This book examines the whys and wherefores of family language transmission from the perspective
of parents as language planners and managers of their linguistic resources. It draws on a
qualitative interview-based study of twenty families in which German is was or could have
been the target language. Successive census analyses have charted a marked decline in the
number of German speakers in Australia indicating that motivation for transmitting German has
waned. The situations where it is presently being transmitted are therefore particularly
interesting. Data analysis was facilitated by a decision map depicting the planning
implementation and outcome phases of the transmission undertaking. The main findings show that
the parents' decision is negotiated around their own needs interests and ambitions in terms of
child-focussed reciprocal and parent-centred motives. These in turn are linked to
transmission strategies and the linguistic outcomes for the children. Through an understanding
of the motivational issues arising in this context it will hopefully be possible to better
predict the effectiveness of the transmission strategies presently applied.
