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'Is it really for talking?' : the implications of associating a minority language with the school
Date
2017
Abstract
This paper examines how caregivers in a bilingual family discursively link Gaelic to a school context when interacting with Maggie, an eight year-old who is currently enrolled in Gaelic Medium Education on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. The paper argues that the caregivers achieve this discursive framing primarily through treating Gaelic as a performance language and through orienting to discourses that de-normatise Maggie s use of her minority language. The paper argues that although the caregivers believe they are encouraging Maggie s use of Gaelic, by framing the language in a school context, they link Gaelic to authority. It is further argued that this association of Gaelic with authority may be one of the many contributing factors to Maggie s low use of the language overall. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this argument in terms of language policy and planning.
Supervisor
Description
peer-reviewed
Publisher
Taylor & Francis - Routledge
Citation
Language Culture and Curriculum;30 (1), pp. 32-47