Maintenance of Chinese as a Heritage Language in Australia: Factors Influencing Second-generation Early Adolescents’ Heritage Language Maintenance

The project draws on ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) to examine the maintenance of Chinese as a heritage language by early adolescents from Chinese-speaking families in the Australian context. A mixed-methods approach was used to collect data on children, their parents and Chinese teachers, which includes online surveys, semi-structured interviews and self-reflective journals. This study sheds light on the ways in which children maintain their Chinese language and various factors that positively or negatively affect their Chinese language maintenance. The findings highlight the importance of taking a holistic approach that considers various factors at different ecological systems levels to understand better the dynamics of Chinese language maintenance among early adolescents.