An Ecological Approach to Family Language Policy in Scotland and Ireland: Islands and Archipelagos

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.