Parental motivations and heritage language schooling: A study of Japanese and Marathi parents

This qualitative comparative case study investigates the links between parental motivations and young (aged 4–12) heritage language learners’ heritage language school attendance. The study aimed to understand parental motivations, drawing on the instrumental and integrative motivation framework. The study addresses two research questions: 1) Why do parents send their children to heritage language schools? 2) How best can we explain parental motivations in heritage language school participation? An analysis of semi-structured interviews with 15 Marathi and 15 Japanese parents revealed that both groups prefer heritage language schooling for their young children. Findings indicate that rather than instrumental motivation, it is Marathi and Japanese parents’ strong integrative-affective motivations that contribute to children’s heritage language schooling. This research suggests that parental motivation can more effectively be explained in terms of a continuum between instrumental and integrativeaffective motivation instead of a mutually exclusive binary state. The study underlines the importance of parental motivations in the case of young learners’ access to heritage language schools and provides empirical evidence on parents’ role in heritage language schooling.