Whose Language Is It? Struggles for Language Ownership in an Irish Language Classroom

The purpose of this article is to examine how struggles over language ownership are played out in a minority language setting, focusing on the case of Irish in the Republic of Ireland. The article examines the more or less serious struggles that emerge between so-called native, or L1, and nonnative, or L2, speakers of Irish in a language learning environment and the effect of these struggles on language acquisition and language choice. The discussion of these issues is based on a qualitative study of language ideologies held by 33 undergraduate students pursuing an Irish language degree. The study highlights some of the social and cultural differences that exist between these native speakers of Irish and second language learners and the need to find ways in which the two groups can work more productively together.