Blurring the binaries of home/school in Family Language Policy: Parents as teachers in heritage language lessons.

This article examines Family Language Policy (FLP) through the lens of heritage language lessons in a Ndebele-speaking family in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, during COVID-19 lockdowns. It explores how parents, assuming temporary teacher roles, attempt to reinforce a pro-Ndebele FLP amid the minoritisation of Ndebele and the dominance of English and Shona in Zimbabwe's sociolinguistic landscape. Drawing on linguistic ethnography, the study reveals that while parents express strong language loyalty and strive for monolingual Ndebele use, children frequently negotiate this policy by code-switching to English, reflecting the influence of school language ideologies that valorise English as the legitimate language. The findings highlight the family as a contested space where language ideologies, agency, and sociopolitical pressures intersect, showing that despite tensions, heritage language lessons offer opportunities to sustain Ndebele linguistic identity within the home.