The Revival of Scottish Gaelic Through Education By Michael McIn ...

Chapter 2

Why Heritage
Language Revival?

The Implications of Language Death

A frequent question that arises in regard to minority language revival or heritage language maintenance centers on why. The question is sometimes phrased even more aggressively as “why bother?”. A major strain in contemporary thought about language—at least in the public policy sphere and in the arena of public discussion—circles around what might be called the objective value of a language—objectivity being measured by immediate economic value. In fact, this argument is used by groups like U.S. English to justify the eradication of all other languages besides English in the U.S. public sphere: English, these advocates argue, empowers by enabling its speakers to access the juggernaut of the English-language economy and economic culture. If this is the case, what value is there in retreating from the economic empowerment that English offers to embrace a heritage language that