Language diaries in the study of language use and language choice: the case of Flemish Sign Language and Scottish Gaelic

Abstract

This article discusses the rationale for using language diaries as a method to evaluate language use and language choice in multilingual contexts, as well as the benefits and limitations of this approach vis-à-vis other research methods. This is illustrated using examples from two contexts: Flemish Sign Language/Dutch bilinguals in Flanders and Gaelic/English bilinguals in the Western Isles of Scotland. In both cases, the language diaries were part of a larger mixed-method study which aimed to evaluate language use and language choice in contexts in which the majority language is in almost all instances the unmarked choice. Language diaries provide a new perspective on individual language practices as they allow for an evaluation of contextualised examples of language use and give insight into the factors that drive language and modality choice, and language ideologies. Language diaries give participants ownership over the information shared with the researcher and provide access to a number of different domains. Despite being based on self-reported practices, their situated nature demonstrates how language use can change through personal circumstances. This in turn contributes to a greater understanding of the use of Flemish Sign Language and Gaelic in the wider sociolinguistic contexts in which these languages exist.

Keywords:

• Language choice
• Gaelic
• sign language
• deaf
• minority language
• language diaries

Acknowledgment

Thank you to Michael Hornsby, Luk Van Mensel, Annelies Kusters, and the two anonymous reviewers from Language Awareness for their comments on previous versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A total of fourteen participants had been recruited at the start of the study but due to a variety of different circumstances three participants did not return their diary for analysis.

2 All translations from VGT to English done by Maartje.

3 We are indebted to Dave Sayers for this idea: https://www.academia.edu/34427157/Outline_proposal_for_a_phone_app_to_gauge_language_use_and_sociolinguistic_vitality

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maartje De Meulder

Maartje De Meulder is lecturer and senior researcher at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. She specializes in Deaf Studies and applied language studies. She has published in a range of different journals including Language Policy, Applied Linguistics Review, The Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Human Rights Quarterly, and Translation and Interpreting Studies, and has co-edited Innovations in Deaf Studies (Oxford University Press, 2017) and The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages (Multilingual Matters, 2019).

Ingeborg Birnie

Ingeborg Birnie is a lecturer at the School of Education at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. She received her PhD, which focused on evaluating the effect of Gaelic language policy initiatives on spoken language practices, from the University of Aberdeen. Her research interests are focused on creating language vitality measurements through the use of methodologies which aim to capture the de facto linguistic practices of bilinguals, with a specific focus on Gaelic in Scotland. Her recent publications include ‘Gaelic language in the public domain’ (2018) in Gaelic in Contemporary Scotland: The Revitalisation of an Endangered Language. She was recently awarded a research grant by Bòrd na Gàidhlig to evaluate the use of observational language surveys to assess the use of Gaelic in heartland communities of the language.