A generational arc: early literacy practices among Pakistani and Indian heritage language families

This paper focuses on the attitudes towards reading in the home, handed down through the generations and experienced by the young children in four families of Pakistani and Indian origin. The children’s families originally arrived in the UK in the 1960s, and this paper unpicks the stories and attitudinal changes in relation to both English and the heritage language, throughout the generations. Adopting a socio-cultural perspective through intergenerational family interviews, roles within the family in terms of literacy support, the families’ use of libraries, experiences and understanding of the education system, and the impact the heritage language has on family support for reading in English, are explored. Through the dual linguistic lens of both English and the heritage language (Gujarati and Urdu, respectively), the study traces a generational arc which explores areas 2 of concern and needs for support, seeking to inform both policy and practice in early childhood education.