New geographies of language in multilingual cities

The management of interethnic relations is a prominent issue faced by contemporary cities.

Multilingualism and multiculturalism are firmly on the political agenda. The rights of migrant workers and minority language cultures have become central to the social fabric of city life (Williams & Van Der Merwe 1996).

The resulting increased demand for multilingual public services is challenging for urban planners. The decision of where to locate key public services, such as bilingual schools, requires regularly updated data on ethnicity and language use, which necessitates a detailed analysis of patterns of language networking. Accurate GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technologies are required to undertake this analysis to reveal the inner workings of the relationship between language and the urban realm.

There is a large body of research on urban multilingualism in sociolinguistics (King & Carson 017) but this work has been unable to address questions around the geospatial distribution of multilingualism. While Urban Geography has well-tested techniques to do this, it has not been explicitly concerned with understanding the language structure of multi-ethnic cities. Similarly, the technological advances engineers have made in developing communication systems allows for highly sophisticated ways of tracking people’s behaviour, which has been underexplored in multilingual contexts.

Aims and objectives

This project aims to develop a multidisciplinary research agenda by bringing urban data scientists, sociolinguists and engineers together.

The project team will:

• Review how the needs of multilingual citizens are met in cities in terms of services, cultural activities and education
• Understand how multilingual speakers navigate the city and to what extent they use their multilingual skills across a range of situations
• Explore the role of social spaces in developing new networks and communities for multilingual speakers in cities

Researchers

Lead: Professor Bernadette O'Rourke (Language and Society Research Cluster, School of Modern Languages and Cultures)

Team:

• Dr Qunshan Zhao (Urban Analytics at UBDC)
• Dr Lei Zhang (James Watt School of Engineering)
• Professor Muhammad Imran (James Watt School of Engineering)

This research is funded through the University of Glasgow Reinvigorating Research Scheme.

Phase Two

The ‘Gaelic Connect’ project

'Gaelic Connect': a digital hub for Gaelic speakers and learners in the city of Glasgow' is a research project led by a team of researchers and developers at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with external partners at Glasgow City Council. The project will create a web-based app to enable speakers and learners of Scottish Gaelic in Glasgow to find events and spaces to use Gaelic, and to develop community networks.

The project is being funded by a University of Glasgow Joint Impact Acceleration Award, and draws from previous research published in Research Methods in Applied Linguistics - available open access. This research has been consolidated through UofG-SFC pump priming funding for Reinvigorating Research in 2022, a grant from Bòrd na Gàidhlig (the executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government with responsibility for Gaelic) also in 2022, and a British Academy Small Grant in2021.

Who is involved in the project?

The project represents an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers at the University of Glasgow, external partners in Glasgow City Council, and an expert team of software developers. The project will also seek input from an Advisory Committee, made up of researchers, Gaelic language professionals, and key community members.

The project is led by Prof Bernadette O’Rourke, who has worked extensively on New Speakers of minoritized languages in urban contexts. Prof Qunshan Zhao’s extensive expertise in urban analytics, using apps to understand human movement, is a key contribution to the project. Additionally, Prof Muhammad Imran’s and Prof Lei Zhang’s longstanding collaborative work on privacy-preserving techniques, machine learning tools and trustworthy practices in AI is vital to this project. Finally, Dr Erin McNulty, who has worked on language variation among New Speakers of minoritized languages, is a Research Associate on this project.

Dr Tim Storer’s extensive research expertise in the practice of software engineering, as well his role as academic director of the Glasgow University Software Service (GUSS) will deliver the software aspects of this project. The application will be developed by a team directly managed by Tess Vaughan.

Why is this project necessary?

