Chinese Middle-class Parents’ Language Attitudes and Family Language Investment in English to Raise Bilingual Children in Monolingual Central China

Admist intensifying academic and shifting regulatory landscape of China’s “Double Reduction” policy, this study investigates the language attitudes and investment behaviors of urban middle-class families in Changsha, a major city in monolingual central China. Through a purposive sample of 350 parents of primary school students, the findings reveal broadly positive attitudes toward English, with use value rated highest and demonstrating strong consensus, while exchange value showed the greatest dispersion. Family investment in English education is characterized by substantial material expenditure and high levels of parental intellectual, non-intellectual, and social interaction, reflecting a composite strategy of capital conversion. Path analysis indicates that while exchange value exerts the most direct influence on annual family expenditure, use value and symbolic value indirectly shape investment through social interaction. The study further identifies a “manager mother” model, wherein maternal educational background significantly predicts the intensity of family involvement. These micro-level strategies are nested within macro-level structures, demonstrating how family agency both responds to and potentially reinforces educational stratification and policy shifts. The research contributes to FLP literature by applying an investment perspective in a monolingual context, addressing a geographical bias toward coastal metropolises, and providing quantitative evidence of the complex interplay between parental beliefs and strategic resources mobilization.