Na mílte ag siúl ar son na Gaeilge
Eanáir 29, 2014
Beidh glórtha Gaelacha ag baint macalla as sráideanna Bhaile Átha Cliath an 15 Feabhra nuair a ghluaisfidh mórshiúl ar son cearta teanga trí lár na príomhchathrach.
Seo an chéad uair le deich mbliana a eagraíodh léirsiú náisiúnta ar son na Gaeilge agus táthar ag súil go dtiocfaidh na mílte duine amach chun cothrom na féinne don teanga a iarraidh ar an rialtas. Tá liosta suntasach gearán ag pobal na Gaeilge agus na Gaeltachta i bhfianaise éirí as an Choimisinéara Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, ag tús mhí na Nollag mar gheall ar easpa tacaíochta ón rialtas do chearta teanga, seirbhísí stáit as Gaeilge ach go háirithe. Ní ba luaithe an mhí seo léirigh tuairisc ó Chomhairle na hEorpa go bhfuil cosc á chur ar chur chun cinn na Gaeilge sa Tuaisceart mar thoradh ar dhearcadh naimhdeach i leith na teanga i Stormont, agus easpa tacaíochta don teanga sa chóras oideachais agus dlí.
Is é Conradh na Gaeilge atá ag glaoch an léirsithe, le comhoibriú ó ghrúpaí eile teanga, agus tá tuairim choitianta ann nach mór do mhórphobal na teanga an deis a thapú anois chun teacht le chéile ar bhonn náisiúnta agus an fód a sheasamh ar son thodhchaí na teanga. “Tá luas ag teacht leis an eagrú don Lá Mór,” arsa Julian de Spáinn, Ard-Rúnaí Chonradh na Gaeilge. “Beidh cruinnithe poiblí ag tarlú ar fud na tíre idir seo agus an Lá Mór féin chun an cur chuige áitiúil a aontú agus tá a fhios againn go bhfuil busanna eagraithe cheana féin ó gach cúige, mar sin tá muid ag súil go mbeidh slua suntasach i láthair.” Tosóidh an Lá Mór ag an Ghairdín Cuimhneacháin ag Cearnóg Parnell ar 2in agus, mar aon le haoichainteoirí, beidh ceol beo ann ó Kíla, Seo Linn agus Na Fíréin.
www.independent.com
Cormac cois cuain – craoltóir RnaG le bheith i mBéal Feirste
Eanáir 29, 2014
Tá mórán cainte ar siúl ag lucht na Gaeilge faoi na hathruithe atá déanta ag Foras na Gaeilge ar an earnáil dheonach.
Sé cheanneagraíocht, in áit 19 eagras, a bheidh freagrach feasta as cur chun cinn na teanga agus níl ceanneagraíocht ar bith sa Tuaisceart. Leis sin a phlé, craolfar eagrán speisialta de Cormac@5 le Cormac Ó hEadhra ar RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta beo as Béal Feirste Dé Máirt, 4ú Feabhra. Beidh deis ag na heagraíochtaí uilig teacht chun plé a dhéanamh agus ceisteanna a fhreagairt faoin leagan amach nua a bheidh ar earnáil na Gaeilge. Craolfar an clár idir 5pm agus 6pm as Cultúrlann MacAdam-Ó Fiaich, Bóthar na bhFál, agus tá fáilte roimh an phobal freastal air.
www.irishtimes.com
Comórtas Clár Raidió Gael Linn
Eanáir 29, 2014
Tá Gael Linn ag glacadh le hiarratais do Chomórtas Clár Raidió Gael Linn, comórtas bliantúil a thugann aitheantas do thallann raidió úr i measc daltaí iar-bhunscoile.
Is é an dáta deireannach iontrála ná 7 Feabhra 2014, ach ní gá na cláir féin a bheith istigh go dtí 14 Márta 2014. Bronnfar duaiseanna ar mhic léinn a dhéanann cláir raidió Ghaeilge ar ardchaighdeán a léiriú agus a láithriú. Glacfar le cláir cainte, irischláir, gnéchláir srl Tá an comórtas dírithe ar mhic léinn idirbhliana go príomha agus creidtear go bhfuil sé an-oiriúnach mar ábhar le haghaidh tionscnamh do na mic léinn seo. Tá cead, áfach, ag daltaí i mbliain ar bith sa scoil páirt a ghlacadh ann agus níl aon teorainn leis an líon scoláirí ar féidir leo a bheith ag plé leis an gclár.
