Although the vast majority of people in Ireland have at least some knowledge of Irish, only a small minority speak it as a community language (in Gaeltacht areas in the west) or in the more widely dispersed Irish-speaking households in the large English speaking area. Primary schools have had a central role in language revitalisation since the late 19th century, by transmitting a knowledge of the language to each new generation. This paper examines how well primary schools have performed in recent decades. Results of a national comparative study over a 17 year period show that there has been a long-term decline in pupil success in learning Irish (speaking and listening) in ‘ordinary’ schools. Proficiency in Irish in all-Irish immersion schools in English-speaking areas have held up well despite rapid expansion. Reasons for the decline in ordinary schools include time pressures in the curriculum, a reduction in Irish-medium teaching, changing teacher attitudes and a lack of engagement by parents. The changing role of the Department of Education and Science in relation to Irish and the rapid evolution of new educational structures, have also have had negative effects. Implications for the revitalisation of Irish are discussed.
2023. Identifying creative and participatory approaches to respond to existing challenges for Irish language teaching and learning at English-medium primary school level. Irish Educational Studies 42:4 ► pp. 599 ff.
O’Toole, Jane & Ann Devitt
2022. Twitter as a dynamic language learning platform for learners of Irish as
an additional language in a primary school setting in Ireland: review and
recommendations. In Intelligent CALL, granular systems and learner data: short papers from
EUROCALL 2022, ► pp. 302 ff.
Bélanger, Nathalie & Éliane Dulude
2020. La francophonie : un objet à redéfinir. Éducation et francophonie 48:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Spolsky, Bernard
2019. A modified and enriched theory of language policy (and management). Language Policy 18:3 ► pp. 323 ff.
Ó MURCHADHA, NOEL & COLIN J. FLYNN
2018. Educators’ Target Language Varieties for Language Learners: Orientation Toward ‘Native’ and ‘Nonnative’ Norms in a Minority Language Context. The Modern Language Journal 102:4 ► pp. 797 ff.
Hickey, Tina & Nancy Stenson
2016. Second-language Acquisition of Irish and the Role of Reading. In Sociolinguistics in Ireland, ► pp. 269 ff.
McAdory, Sara E. & Jan Germen Janmaat
2015. Trends in Irish-medium education in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since 1920: shifting agents and explanations. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 36:5 ► pp. 528 ff.
Cenoz, Jasone
2012. Bilingual educational policy in higher education in the Basque Country. Language, Culture and Curriculum 25:1 ► pp. 41 ff.
Ó Laoire, Muiris
2012. Language policy and minority language education in Ireland: re-exploring the issues. Language, Culture and Curriculum 25:1 ► pp. 17 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.