tongji University), X Y Yang (Tongji University, corresponding author), Xiaohu Yang (0000-0001-5465-7946, Tongji University)
Year2026
Publication date2026-07-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Bilingualism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1367-0069 • E-ISSN: 1756-6878
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/13670069261454882
OpenAlexW7167373720
LanguageEN
References cited48

Aims and objectives: This qualitative research investigates the evolution of Heritage Language Maintenance (HLM) investment in Chinese-American families, exploring how learner commitment evolves from early childhood into young adulthood, and how it is shaped by affordances and constraints across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. Methodology: This study adopts a retrospective, life-course perspective to examine the HLM trajectories across critical developmental stages: early childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Data and analysis: Data were triangulated from semi-structured interviews with two Chinese-American parental couples and their three adult children (ages 18, 23, and 28), recorded family conversations, and cultural artifacts. It employs a directed content analysis approach, deductively coding the data against the constructs of Darvin and Norton’s Model of Investment within an ecological framework spanning micro- (family), meso- (institutional), and macro-levels (societal). Findings and conclusions: Results indicate that parental investment remains ideologically stable but practically unsustainable. Children’s investment follows nonlinear, context-activated paths. While micro-level family involvement creates an early foundation, learners’ trajectories diverge significantly during adolescence, and move to autonomous “ideal self” or permanent disengagement in young adulthood. Successful outcomes are often triggered by strategic repositioning of the HL as symbolic capital in young adulthood, whereas divestment results from systemic constraints at the meso- and macro-levels. Originality: This research provides a quasi-longitudinal perspective on HLM by prioritizing the retrospective reflections of adult learners alongside parental accounts. Its significance lies in tracing the nonlinear evolution of investment across two decades, offering a multi-level ecological analysis of how learner agency is negotiated within the shifting tensions of micro-, meso-, and macro-systems from childhood into autonomous adulthood. Significance/implications: The study advocates for a model of cross-level ecological synergy. Practically, it calls for integrating HL into formal secondary curricula and adopting project-based pedagogies to align learners’ “ideal selves” with institutional support

Affordance · Agency (philosophy) · Disengagement theory · Heritage language · Ideology · Investment (military) · Perspective (graphical) · Qualitative research · Situated · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Parental Involvement in Education