Cuireann na daltaí, le cabhair óna gcuid múinteoirí, clár raidió ar a rogha téama le chéile, a mhaireann idir 15 agus 20 nóiméad. Is féidir rogha cur chuige nó comhdhéanamh a úsáid – m.sh. agallaimh, comhrá, ceol beo, nuacht agus eile. Glactar le drámaí raidió chomh maith. Tá dhá roinn sa chomórtas, roinn amháin d’iarbhunscoileanna ina ndéantar teagasc trí Ghaeilge agus an roinn eile do na scoileanna nach ndéantar teagasc trí Ghaeilge iontu. Bronnfar trí dhuais náisiúnta, urraithe ag Raidió na Gaeltachta, ar na trí chlár is fearr, is cuma cén roinn ina mbeidh an scoil ag iomaíocht. Ina dhiaidh sin bronnfar trí dhuais, urraithe ag Coimisiún Craolacháin na hÉireann, ar na trí chlár is fearr i ngach roinn.
Tá gach eolas faoin gComórtas gClár Raidió 2014 ar shuíomh Gael Linn ag www.gael-linn.ie agus is féidir éisteacht ansin chomh maith leis na cláir a bhuaigh duaiseanna sa chomórtas anuraidh. Nó is féidir glaoch ar riarthóir an chomórtais, Niamh de Búrca, ag 01 6753303.
www.carlow-nationalist.ie
Ciorcail Ghaeilge na seachtaine seo i gCeatharlach
Eanáir 29, 2014
Leanfar leis an teacht le chéile seachtainiúil dar teideal “Is Leor Beirt” sa Leabharlann, Sráid na Tulaí, Ceatharlach ar an gCéadaoin seo ag 10.30r.n.
Agus cuirfear míle fáilte roimh chách chomh maith chuig SULT, an imeacht míosúil trí Ghaeilge, ar an Déardaoin, 30 Eanair sa Teach Bar taobh le Teach Dolmain, Ceatharlach. Is ansin a thagann daoine le chéile ar an Déardaoin deireannach de gach mí ag 9.00i.n. chun taitneamh a bhaint as caint, comhrá agus comhluadar trí Ghaeilge agus cuirtear fíorchaoin fáilte roimh dhaoine nua i gcónaí. Leanfaidh an oíche leis an seisiún traidisiúnta.
Is deiseanna iontacha iad na ciorcail seo chun an Ghaeilge a labhairt go sóisialta agus aithne a chur ar chainteoirí Gaeilge eile sa cheantar. Beidh fáilte faoi leith roimh fhoghlaimeoirí agus tabharfar gach seans dóibh an teanga a chleachtadh i suímh nádúrtha. Bí ann agus fáilte!
www.carlow-nationalist.ie
Seachtain eile d’amhráin don Chomórtas Pan Cheilteach
Eanáir 29, 2014
Tá áthas ar Glór Cheatharlach a fhógairt go bhfuil seachtain eile curtha leis an spriocdháta d’iarratais don Chomórtas Náisiúnta Amhrán Pan Cheilteach.
Glacfar le hiarratais ar dhlúthdhioscaí suas go dtí 2.00i.n. ar an Aoine, 7ú Feabhra. Ní foláir na focail agus an ceol a bheith nuachumtha agus caithfidh na focail a bheith as Gaeilge. Tá duais €1,000 le buachaint agus rachaidh an t-amhrán buachach ar aghaidh le bheith san iomaíocht ar son na hÉireann sa Chomórtas Idirnáisiúnta Pan Cheilteach a bheith ar siúl i gCathair Dhoire um Cháisc.
