Negotiating family language policy online: affordances of WhatsApp among digital families

Increasing global economic inequality, conflicts, and climate change have accelerated population migration, often resulting in the disruption of traditional family configurations. However, the proliferation of digital communication platforms has helped foster a sense of family by creating more communication opportunities for geographically dispersed families. Because of their extensive reliance on digital communication, they have come to be known as ‘digital families’. Deploying the concepts of digital family, family language policy, and the notion of affordances, this study examines the perspectives of purposively selected South African-based parents of children living in Zimbabwe on how they leverage the digital affordances of WhatsApp to participate in their children’s language socialisation. Data are drawn from qualitative semi-structured interviews with 10 parents in digital families. Findings reveal that parents’ language ideologies shape their language practices in parent–child online interactions. While parents find the affordances of WhatsApp calling useful for fostering a sense of presence and explicit language correction, children’s non-conformity with parents’ home language-centred practices casts WhatsApp as a site of family language policy contestation and negotiation. This study contributes to literature on family language policy within a Global South context.