The British Council book, “Innovations in English language teaching for migrants and refugees”, edited by David Mallows, was published this month (December 2012), and includes a chapter on Guthan nan Eilean/Island Voices by the project co-ordinator, Gordon Wells, entitled “ESOL in the Hebrides and Island Voices – ‘Hey, hang on a minute, tha mise bilingual!'”. The book is published in hard copy and is also available freely online here. The online version conveniently includes live links to relevant websites (such as this one!) and other reference material.

In his introduction David Mallows has this to say on the Island Voices chapter: “Gordon deals with a juxtaposition of technological ‘newness’ and community ‘tradition’. Through a case study set in the Outer Hebrides he relates how aspects of both, often treated as opposing forces, can be harnessed in pursuit of a holistic, bilingual enrichment programme that seeks (among other things) to aid the development of ESOL skills in a small but significant migrant population as part of a community-wide language and media promotional strategy.”