Tá rannóg faoi leith sa chomórtas i mbliana le haghaidh iarratais ó dhaoine faoi sheacht mbliana déag d’aois agus ‘sé €200 an phríomhdhuais sa rannóg áirithe seo. Tá na rialacha agus an fhoirm iontrála ar an suíomh idirlín www.panceltic.ie. Gach eolas ó Glór Cheatharlach ar 085 1340047, 087 2857048 nó emma@glorcheatharlach.ie. Iarratais chuig Oifig Ghlór Cheatharlach, Sraid an Choláiste, Ceatharlach.
www.carlow-nationalist.ie
Lá Mór na Gaeilge – litir do thuismitheoirí ó Chonradh na Gaeilge
Eanáir 28, 2014
Cruinniú Poiblí ar son cothrom na féinne do phobal na Gaeilge & Gaeltachta
Eanáir 28, 2014
Tabharfar deis do phobal Chorcaí díospóireacht a dhéanamh ar na hionsaithe leanúnach atá a dhéanamh ag an Stát ar an nGaeilge agus ar an nGaeltacht, ag Cruinniú Poiblí a bheidh ar siúl De Luain 3ú Feabhra in óstán Clarion, Lapps Quay. Cuirfear tús leis an gcruinniú ag 7.30pm.
Tá an cruinniú á eagrú mar chuid d’fheachtas cearta atá bunaithe mar thoradh ar an ngéarchéim a cruthaíodh nuair a d’fhógair An Coimisinéir Teanga (ar nós Ombudsman na Gaeilge), Seán Ó Cuirreáin, go mbeadh sé ag éirí as oifig de bharrna heaspa éisteachta atá faighte aige ón Rialtas ó dheas.
Tá an cruinniú seo á chomhordú ag Gael-Taca bunaithe ar na héilimh a tháinig chun cinn ag an gcruinniú poiblí a eagraíodh i Halla na Saoirse, Baile Átha Cliath ar an 11 Eanáir. D’fhreastail breis agus 200 duine ar an gcruinniú sin agus aontaíodh feachtas uile-oileánda a eagrú chun ceart na teanga a sheasamh.
Is é Donnchadh Ó hAodha, Uachtarán Chonradh na Gaeilge a bheidh mar aoichainteoir ag an gCruinniú Poiblí agus is í Gael-Taca a bheidh ina chathaoirleach ar an gcruinniú.
Tá an cruinniú oscailte don phobal uilig agus beidh deis ann díriú ar na céimeanna ar gá a thógáil anois chun troid a dhéanamh ar son chothrom na féinne do lucht labhartha na Gaeilge.
Helena Ní Dheá
Oifigeach Forbartha
Gael-Taca,
22 Port Uí Shúilleabháin,
Corcaigh.
www.gael-taca.com
(021)4310841
An Straitéis a thabhairt slán
Eanáir 28, 2014
An dtabharfaí aird do mholtaí an Fhreasúra ag eascairt as an gcruinniú den Fhochoiste Oireachtais?
Ba léir fearg agus frustrachas bhaill an Fhochoiste Oireachtais um Straitéis 20 Bliain don Ghaeilge agus Rudaí Gaolmhara ag cruinniú a tionóladh an tseachtain seo caite. Agus an Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, ag tuairisciú don Fhochoiste don uair dheireanach sula n-éiríonn sé as a ról ar 23 Feabhra 2014, léirigh baill an Choiste a bhí i láthair an chruinnithe déistin do staid reatha na Gaeilge ag leibhéal an Stáit.
Cé go bhfuil ionadaithe de chuid an Chomhrialtais mar bhaill – Michael McCarthy T.D. (Páirtí an Lucht Oibre agus Cathaoirleach an Fhochoiste); Kevin Humphries T.D. (Páirtí an Lucht Oibre) agus an Seanadóir Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael), níor raibh i láthair ag an gcruinniú ach baill Choiste de chuid an Fhreasúra. Mhaígh an Teachta Peadar Tóibín gur léirigh easpa ionadaíochta an Rialtais “drochmheas” d’údarás an Choimisinéara Teanga agus do phobal na Gaeilge agus na Gaeltachta.
