Multilingualism from a Monolingual Habitus: the View from Scotland

Scotland offers a case study as it acts to dispel the myth of a ‘monolingual country’. The chapter first explores legislative obligations and the place of Language in Scotland. Focussing on exploring the Scottish language habitus as it articulates, two mechanisms are identified. These are (1) efforts to promote linguistic vitality and language revitalisation by developing new curricula and pedagogies; and (2) the operation of governing mechanisms and policy instruments, especially the 1+2 Language Approach. Both strands turn out to show efforts for multilingualism ending by promoting monolingualism as the default for both individual speakers and the state. The chapter concludes that efforts to ‘overcome’ monolingualism encounter the social proliferation of conservative ideological reinforcement and recuperation practices in the Scottish language ecology.