Stuart Dunmore's Language revitalisation in Gaelic Scotland explores the role of immersion education in the maintenance of Scottish Gaelic and the ideologies and language practices of former immersion students.
Since its inception in 1985, the Gaelic Medium Education (GME) system has been the locus of policy intended to reverse long-standing decline in the use of Scottish Gaelic, and it has been the subject of theoretical debate on the efficacy of immersion schooling in minority language maintenance. Dunmore has identified and responded to the need for an empirical evaluation of the success of the GME system in terms of its prospects for the long-term transmission of Gaelic, embarking on a sociolinguistic investigation of the role that Gaelic plays in the lives of adults who were educated in Gaelic-medium schools.
In its introductory chapter, this monograph informs the reader of the historical-political factors that have contributed to the linguistic situation of Gaelic in the present day, wherein according to the most recent (2011) census 1.1 percent of the Scottish population report the ability to speak Gaelic. Chapter 2 provides more background on the context of Dunmore's research, introducing the key scholarly frameworks in sociolinguistics and related fields that bear on this work. Dunmore reviews a body of literature on the interplay and accumulation of social meanings as they pertain to language shift, observing that language ideologies are inextricably but not straightforwardly linked to language shift, and contextualizing and motivating the research carried out in the rest of the monograph.
Dunmore accrues a sample of 112 survey responses and interviews forty-six former GME students using Dell Hymes's (1976) ethnography of speaking technique; the research design is particularly advantageous because it allows the researcher to explore in detail the significance of statistical findings, and conversely to quantify the breadth of the results received in a semi-structured interview. Dunmore lays out in detail his methods in chapter 3; in the remainder he discusses the findings of his study.
Ultimately, holistic and thorough evaluation of his data leads Dunmore to caution against overreliance on formal schooling for language revitalization. His study reports low social uses of Gaelic among graduates of the GME system: most participants tend away from speaking Gaelic among their friends, family, and partners as well as on social media. Although few participants in this study have children, the author concludes that the GME system is unlikely to result in extensive intergenerational transmission of the language. Interestingly, participants who reported higher levels of Gaelic use tended to also have Gaelic medium employment or be enrolled in higher education in Gaelic—a significant theoretical result given some conceptions of language maintenance that have argued against the utility of these spheres in reversing language shift (Fishman 1991:406).
Language revitalisation in Gaelic Scotland is an informative, important read—I highly recommend it to all interested in Celtic linguistics, language maintenance, and the principles of language shift.