Ag eascairt as an gcaint cháinteach a thug an Coimisinéir le linn an chruinnithe, ba léir tacaíocht agus ardmheas na mball a bhí i láthair do Sheán Ó Cuirreáin agus cuireadh neart moltaí chun cinn le dul i ngleic leis an gcur i gcéill a chuir an Coimisinéir síos air. Ar mholadh ón Seanadóir Trevor ó Clochartaigh, d’aontaigh gach ball gur chóir don Fhochoiste seasamh i bhfad níos láidre a ghlacadh sa phróiseas agus go bhfuil géarghá le gníomhaíocht láithreach.
Chuir an Teachta Éamon Ó Cuív trí mhórghníomh os comhair bhaill an Choiste agus mhol sé go láidir go gcuirfí gach ceann acu i bhfeidhm ar bhonn práinneach.
Mhol an Teachta Ó Cuív:
#1. Go dtiomsófaí tuarascáil traspháirtithe ar chúrsaí pearsanra sa státseirbhís agus go nglacfaí le múnla an Choiste um Chuntais Phoiblí ina leith. Is é sin go dtabharfaí gach grúpa a ainmnítear i dtuarascáil an Choimisinéara Teanga os comhair an Chomhchoiste lena n-áirítear:
• An Garda Síochána
• An Roinn Dlí agus Cirt agus Comhionannais
• An Roinn Comhshaoil, Pobail agus Rialtais Áitiúil
• Suirbhéireacht Ordanáis Éireann
• Feidhmeannach na Seirbhíse Sláinte
• Banc Ceannais na hÉireann
• An tÚdarás Náisiúnta Iompair
• Ollscoil Luimnigh
• Comhairle Baile Inse
• Comhairle Contae Dhún na nGall
• Comhairle Contae Chill Dara
#2. Go ndéanfaí iniúchadh ar chur i bhfeidhm na Straitéise 20 Bliain don Ghaeilge. Sheol an Roinn Ealaíon, Oidhreachta agus Gaeltachta tuarascáil ar fheidhmiú na Straitéise i mí Iúil 2013 ina raibh cur síos ar dhul chun cinn céimiúil, leanúnach na mbeartas. Ach dar le heagraíochtaí agus pobail Ghaeilge léirigh an tuarascáil easnaimh mhóra maidir le heaspa acmhainní, uaillmhian na spriocanna agus cur chuige an Rialtais. Aontaítear go léiríonn tuairisciú tromchúiseach an Choimisinéara Teanga drochstaid reatha na Straitéise agus d’aontaigh baill uile an Choiste gurbh ghá athbhreithniú agus iniúchadh ar dhéanamh ar ábhar na Straitéise.
#3. Go gcuirfí Cinn an Bhille i dtaca le hAcht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla faoi bhráid an Fhochoiste agus go n-ullmhófaí tuairisc ina leith. Luaigh Seán Ó Cuirreáin folús i dtaobh athbhreithniú Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla 2003 a fógraíodh i mí na Samhna 2011 mar chúis eile lena chinneadh éirí as. Cé go bhfuil fógartha le déanaí go bhfuil an Roinn Ealaíon, Oidhreachta agus Gaeltachta ag súil leis an mBille nua a fhoilsiú roimh bhriseadh na tsamhraidh, ta curtha in iúl go bhfuil Cinn an Bhille fós le haontú óir nár cuireadh aon leasú faoi bhráid an Rialtais go dtí seo agus go bhfoilseofar torthaí an phróiseas chomhairliúcháin ar fhoilsiú Chinn an Bhille.
Cé gur tugadh cluas éisteachta don Teachta Ó Cuív chuir leas-Chathaoirleach an Fhochoiste, an Seanadóir Labhrás Ó Murchú, in iúl nach ball den Fhochoiste é, ach ghabh sé buíochas leis as a chuid moltaí.
