Attitudes Toward Bilingualism in Ireland

Abstract

The Irish Republic has developed and implemented language maintenance and language revival policies since gaining independence from British rule in 1922. At that time, the new Irish government envisioned a bilingual state in which both Irish and English would be used (Ó Riagáin, 1997), and language policies were created to support that goal. Such policies were implemented using schools as the primary vehicle to maintain and revive the Irish language. As a result, two distinct forms of schooling were differentiated for language majority, English-speaking students. The first involves schools in which English is used as the primary medium of instruction, with Irish taught as a compulsory subject in school. Second are immersion schools, known as Gaelscoileanna, in which Irish is used as the medium of instruction apart from the teaching of English. This paper explores students' and parents' attitudes toward bilingualism in Ireland among students who participate in these two different types of schools. The study utilized an adapted questionnaire from Cazabon, Lambert, and Hall (1993). Qualitative research findings from focus group interviews with students supplement findings from the questionnaire. Findings suggest that qualitative data provide important insight to understanding the complexity of attitudes toward bilingualism.