Drawn in all directions: Heritage language families’ use of technology

This chapter explores the experiences of parents from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, specifically focusing on their use of digital technology as a means to support the development of the heritage language with their children. Based on both a quantitative and a qualitative study, the chapter explores family tensions linked to emotions as part of heritage language use, and the internal struggle parents face when it comes to their ideological assumptions on use and over-use of technology, versus the motivational pull they know technology has for their children. As well as focusing on data from the study, the chapter critically engages with the literature around digital technology for language learning and explores the special “niche” heritage language families occupy in this context.