D’fhógair an leas-Chathaoirleach go mbeidh an tAire Stáit Donnachadh Mac Fhionnlaoich ag teacht os comhair an Fhochoiste go luath agus iarradh ar gach ball eile a gcuid moltaí a chur i scríbhinn chuig Rúnaí an Fhochoiste.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
Cognitive Advantages of Second Language Immersion Education
Eanáir 28, 2014
The linguistic and educational success of second language immersion education is now well established (see here). What has been less clear until recently was whether children who attend immersion programs show the same kind of advantages in cognitive skills, such as metalinguistic awareness and executive control, as do children who are early bilinguals. Metalinguistic awareness is our explicit knowledge of different aspects of language (sounds, words, syntax, and so on) and, when needed, our capacity to talk about these properties. It is crucial in the development of literacy, for example. As for executive control (also known as executive function), it is a set of complex cognitive processes that include attention, inhibition, monitoring, selection, planning, and so on. Inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility are three core aspects of executive control.
In a recent study, York University professor Ellen Bialystok and her colleagues Kathleen F. Peets and Sylvain Moreno studied the development of metalinguistic awareness in children becoming bilingual in an immersion education program. They gave different tasks to second and fifth grade English-speaking children in a French immersion program and compared their results with those of children in a regular English program. The tasks involved morphological awareness (adding correct morphological forms to nonsense words), syntactic awareness (making grammaticality judgments), and verbal fluency (generating words that belong to a semantic category or that begin with an initial letter). These three tasks differed in their need for executive control, from the least in the first task to the most in the third task.
The researchers found that the metalinguistic advantages reported in studies of early bilinguals emerged gradually in these immersion children, with tasks requiring less executive control giving positive results sooner than tasks requiring more executive control. Thus all immersion children outperformed their monolingual counterparts in the morphological awareness tasks, even after two years of immersion, and fifth grade immersion program children were more accurate in the syntactic awareness tasks than their monolingual counterparts. The verbal fluency tasks began as a problem for the younger children in the immersion program (literacy instruction in English only starts in third grade) but the older children had regained the ground and performed equivalently to monolingual children. The authors concluded that the advantages previously reported for early bilingual children could already be detected in children learning another language in an immersion program.
What about the advantages in executive control as such that children brought up bilingually show systematically over their monolingual counterparts? Do immersion children also show these advantages? Belgian scientists Anne-Catherine Nicolay and Martine Poncelet examined this. They tested third grade French-speaking children in an English immersion program and compared them to a similar group following a monolingual curriculum. They assessed attentional and executive skills by means of six different tasks such as alerting, auditory selective attention, divided attention, mental flexibility, and so on.
The results they found showed that in four of the six tasks, the immersion children did better than their monolingual counterparts. This is quite remarkable as the children had only had three years of immersion education which involves less intensive exposure to a second language than in early bilingualism. And yet, the immersion experience had already produced some of the cognitive benefits associated with early bilingualism.
The one negative finding that surprised the researchers (i.e. no difference between the two groups) concerned interference inhibition. In the task they used, the flanker task, children were presented with a central arrow pointing to the left or to the right, and flanker arrows above or below pointing in the same direction or in the opposite direction (in this latter case, the flanker arrows create an interference that has to be inhibited in order to answer correctly). Children had to concentrate on the central arrow and press a left button when the central arrow pointed to the left and a right button for the arrow pointing to the right. The authors explained the lack of a difference between the two groups by the fact that young emerging bilinguals in immersion programs (third grade children here) have not yet had much practice at inhibiting interference since they devote less time to second language production in a classroom situation than in real life.
Do children who have had further experience of immersion education show better control of interference inhibition? The answer comes from a paper by Ellen Bialystok and Raluca Barac who also used a flanker task but this time in two different studies with immersion children. In the first, they tested second and third graders who attended school in Hebrew, and in the second, they tested second and fifth graders in a French immersion program. In both studies they found that executive control performance improved with increased experience in a bilingual education environment. Basically, the length of time spent in an immersion program—some of their children had had two more years of immersion than in the Belgian study—determines the extent to which executive control is affected.
So the news is excellent for all those who are putting time and energy in immersion education—teachers and staff, parents and, of course, children. As Ellen Bialystok, Kathleen F. Peets and Sylvain Moreno state so nicely: “The road to bilingualism is incremental, and so are the accrued advantages”.
François Grosjean, Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland and the author of Bilingual: Life and Reality, among other books.
References
Ellen Bialystok & Raluca Barac (2012). Emerging bilingualism: Dissociating advantages for metalinguistic awareness and executive control. Cognition, 122, 67-73.
