Unearthing Iranian mothers' mediation strategies during their children's home digital literacy practices in English

• Published in: Interactive learning environments 2024-04, Vol.32 (4), p.1518-1532
• Main Author: Soyoof, Ali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Children; Context; Cultural differences; Cultural factors; Digital literacy; Digital media; digital technologies; English as a second language instruction; English Instruction; English language; home contexts; Interviews; Iranian mothers; Language; Learning; Learning environment; Literacy; Mediation; Mediation strategies; Mothers; Native language acquisition; Parents; Parents & parenting; Political factors; Second language learning; Semi Structured Interviews; Sociocultural theory
• ISSN: 1049-4820; 1744-5191
• DOI: 10.1080/10494820.2022.2121732

Research has shown that the home digital literacy practices of children are shaped based on their parents' mediation strategies. While there is extensive literature on parental mediation strategies for children's digital media use as well as first language learning, this line of inquiry is not extensively explored in the context of second language learning. Driven by these points, in this study, I have used demographic profiles, semi-structured interviews, and video-recordings to discover the mediation strategies used by Iranian mothers based on sociocultural theory. Drawing on thematic analysis and deductive-inductive coding, I found that there were porous boundaries between the types of mediation strategies that were used by Iranian mothers to control or support the home digital literacy practices of their children. These differences and similarities were caused by the social, historical, cultural, economic, and political factors in the context of Iran. The findings of this study have extended the knowledge about how parents control or support their children's second language learning (L2) through digital technologies in the home context. These findings can provide worthwhile insights to English Language Teaching (ELT) stakeholders in the context of Iran, particularly how to establish a nexus between children's second language learning in the home and classroom context.