Raising Children to be Bilingual in the Gaeltacht: Language Preference and Practice

Family language policy, first language Irish speaker attitudes and community-based response to language shift

“…If this was the case, no societal language shift may have occurred in the first instance. Neither can one conclude that Irish speakers' overtly expressed desire for their children to be bilingual (Ó hIfearnáin 2007), is evidence of a lack of commitment to the intergenerational transmission of Irish as the main home language. Nevertheless, many Gaeltacht studies have observed a mismatch between overtly positive attitudes to Irish among speakers, and their language practices at home and in raising their children (see also Simpson [2013] concerning indigenous communities in Australia).…”

“…In the Cork Gaeltacht study, the respondents were asked which language combinations they had used in raising their children and if they were to start again, which they would choose. In all cases, respondents wished in hindsight that they had used more Irish with their children, and the explanation from the qualitative followup is in the realisation amongst older parents that their offspring did not achieve as high a level of Irish as they would have liked (Ó hIfearnáin 2007). Both these studies 358…”

“…Attitudes favouring bilingualism which do not put strong emphasis on extensive home minority language use have been shown to be a weak strategy for linguistic maintenance. Language awareness in the community rather than authority-led coercion appears to be the most effective way to develop Irish-only family policies which would actually favour bilingualism (Ó hIfearnáin 2006(Ó hIfearnáin , 2007. In the future, Tús Maith aims to focus more directly on the needs of Irish-only households, from home visitors through to socialisation activities, and has reached this conclusion through its own experiences and community feedback.…”

What can homograph interpretation tell us about language status in Irish/English bilinguals?

“…This pattern of performance in the older age group concurs with reports from other Gaeltacht regions. For example, Ó hIfearnáin (2007: 524), in a survey of attitudes conducted in the Múscraí Gaeltacht of County Cork, reported that parents of children in secondary and tertiary education “felt their children's Irish to be ‘thin’ or ‘underdeveloped’ with regard to idiom, vocabulary and literary achievement in comparison to their English skills”. Similarly, Harris (2006) reported that pupils of Irish‐medium schools outside the Gaeltacht outperform Gaeltacht schooled pupils on some key measures of Irish language ability.…”

“…This is above the average of 27% for Gaeltacht regions overall. It is clear that the language is under considerable pressure even within Gaeltacht regions, and while children in these regions encounter and use the language daily at school (Gaeltacht schools are Irish‐medium, though the degree to which they are Irish‐only may vary; see Ó hIfearnáin 2007), by adulthood opportunities to use the language have diminished substantially. Ó Giollagáin et al.…”