Parental perceptions and the development of the AI-integrated digital home literacy environment among English as a foreign language learners

With the widespread use of technology in children's home learning, the home literacy environment (HLE) has been gradually digitalized, and the digital home literacy environment (DHLE) is put forward based on the HLE framework. However, the components and developmental dynamics of DHLE remain underexplored. Guided by the theory of planned behavior, this qualitative study investigated the components of the DHLE for English as a foreign language learners and how it is informed by parents’ perceptions. Data were collected from eight families through semi-structured interviews with both fathers and mothers of children aged 5–6 years, and hybrid thematic analysis was employed. Findings showed that the DHLE comprised digital and artificial intelligence (AI) devices and related resources, digital and AI-assisted language learning activities, and parental mediation strategies. Parents’ attitudes toward digital and AI-assisted learning, subjective norms including cultural values and societal influence, and perceived behavioral control, including parents’ time and resource constraints, digital and AI literacy, and English proficiency, jointly informed their intentions to support children's digital English learning, thereby influencing DHLE. The study extends the theoretical understanding of HLE by introducing a digital facet. It highlights the importance of parental mediation in children's language learning with digital technologies and contributes to the research on AI-supported education by exploring its application in home language learning environments, an area that has received limited attention. The study has implications for practice and policy in digital early childhood education.