Advising Parents on Heritage Language Maintenance

Migrant-heritage parents may lack confidence in their skills and knowledge related to bilingual child raising. This qualitative study explores the communicative act of advice giving to caregivers (14 mothers) of young children in New Zealand, following the integrated model of advice giving. Participants had expressed interest in improving their ability to raise their children bilingually (Mandarin Chinese and English) and had solicited advice on their challenges. We provide a set of research-based audiovisuals that advise parents on these challenges, and we later elicit information on parents’ experience implementing the advice through surveys and interviews. We identify and discuss particular difficulties parents experience in providing extensive home language exposure, parents’ growing metalinguistic knowledge, and their awareness of the need to integrate opportunities for enriched parent-child language use during everyday tasks. We discuss the need for advice to be aligned with established family routines, and our adaptations to the advice-giving model.