1. The choice of
immersion schools in
language shift
situation in Brittany
and in Scotland

2. • Subject and background
• Positioning within the field of
sociolinguistics
• Gaelic findings

3. Declining numbers of speakers
WELSH 1901: 920,824 or 49.9% of the Welsh population
2001: 582,400 or 20.8% (Office for National Statistics, 2004)
GAELIC 1901: 202,700 or 4.5% of the Scottish population
2001: 58,652 or 1.21% (Census, 2004)
BRETON 1905: 1,400,000 or 93% of the Breton population (Broudic, 1995)
2007: 172,000 or 13% (Extra & Gorter, 2008)

4. Figure: Gaelic Medium Primary School Education Pupil Numbers (CNAG, 2010)
Growth of Gaelic medium schools

5. Figure: Parents’ level of qualification and socioeconomic category (N:42)
Education and occupations

6. LEVEL OF QUALIFICATION
Figure: Level of qualification of the parents compared to 2001 Census data (N:44)

7. Figure: Occupational categories: respondents according to the local population (Census 2001) (N: 42)
OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES

8. Reasons for the
school choice

9. • Cultural heritage and
linguistic choice
• Educational advantages

10. Educational and other advantages
Figure : Educational advantages of Gaelic-medium schools (N of parents:22; N of responses:63)

11. Figure: Reasons for children to have Gaelic (N of parents: 22; N of responses:42)
Cultural heritage and linguistic choice

12. Gaelic language,
competence and
language use

13. The respondents first language
Figure: First language of the Gaelic parents (N: 44)

14. Gaelic and the households
Figure: Language of the households (N:22)

15. Households’ language use
Figure: Language use during homework and family leisure (N:22; N of
responses:44)

16. Children and their
language use:

17. With their friends and siblings
Language use amongst siblings and friends (N:22; N of responses:44)