What is Second Language Acquisition

Critical language pedagogy involves addressing the relationships between power, identity, language, and education. In recent decades, there has been an increase in the understanding of the importance of language revitalization, and many minority and endangered language groups are choosing to teach through the medium of non-dominant languages. This qualitative study looks at the role of critical language pedagogy of teachers within the Gaelic Medium Education (GME) system of schooling in Scotland. Following a phenomenological approach, the researcher interviewed three GME teachers about their backgrounds and experiences. Using closed-coding and critical discourse analysis (CDA), a number of themes emerged. All three participants, despite having had limited formal education in the areas of second language acquisition and critical theory, demonstrated an understanding of critical language pedagogy. With GME seeing an increase in enrollment, there is still much to be done in teacher education in Scotland with regard to critical consciousness.