Results are presented of a comparative study of the reasons for parental choice of Scottish Gaelic-medium and Welsh-medium primary education in the year 2000, and of the reasons for pupils' decisions to continue with Gaelic or Welsh-medium education at secondary school in 2007. Parents in both contexts cited the quality of Celtic-medium education to similar extents in the choice of Welsh or Gaelic-medium education, but parents in the Welsh context more frequently cited employment rationales, and parents in the Scottish context more frequently cited heritage and the benefits of bilingualism. The Welsh-medium and Gaelicmedium pupils cited a preference for learning in Welsh or Gaelic, a wish to continue to be educated with friends, heritage, quality of Celtic-medium education and employment rationales to similar extents in the choice of Celtic-medium secondary education. However, Welsh-medium pupils more frequently cited the Welsh-medium education experiences of older family members, and Gaelic-medium pupils more frequently cited valuing bilingualism as a reason for such a choice. The results are discussed in relation to previous research on choice of Gaelic and Welsh-medium education, and in relation to contextual factors, such as linguistic demographics, and the level of institutionalization of Gaelic and Welsh within each national context.

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Scotland seems to be a counter-example to general theories of the relationship between language and national identity or nationalism. These theories point to three components in the ideology of language and nation -that being able to speak the national language is necessary for full national membership, that the national language is a core part of the nation's culture, and that the future of national political autonomy and the future of the national language are connected with each other. In Scotland, it has appeared that language is not central to national membership or culture, and language campaigning has not been central to the political campaigns for autonomy. The paper presents new evidence, from the 2012 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, which questions these beliefs about the relationship between language and national identity or nationalism in Scotland.

Two social roles for language have been distinguished by Edwards (2009)-the communicative and the symbolic. Using data from a survey of public attitudes to Gaelic in Scotland, the article investigates the extent to which people's view of language may be characterised as relating to these roles. Respondents were grouped, using statistical cluster analysis, according to their views of the communicative and symbolic roles of language. Indicators of membership of the resulting clusters were then used as explanatory variables in linear regression models to assess the relative importance of the communicative or symbolic view of Gaelic in explaining variation in attitudes to policy issues concerning Gaelic. Both sets of views of language were independently associated with attitudes to nearly all aspects of policy, but the view of Gaelic as symbol was mostly more strongly associated with attitudes to policy than the communicative view.

In language planning for minority languages, policy often aims to positively influence attitudes towards the language by increasing its salience in key areas of public life such as broadcasting and signage. This is true for Gaelic in Scotland, where recent national initiatives have included the establishing of a Gaelic language television channel in 2008, and the launch, in the same year, of a bilingual brand identity for ScotRail (Rèile na h-Alba), resulting in Gaelic-English signage at railway stations across Scotland. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the effects of such an increase in national visibility of Gaelic on public attitudes towards the language. The present paper explores this using a national survey of public attitudes conducted in Scotland in 2012. Exposure to Gaelic broadcasting was found to be positively associated with attitudes towards the status of the Gaelic language (as a language spoken in Scotland, and as an important element of cultural heritage), and with attitudes towards the greater use of Gaelic (in public services and in the future). However, exposure to Gaelic signage was often negatively associated with such broader attitudes to the language and culture. The implications of the results for Gaelic language planning, and for future academic studies of language attitudes in Scotland, are explored.The authors acknowledge the support of the funders of the research – the ESRC (Grant number ES/J003352/1), the Scottish Government, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, and Soillse.