Language maintenance, emotional investments, family values and imagined futures

This research investigates how Jewish-Israeli immigrant parents' approach to Hebrew maintenance relates to their emotional investments and connection to their homeland. It integrates a values-based perspective with Tannenbaum's Coping and Defence Mechanism framework, which centres the emotional aspect of family's language maintenance decisions. The connection between language maintenance efforts and emotions is an understudied phenomenon that is increasingly relevant to the lived experience of immigrants. Whilst some authors have mentioned Tannenbaum's framework in reference to the emotional aspect of language maintenance, it has yet to be applied on a theoretical or practical level to determine its pertinence to particular immigrant populations. Furthermore, New Zealand's Israeli immigrant population remains an understudied minority group for whom emotionality is likely to impact language maintenance efforts. Thematic analysis of six semi-structured interviews revealed participants' language maintenance efforts were inconsistently aligned with their connection to their homeland, however, could be described as coping or defence mechanisms in other ways. In particular, participants showed an investment in pursuing 'imagined futures' they wanted for their children through their language choices. A suggestion for the inclusion of this alongside a values-based perspective within Tannenbaum's framework is provided with the intention of broadening the framework's applicability.