Third space of the home: transnational Chinese families' English home literacy and language learning

Chinese speakers are the second largest language minority group in the U.S., and transnational migration redefines their lives in many ways, including families' educational practices. This case study examined the English home literacy and language learning (EHLLL) practices of two transnational Chinese families during their year abroad while working and studying in the U.S. Research methods included observations, interviews, and discourse analysis. Our analysis uses Third Space theory to highlight the significance of participants' culturally hybrid literacy and learning practices. Influenced by their transnationalism, these families' homes - and namely their EHLLL practices - become an educational Third Space. Analysis focuses on three aspects of their EHLLL: (a) a parent-child shared-reading practice valued by this transnational Chinese community, which involved English-language storybooks and 'listen and repeat' (gen du) activity, (b) parents' new roles in children's EHLLL, through which they navigated major differences in Chinese versus American education systems, and (c) parent-child interactions that showed how home was a 'pedagogical safe house' for children facing the challenges of transnational education. This timely study illuminates the distinctive educational goals of transnational families who definitively plan to repatriate. It also provides needed insights into a large and growing, but poorly understood, population - transnational Chinese families.