Australasian Journal of Early Childhood Volume 37 Number 1 March 2012 142 Introduction In Australia many Chinese families send their preschool-aged children to learn Mandarin at weekend Chinese schools in the expectation that their children master Mandarin as a heritage language in the predominantly English-speaking community. Therefore family involvement in bilingual development may be considered as an important factor (Esch-Harding & Riley, 2003; McCollum & Russo, 1993). How can immigrant parents contribute to their children’s heritage language development in the home context? This is the challenge faced by immigrant parents. There has been a great increase in research on bilingual and multilingual development in the past 20 years. Much work has been done on the linguistic perspectives of children’s bilingual development, the majority of which has focused on bilingual language development in school and after-school class contexts (Kohnert, Kan, & Conboy, 2010; Laurent & Martinot, 2009; Nicoladis, 2006; Seidenberg & McClYiyind, 1989; Wang, Perfetti & Cheng, 2009; Wang, Perfetti & Liu, 2005). However, there are very few studies focusing on how the family as a social unit supports their children bilingually, especially for children’s heritage language development (Esch-Harding & Riley, 2003). This paper draws upon Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory to examine how parents involve themselves in children’s play activities to support their Mandarin language. It begins with a review of related cultural-historical concepts, followed by the study design and the findings. Cultural-historical theoretical framework Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory of human development highlights the importance of social interaction in culturally specific contexts in children’s language development (Vygotsky, 1986). This contributes to understanding the social interaction between Chinese immigrant families and their children during everyday activities in the Australian community. A Vygotskian cultural-historical approach has been applied to this study in order to determine the ways Chinese–Australian families support their How do immigrant parents support preschoolers’ bilingual heritage language development in a role-play context? Liang Li Monash University THE RESEARCH REPORTED HERE is part of an overall study drawing upon a Vygotskian cultural–historical approach to explore Chinese-Australian families’ pedagogy in supporting children’s bilingual heritage language development. Imagination is a psychological process for the child, where the development of speech is linked to the development of imagination as a higher cultural function (Vygotsky, 1987a). This study gives insight to the links between imagination in play and language development through play pedagogy at home. In the larger study, from which this paper draws its data, the methods of data generation included video interviews and observations with three families. The focus was on interactions that contributed towards language development in the home context. Drawing on Vygotsky’s (1987a, 2004b) theory of imagination in children’s play, Fleer’s (2010) dialectical model of play, and Kravtsova’s (2009) subject positioning theory, this paper specifically investigates parents’ interactive support of children’s bilingual heritage language development in role-play. The paper analyses the play experience of a four-year-old girl, Lin, and her father in a park, in order to discuss the importance of imagination in adults’ instructions within the child’s zone of proximal language development through play. This provides the foreground for approaching language development within a dialectical process of collective and individual imagining in play. It is argued that Lin’s father uses play as a pedagogical tool to support Lin’s bilingual heritage language development.