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Offers an original contribution to the fields of family language policy and language revitalisation
This book explores how macro-level language policy filters down to the level of the family and in doing so, considers the critical question: does language policy work?
The author takes an ecological approach to analyse families’ interactions in two autochthonous minority language communities, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in Ireland, areas where institutional support and community use of the language differ. Throughout, the book centres on the children’s own experiences and agency in mediating language use in their everyday lives.
It also introduces the concept of looking at the children’s language use in terms of saibhreas (richness), emphasising that the children’s enjoyment of the language and their competent use of the language in linguistic terms are of equal importance when gauging the ‘success’ of any particular language policy. This book will be of interest to researchers in family language policy, language revitalisation, sociolinguistics and language policy and planning.
Cassie Smith-Christmas is Lecturer in Children’s Studies at the University of Galway, Ireland. Her research interests include family language policy, child agency and language revitalisation.
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Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Understanding the Chrono and Macrosystems: The Sociohistorical Trajectories of Gaelic in Scotland and Irish in Ireland
Chapter 3. Methodology
Chapter 4. Islands in a Sea of English Language Use: Pro-Gaelic FLPs in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland
Chapter 5. Maintaining an Archipelago of Irish: Pro-Irish FLPs in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht
Chapter 6. Quantitative View of the Children’s Linguistic Output
Chapter 7. Children as Language Managers: The Interplay of Compliance and Agency in the Scottish Children’s Language Practices
Chapter 8. Saibhreas in Action: The Irish Children and the Home-School-Community Nexus
Chapter 9. Conclusion: The Ecology of Forming Metaphorical ‘Islands’ Versus ‘Archipelagos’