Bittersweet English private tutoring: Chinese parents’ and children’s emotions in negotiating family language policies

This qualitative study investigates the emotions of parents and children as they navigate family language policy (FLP) through participation in English private tutoring (EPT) within the context of China, where English education for preschoolers is restricted. Informed by the FLP framework and the notion of emotions about language, the study explores how emotions arise from EPT experiences and further shape FLP. Data were collected over a year through four rounds of interviews, family visits, parent-recorded videos and artefacts, and were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal that EPT triggered parents and children to experience polarised emotions and promoted these emotions to form cycles, with the positive emotional cycle facilitating their co-construction of FLP towards English learning while the negative one hindering it. The study highlights EPT’s dual roles as both a language management strategy and a force in shaping FLP. It offers insights for parents, educators and policymakers in wider regions to recognise the critical role of emotions in early English education and family language policymaking.