Underlying Language Use: Gaelic Language Ideologies and Attitudes

Abstract

This chapter considers the role that participants’ ideological and attitudinal stances play in determining their current language practices. Language practices among former-GME students – both the overall extent and nature of interviewees’ Gaelic use – were demonstrated in the previous chapter to be rather limited among the majority of participants, with past socialisation experiences emerging as a key consideration in interviewee accounts, questionnaire responses, and statistical correlations. Building on that understanding, this chapter presents an analysis of interviewees’ language ideologies with a view to understanding how interviewees’ beliefs and linguistic identities may also influence their language practices. Ideologies are particularly examined in respect of appropriate Gaelic use, the wider Gaelic community, and the perceived relevance of Gaelic for cultural identities. A quantitative perspective is then brought to bear on these considerations using online attitudinal survey data.