As part of Glasgow City Council’s language plan, by 2028 Gaelic is to be more accessible, more widely spoken, more visible, and more celebrated in Glasgow than in any other city in the world. One of the key parts of this plan is the Aon Glaschu (One Glasgow) project, which was formed in 2019 as a partnership of people and organisations with a shared purpose of growth for Gaelic in Glasgow. As part of this project, a digital hub for Gaelic in Glasgow was envisioned, which can provide significant value and impact at relatively low cost. The app developed by the current project will constitute such a hub, and will provide researchers with data on how Gaelic is used in Glasgow to inform further research projects.

The project is also a direct response to the language provision needs of Glasgow’s Gaelic-speaking community. In 2022, a survey was conducted, in collaboration with Glasgow City Council, to identify speakers’ needs and priorities for Gaelic usage in the city. Key amongst these was the need for more opportunities for informal Gaelic usage and more information about where to find out about such opportunities. In collaboration with Glasgow City Council, we tested a proof-of-concept for a map-based app to track and navigate places where Gaelic is encouraged and used, which received positive responses and strong support from key stakeholders and the wider Gaelic-speaking community.

What are the project’s aims, objectives, and timelines?

The aim of the project is to develop digital tools that enable the Gaelic community in Glasgow to form and grow. In particular, the app will:

1.     Enable speakers to discover Gaelic-language events;

2.     Enable the identification of hot-spots for Gaelic-speaking in the city;

3.     Promote the sharing and dissemination of Gaelic resources and activities within the city community.

To fulfil the project aims, the objective of this project is to develop a fully functional app and test key features, including:  

·        An interactive map of Glasgow showing key Gaelic-speaking spaces and events;

·        A comment area for users to interact about their experiences of using Gaelic in the city;  

·        Social for a to connect users with other Gaelic speakers in the city;

·        Links to online Gaelic learning resources;

·        Voice recognition tools which participants can use to track their use of Gaelic (similar to a fitness app which tracks number of steps);

·        Gamification features where users can earn achievements for using Gaelic in real-life settings, to incentivise further use of the language.

The digital hub is intended to be attractive to different communities, including:

·        Gaelic speakers seeking opportunities to use their language;

·        Gaelic learners wanting to improve their Gaelic skills;

·        Non-Gaelic speaking residents who want to learn about an aspect of their heritage/culture important to many aspects of modern Scottish life (place names, influence on other languages, art/culture/poetry);

·        Visitors seeking to understand a key aspect of Scottish culture. 

The project will run over a period of 10 months, from June2024 until March 2025. This phase of the project (Autumn 2024) will consist of developing and trialling the app, and gathering feedback from Gaelic community members and stakeholders. The next phase (Spring 2025) will involve the incorporation of this feedback into the app, with the aim to launch it for community use at Seachdain na Gàidhlig (Gaelic Week) in February 2025.The remaining time will be spent writing reports for stakeholders, and academic articles to disseminate research findings.

A longer-term aim of this project is to adapt the app to support other social networks of sparse communities of interest, such as Gaelic speakers in Edinburgh, Welsh speakers in Cardiff, and Irish speakers in Dublin and Belfast.

What will successful outcomes of the project look like, and how will these be measured?

Ultimately, a successful outcome of this project will be the development of a digital tool which will support minority languages and their communities.

In the case of Gaelic in Glasgow specifically, success will look like:

·        A tangible increase in Gaelic language use and visibility in Glasgow;

·        A strengthened sense of community among Gaelic speakers and learners;

·        A positive cultural and educational impact on the wider population.

The impact of the app will be measured through various means, including focus group sessions with trial users, an open-forum ‘townhall’-style meeting at Glasgow City Chambers, and questionnaires distributed to users. In addition, the app has built-in feedback mechanisms in the form of a comments section and the ability to track how users engage with the app.

Additionally, the app has the potential to lead to further language policy support for Gaelic. The successful implementation of the app, the feedback on its utility, and the insights from user data can inform future Gaelic language plans and initiatives by Glasgow City Council and other bodies. Demonstrating the app’s impact can lead to broader policy support and funding for similar digital initiatives aimed at language preservation and community development.  

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