Minority language television as a mechanism of language policy: a comparative study of the Irish and Basque sociolinguistic contexts

Abstract

The present study brings together the disciplines of sociolinguistics and media studies. In recent years, the availability of media in minority languages has become an area subject to some research within the area of media sociolinguistics. It is widely accepted that the existence of minority language media is important for such languages, but exactly how important the availability of such media is to the efforts to revitalise minority languages has remained relatively unexplored. The current study seeks to compensate for this gap in the research by investigating to what extent minority language television functions as an effective mechanism of language policy. Drawing on the most recent theoretical thinking within the discipline of language policy studies put forward by Spolsky (2004) and Shohamy (2006), this thesis will investigate whether minority language television can function as a mechanism of language policy. The research focuses on university students between the ages of 18 and 25, who are not first language-speakers of two particular minority languages, Irish and Basque. The case research was conducted at the University of Limerick and at the University of the Basque Country and involved the use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. These included a questionnaire stage, a media/language diary stage, and a focus group stage. The analysis of the emerging data reveals that minority language television, through the influences it has on the language ideology and language practices of the research participants, does function as an effective mechanism of language policy