Ellen Bialystok, Kathleen F. Peets & Sylvian Moreno (2012). Producing bilinguals through immersion education: Development of metalinguistic awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 2012, 1-15, doi:10.1017/S0142716412000288
Anne-Catherine Nicolay & Martine Poncelet (2013). Cognitive advantage in children enrolled in second-language immersion elementary school program for three years. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16 (3), 597-607, doi:10.1017/S1366728912000375
www.psychologytoday.com
How did we get the teaching of Irish so wrong?
Eanáir 28, 2014
Irish is our official first language.
We spend at least 13 years studying it and yet very few of us would claim to be able to speak it. What is the problem with Irish in our education system? In a chilly hall in Loreto Bray, Co Wicklow, a group of Transition Year students are arguing about whether learning Chinese would be a better option than learning Irish. It’s the usual debate about culture versus practicality. Impressively, at least one girl has experience of both: “I’m learning Chinese and trust me, Irish is way easier.” These girls are taking part in a student outreach roadshow that youth co-ordinator for Conradh na Gaeilge Aodhán Ó Dea has been presenting in various schools during the past three years. The idea is to get students thinking about their attitudes to Irish and to inspire them to use the language outside of school.
“A lot of the time I’d find that students like the idea of the language,” says Ó Dea. “They don’t want to lose it, but often they say they don’t enjoy learning it. In some of the wealthier schools, the level of Irish is good, but the attitude towards it is downright hostile, and on the other hand some schools where standards aren’t great, the students are really receptive and enthusiastic about its importance to our culture.” It’s a thorny subject. Why, with 13 or 14 years of instruction and learning in Irish, does research show standards continue to fall? A 2006 report by Dr John Harris from Trinity College found a sharp fall in the standard of Irish among sixth-class students between 1985 and 2002. It also found a quarter of Irish primary school teachers believed their own standard of Irish to be “weak”.
Last November, the chief inspector’s report said students’ learning was “less than satisfactory in almost a quarter of Irish lessons in primary schools and almost a third of Irish lessons in post-primary schools”. The report was also concerned about language competence of teachers in a “small but significant number of classrooms”. Irish can be successfully taught, the students in Loreto Bray, for example, have a really good level of Irish, but that success is less common than it should be. So how can we improve?
Plans at primary level
At primary level a new integrated language curriculum is due for junior classes this September. It’s not before time. The curriculum in place since 1999 intended to encourage a communicative, task-based approach, but while the document itself is wonderfully child-centred and idealistic, it seems to ignore the fact that for most children, and indeed, teachers, Irish is a second language and needs to be learned rather than absorbed. Another, very simple problem with the old curriculum is that it was only available in Irish. For a busy teacher, this is an added obstacle, even for those with a reasonable proficiency in the language.
“We need an integrated teaching programme of Irish for English-medium schools,” says Deirbhile Nic Craith, education officer with the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO). “Previously, we had the Buntús Cainte which had step-by-step lessons for teachers. In Irish-medium primary schools, they have the Séideán Sí which is excellent but we have nothing like that for English-medium schools. We need a programme that integrates the various curriculum strands so busy teachers aren’t entirely left up to their own devices to plan.” This is an important point. Teachers need the support of a formal structure, an ABC of what to teach, right from oral Irish lessons in infant classes. There needs to be a clear and steady progression through the course. At the moment, there is no structure for teachers to follow. A clear, step-by-step, framework of Irish lesson plans, similar to French or Spanish, would benefit children and teachers who are less confident in their own command of the language.
The new curriculum, which will be introduced to junior classes (up to second class) in September 2014, will give teachers far more support in terms of what to teach and how to teach it. It will include a step-by-step guide about how to achieve particular curricular objectives. The curriculum will be published online to enable teachers to click through to the material and supports. Making an English-language version of the document would certainly help teachers, but some people involved in teacher-training acknowledge that such a move would be met with hostility from Irish language groups.
