Scotland has low number of Gaelic speakers and as a consequence the addition of new speakers to the total mix of interlocutors is far more significant. However, the Gaelic language figures far less prominently as an element of both Scottish identity and public investment. Accordingly, with far fewer agencies and actors involved it may be easier to discern the role which the new speaker concept plays in policy discourse and resultant interventions. One complicating factor is the lack of a shared perspective on which elements should be prioritised in Gaelic language promotion and policy. On the one hand there are proponents who argue that as the Gaelic communities are in crisis all efforts should be prioritised into stabilising and sustaining language transmission within these atrophying communities. Others acknowledge the perilous state of traditional communities but argue that support is needed wherever Gaelic is present and elements such as Gaelic-medium education, the media and opportunities for new speakers to flourish also deserve attention. Both perspectives are reflective of what may be called the beleaguered self and contain a fair number of non-cognitive emotional predispositions which colour the rational debate on what is to be done. Consequently tension, disagreement, anger, grief and recrimination can come to shape the various discourses surrounding language policy. In a large-scale language community such fears can be absorbed as part of the general cut and thrust and may not presage any lack of mutual respect and constructive dialogue. But in a small, marginal context such tensions can lead to institutional polarisation between contending agencies and render the central thrust of language promotion less effective.

Chapter 7 investigates the reception of, and approach to, new speakers in Catalonia and Galicia. There is considerable evidence of a buy-in to the need to integrate new speakers and thus not only boost the profile of the respective language but also add to social cohesion in an increasingly multicultural and multilingual context. Particular attention is paid to the role of the Voluntariat per la Llengua programme in Catalonia. This pairs indigenous speakers with Catalan learners, several of whom migrated to Catalonia from Africa and Asia. Not only are the linguistic skills of the migrants improved by the programme but so also is the level of social cohesion and integration into the host community. Neofalantes in Galicia offer a quite distinct version of the new speaker phenomenon involving dual or mixed identities, ideological tension and challenges to official policies as to how best to represent the needs and demands of this small but very active section of society.

Chapter 8 is concerned with the policy community and in making recommendations at international, state, regional and local levels. The first task is to refine the results of the study, the second is to determine a set of generic observations and the third is to present country-specific recommendations. Defining a recommendation and distinguishing it from mere wish fulfilment are by no means simple tasks and some recommendations available in the literature are so general that it is difficult to interpret their meaning with any degree of precision. That is why the recommendations should be realisable. The chapters offers a suite of generic recommendations suitable for consideration in many jurisdictions before moving on to suggest very specific recommendations for each of the eight case study jurisdictions investigated. A certain reticence in acknowledging the salience of these recommendations is particularly characteristic of international migrants, refugees and what are sometime called translational workers as national and local authorities will determine that their obligation is to provide instruction in each state”s dominant language so as to enable the residents to function within the “normal” parameters of the educational, health and social services. Accordingly, while the focus of the investigation is on the reception and adoption of the new speaker concept as an element in policy formulation, the narrative also seeks to strengthen the interpretation by providing additional information on the various contexts within which the investigation was undertaken.

In Chapter 6 the same approach to evidence gathering is adopted in the context of the Spanish polity by focussing on two of the 17 Autonomous Communities, namely the Basque Country and Navarre. It is here that the new speaker concept has been most readily welcomed and has entered into official discourse. Accordingly, we may expect to find examples of good practice which should be applicable in other jurisdictions. Detailed consideration is given to such excellent initiatives as the Euskaraldia: 11 Days in Euskera campaign in the Basque Autonomous Community. Here civil society activists and local agencies are far more inclined to argue that the needs of new speakers should be an integral element of official language policy than were those charged with the formulation and implementation of such policies at the national level. The chapter explores to what extent this official reticence is a result of ideological stances, a caution as to the costs involved or a conviction that current policies already cater very well for the needs of new speakers, even if they are not described in those terms.

By contrast to Scotland and Wales, Ireland should be more fertile ground for the promotion of new speaker interests. This is because Ireland is an independent state and as Irish is the first language according to the constitution, it has been used within the education system for far longer than has Welsh or Gaelic. Moreover, the statutory education system features the teaching of Irish as a core subject which has created a social mass of 1,761,420 people – 39.8 per cent of the population – who can speak Irish, according to the 2016 Census. The overwhelming majority of these would be learners and a significant proportion would be assumed to be new speakers. However, the 2016 Census shows that, of these, only 73,803 – 4.2 per cent of the population – used Irish daily outside of the education system. Special attention is given to the role of government departments, Foras na Gaeilge and An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaiohta in promoting Irish and responding to the needs of new speakers.

This chapter defines the term new speaker and develops arguments which support the claim that an emergent new perspective on minority language policy and multilingualism poses fresh challenges for official language and educational strategies. It sets forth the approach and methodology of the investigation and describes how data and evidence on language policy and the new speaker phenomenon have been gathered from official publications and an extensive range of interviews with politicians, senior civil servants, academics and civil society activists. Selected features of new speaker profiles are examined, as are the dynamics involved in seeking to integrate into a host community with an emphasis on issues of role models, authenticity, self-confidence, linguistic skills and opportunities to use the target language in safe, breathable spaces.

Chapter 2 offers a series of reflections on the key issues of the new speaker debate. It sets forth the opportunities and challenges for those who wish to develop the relevance of the new speaker phenomenon in selected disciplines, such as sociolinguistics and ethnography, together with observations on how evidence-based policy recommendations may be formulated. It identifies the salience of values, motivations and emotions in understanding the new speaker experience. The role of the regulatory state and its manner of framing language and educational policy for the majority as the norm is counterposed to the minority language framework ideology and discourse which, although normalised, is very often contested and challenged. Policy is always the product and the servant of political will and there is a certain logic in the argument that says innovative policy is a reaction to, and reflection of, a modest degree of crisis management. In our investigation it is the migrant and refugee element of the new speaker continuum which is most urgent, but it is also the least developed area of explicit policy discourse to date.

Chapter 9 offers an opportunity for reflection and conclusion. Where has our investigation led us and with what profit? Looking forwards, there is clearly much of relevance which remains to be resolved in a set of new speaker developments that are currently uncharted, fragmented and difficult to pin down. What is remarkable in all the jurisdictions studied is the degree of variation that was found in the empirical field work. The responses are highly variable from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In reflecting on the answers given to the questions presented in the light of the evidence set forth here, a plea for further regular research suggests itself, not only to improve on the insufficiencies of this interpretation but also to allow for the passage of time within which it is assumed that greater attention will have been paid to the new speaker phenomenon by policy-makers over the coming decade. In that sense this is a preliminary investigation to set the scene for more authoritative interpretations in the future.

Chapter 3 reports on the evidence-gathering undertaken in Wales. By interviewing selected politicians and a range of senior civil servants charged with the formulation and implementation of language policy, an evaluation is made of current thinking on the relevance of the new speaker phenomenon within official language policy. These enquiries are supplemented by interviews with civil society policy formulators, decision-makers from national organisations and academic specialists who have studied the phenomenon. Several innovative interventions are identified and evaluated at both national and local level. But the neat division between governmental and civil society policy formulators is misleading. Neither category is impervious to the ideas of the other for in so many minority language communities there is a close relationship between them. In the most promising contexts this interaction is mutually stimulating, if not necessarily co-dependent, as together they fight for the survival of their threatened languages.