A Zoom Classroom Is Helping Australian Children Keep Their Heritage Language—and Their Cultural Identity
For young children growing up in English-speaking Australia, learning a family language can involve far more than memorizing vocabulary or tracing unfamiliar letters. It can be a way of preserving family history, strengthening ties across generations and building a sense of belonging. A new qualitative study of Farsi-speaking families suggests that online heritage-language classes can support all three goals—but only when parents and educators carefully share responsibility for the child’s learning. The research, published in the Early Childhood Education Journal, found that parents acted as translators, literacy coaches, emotional supporters and cultural guides during Zoom lessons, while children simultaneously sought increasing independence. The result was a delicate balance between adult help and child autonomy, mediated by an educator whose authority and cultural responsiveness helped make the virtual classroom feel meaningful.
The study by Somayeh Ba Akhlagh and Joshua Matthews focused on seven parents living in Australia whose children participated in a six-session online Farsi program. Six of the parents were mothers and one was a father. Most of the children were between five and seven years old, with one aged ten. The families differed in migration histories, household languages and length of residence in Australia. Some spoke almost exclusively Farsi at home, while others navigated multilingual environments involving English, Turkish or Japanese. Their children had varied levels of spoken and written Farsi, reflecting a common challenge for heritage-language learners: they may understand a family language but have limited opportunities to read, write or use it confidently outside the home.
Each lesson lasted approximately 50 minutes and was delivered through Zoom by an experienced Farsi-speaking educator, who was also the study’s lead author. The sessions introduced and reviewed letters from the Farsi alphabet and linked them to vocabulary, pronunciation, reading and writing exercises. Children were asked to pronounce words containing target letters, trace them, write them with support and read short texts incorporating new vocabulary. Shared presentation slides, digital whiteboards and Farsi children’s songs were used to add visual, auditory and interactive elements. Parents supplied paper and pens, helped with technology and remained available when children struggled. Importantly, however, the researchers did not analyse recordings of the lessons themselves. Their findings came from confidential, semi-structured interviews conducted after the program, in which parents described what they had done during lessons and how the experience had affected family language practices.
The interviews revealed that parents’ physical presence could either unlock participation or undermine it. Some children concentrated better when a parent sat beside them, offering reassurance and quietly redirecting attention. One parent described staying close to point out letters and bring her child back to the task; another said her daughter enjoyed the class partly because her mother was next to her. For other families, proximity generated arguments or resistance. One parent reported that her son listened more seriously when she was absent, while another said her daughter insisted that the lesson was “my class” and asked her mother to move away from the screen. These contrasting experiences illustrate a central principle in early learning: scaffolding works best when it supports a child’s next step without taking control of the activity. Parents had to judge, moment by moment, whether intervention would help the child persist or make the child feel monitored.
Parents also provided direct linguistic and literacy support. They explained unfamiliar words, clarified the facilitator’s instructions and helped children read and write. Some held a child’s hand or wrote a model for the child to trace; others reminded children to use Farsi rather than English during a Farsi lesson. In technical terms, these actions functioned as forms of contingent scaffolding: an adult temporarily supplies assistance when a learner encounters a problem, then ideally reduces that support as competence develops. In a virtual classroom, this process becomes especially important because the educator cannot physically point to a child’s paper, adjust a pencil grip or immediately interpret a confused expression. The parent becomes an intermediary between the digital lesson and the child’s physical learning environment. Yet the same arrangement can encourage dependence if assistance becomes continuous rather than gradually withdrawn.
Motivation was another major part of the parents’ work. Online lessons place young children in front of a screen, often at home among toys, siblings and other distractions. Parents described using songs, playful routines, praise, promises and small rewards to keep children engaged. One parent said that singing Persian or Tajik songs helped her child learn faster. Another offered the prospect of a gift if her child listened carefully. Families also photographed completed work and sent it to the facilitator, turning private effort into a visible achievement. These strategies did not replace teaching; instead, they supplied the emotional and behavioural conditions needed for teaching to occur. For young learners, motivation is often relational rather than purely academic. A familiar song, an encouraging adult or a predictable routine can make an unfamiliar literacy task feel safe enough to attempt.
The parents’ accounts also showed that Farsi learning extended well beyond the scheduled Zoom sessions. Families used stories, conversations, songs and word games to make the language part of ordinary life. Some described Farsi as a private or “secret” language shared between parent and child, while others connected letters to family names or used language activities to discuss Persian history and literature. These practices are significant because heritage-language maintenance depends on repeated, meaningful use, not simply exposure to formal instruction. A child who encounters Farsi only during a weekly class may learn isolated words, but a child who hears it in jokes, family rituals and stories can associate the language with intimacy and belonging. The study therefore presents heritage language as both a communication system and a cultural resource—one that carries memories, values and intergenerational identity.
Parents regarded the facilitator as a distinct source of authority, often more effective than parental instructions in making the lesson feel serious. Several said children responded more readily when the teacher addressed them directly. This difference may reflect the way children distinguish between domestic and institutional roles: a parent is associated with everyday care and negotiation, whereas a teacher signals a structured learning environment. The educator strengthened that distinction through challenges, reward cards, interactive writing tools and direct encouragement. One parent noted that her child eagerly joined challenges when asked who could read a letter. Another said that writing on a shared digital notepad, where everyone could see the result, was particularly motivating. Such tools transform an otherwise private screen activity into a social event involving recognition, competition and shared attention.
At the same time, parents valued the facilitator’s flexibility and responsiveness. They described sending questions about homework, asking for clarification and suggesting changes to session arrangements. Some felt encouraged when their feedback influenced the program. Communication through WhatsApp extended the partnership beyond the Zoom classroom, allowing families to exchange resources, discuss children’s progress and request help between sessions. Parents suggested that separate orientation meetings without children could create space to compare experiences and learn from one another. These findings challenge the idea that online education is simply a broadcast from teacher to student. For the families in this study, the program operated more like a distributed learning network, with the educator, parents, children and peer families each contributing different forms of knowledge and support.
The researchers caution that online access alone does not guarantee equity. Digital learning can reduce geographical barriers for families who live far from heritage-language schools, particularly when the language community is relatively small or dispersed. It can connect children with peers who share their background and counter feelings of embarrassment or isolation in predominantly English-speaking settings. But participation still depends on reliable internet, suitable devices, a quiet space and parents who have time and confidence to help. The small sample—seven parents connected to one Farsi program—and the reliance on retrospective self-report mean the findings cannot be generalized to every heritage-language community. Future studies will need to include children’s perspectives, observe sessions, examine work samples and compare different languages, ages and hybrid teaching models. Even with those limitations, the study offers a vivid account of how language preservation is enacted at home: through carefully calibrated help, playful persistence, responsive teaching and everyday acts of cultural connection.