Pádraig Ó Duibhir of St Patrick’s College Drumcondra, with his colleague Prof Jim Cummins of the University of Toronto, has conducted a review for the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) of strategies proven to work for language learning in the lead up to this upcoming curriculum review. “Part of the issue is the system of 30 or 40 minutes a day for Irish in primary school,” says Ó Duibhir. “That drip drip approach has not been successful for Welsh in Wales or French in Canada. Schools achieving good results here have children using Irish outside the Irish class. One school, for example has had great success with a Lá na Gaeilge where everyone makes an effort to speak Irish on one day each week. The children have a need to use it. In practising it, they experience success, which further motivates them.”
An approach to language learning that takes the language outside of the language class has been successful. In Cordoba in Spain teachers are encouraged to teach one subject apart from English, through English. “PE and art are easy ways into that sort of approach. Science could work too,” Ó Duibhir says. Such an approach assumes a good level of competence from teachers and, as seen in the Harris report, that assumption is not always accurate. “Take teacher-training for second level,” says Anna Ní Ghallachair, director of the Language Centre in NUI Maynooth. “Entrants need a BA or a Masters’ in Irish, but what exactly does that mean in terms of their competence in the language? For primary-school teaching, higher-level Irish is a pre-requisite for entry into college, but again, does that really tell us anything about their language competence?”
One suggestion is for teachers to achieve a minimum level of competency as laid out by the common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This is a guide to describe the achievements of language learners across Europe. It is standardised and allows teachers and students understand what level of skill they have attained. The European certificate of Irish, the Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge (TEG), has been designed within this framework. People taking the TEG can sit a series of six exams that test for proficiency from absolute beginner right through to advanced.
Siuán Ní Mhaonaigh, the director of TEG, says “I firmly believe much of the tinkering being done to syllabi is unnecessary,” she says. “A practical and valid testing system would go a long way towards improving things for Irish. At the moment we are not asking the right questions in our exams.”
Lack of acceptable standards
Indeed, a lack of a recognised acceptable standard is a problem across the board. In first year of secondary school, a maths teacher can assume a certain level of numerical ability among students and can therefore build on that. An Irish teacher on the other hand could be faced with students who have excellent Irish alongside others who have barely a word. They aren’t so much building on a foundation as being forced to start from scratch.
“Standardised tests in Irish have been developed,” Nic Craith says. “If they were used it would give us some idea of what teachers could expect.” Nic Craith agrees that using the common European Framework of Reference for Languages could be a very useful tool, both within schools and in teacher-training. It would be an independent benchmark of a student or a teacher’s true ability and it would give students and teachers something to work towards. Proper assessment can be a motivator in and of itself.
However, by the time students reach second level, for many, a rot has already set in. Those who have a good level of Irish face boredom while the teacher tries to bring other students along, while students who have already experienced eight years of fruitless teaching and learning are more resistant and discouraged than ever. Students who are willing and happy to learn French and Spanish don’t see Irish in the same light. They have already learned it for eight years, they can’t speak it and therefore must be terrible at it.
The Leaving Cert’s two papers and the oral and aural exams can seem like too much work and many students opt for ordinary level as a strategy to allow them to focus on other subjects. The literature, it is argued, is off-putting and distracts from Irish as a language. Conradh na Gaeilge proposes that Irish at Leaving Cert should be subdivided into communicative Irish, which would be compulsory and which would take the oral language, written communication, comprehension and so-on, and an advanced option which would encompass poetry and literature. Others argue this would dumb down the subject with no evidence that the language would experience any boost as a result.
“We need to ask ourselves, are we teaching Irish for cultural reasons, or for it to be used?” says Dr Muiris Ó Laoire, a lecturer and researcher on multi-lingualism in IT Tralee. “If we want it to be used, we need to rethink what we’re doing. How are we going to provide meaningful opportunities for use? It can be done but it is a challenge.” “The teaching and learning of the language can, and does work,” says Ní Ghallachair. But for it to be more successful, we need to acknowledge the effort needed. We need to examine how teachers are trained to teach, how students are taught to learn and how all are motivated to use it. “Irish depends on the commitment of a school and teachers in a way other subjects don’t,” says Ó Duibhir. “But I think our expectations are unrealistic. That’s not to say the way things are is okay, but I do think that when it comes to Irish, perhaps we need to redefine what success is.”
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