Home literacy and heritage school experiences among Chinese immigrant families

This study documents the home literacy and heritage school experiences of Chinese immigrant families in the United States. The study adopts a sociocultural perspective to explain home literacy practices of three immigrant families. A qualitative case study research method provided detailed information of the heritage literacy experiences of these three families. Data was collected and analyzed through interviews, classroom observations, home visits, field notes and student's writing samples. The results of this study revealed three aspects: 1) the nature of the families' literacy environment; 2) home literacy experiences and 3) parent-child interaction during literacy activities. Findings from my interviews and classroom observations illustrated that cultural understanding and reproduction, identity and sense of community were the major reasons for the immigrant families to attend the heritage school. Findings suggest that in order to help the immigrant children obtain and maintain their heritage language the parents should communicate in Chinese as much as possible and should try to encourage family activities which include the use of Chinese. Also, children should have consistent exposure and should practice Chinese every single day. Furthermore, participating in social events and community gathering provided a support structure for children to feel confident in their language proficiency and provided them with social arenas in which it is socially acceptable and preferred to speak Chinese. By consistently exposing children to social activities that show them the advantages of being able to communicate in Chinese, they will be more likely to be motivated to speak and learn their heritage language.