Negotiating family language policy: Emotional experiences and playful language input in heritage language learning

Abstract Heritage language (HL) learning is often facilitated by consistent exposure to the HL in family language policy (FLP). However, when children develop a preference for the majority language, family members may negotiate their use of both languages to establish a stronger emotional bond with their children while providing rich HL input. This article presents a case study of a Czech–English‐speaking family in the Midwestern United States, focusing on the parents’ sporadic use of their HL during mainly English interactions with their 5‐ and 8‐year‐old children. Drawing on Vygotsky's concept of perezhivanie as the theoretical framework and considering emotions as cultural and discursive constructs, this article uses discourse analytic methods to examine emotions in the participants’ routine social interactions. The findings suggest that even though the parents’ use of English combined with sporadic HL input may seem counterproductive for the children's HL learning, it may still contribute to their HL development when the HL is used in child‐centric and playful ways. This study has pedagogical implications for understanding the value of playful HL input in promoting HL learning. Additionally, it proposes theoretical advancements in the study of emotions in second language acquisition (SLA) by demonstrating how Vygotsky's notion of perezhivanie can be utilized to investigate the role of emotions in second language learning.