What is it about?

This article talks about how the teaching of Gaelic as an additional language in Scottish secondary skills might help support the future use of Gaelic by changing people's knowledge and attitudes. It argues that most students learning Gaelic in secondary won't learn the language to fluency, but that this is not a failure of the education system. It argues that these students will learn about Gaelic and that this will improve the status of the language.

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Why is it important?

A lot of research on very small languages, like Gaelic, focuses on how education will support a language's future use by creating new speakers or by supporting native speakers. This article looks at a population of students who are unlikely to become fluent in Gaelic and asks, "How is their relationship to this language going to impact its future?"

Perspectives

This is a publication that comes out of my PhD thesis, which I completed at the University of Aberdeen under Prof. Robert Dunbar and Dr. Moray Watson. It's very strongly influenced by Language Policy and Planning theory, which has always been an interest of mine. I think it's an interesting first contribution on Gaelic (Learners) Education, but I know there is a great deal more work that should be done with this under-researched population.

Dr Lindsay G Dombrowski
University of the West of Scotland

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This page is a summary of: Additional language education and language development goals: the example of Gaelic (learners) education in Highland Council, Scotland, British Educational Research Journal, February 2013, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/berj.3040.
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