Written Answers. - Linguistic Levels.
Enda Kenny
Ceist:
134
Mr. Kenny
asked the
Minister for Education and Science
the studies which have been carried out on the comparative levels of linguistic ability in Irish of children attending scoileanna lánGhaelacha in comparison to children attending ordinary primary schools; his views on the quality of spoken Irish of children attending each type of school; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[3964/02]
A comparative study of the levels of speaking and listening skills in Irish was carried out by Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann on pupils in second class in a national sample of primary schools in 1982. The sample included schools in the Gaeltacht, all-Irish schools outside the Gaeltacht and other national schools. A more limited comparison of the levels of listening and speaking skills in Irish of pupils in fourth class in a national sample of schools skills was carried out by Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann in 1980. The results of these surveys were published by Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann in 1984 in Spoken Irish in Primary Schools by John Harris.
In 1985 a national sample of primary schools, including Gaeltacht schools, all-Irish schools outside the Gaeltacht and other schools was used by Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann to carry out a comparative study of the levels of listening and speaking skills in Irish among pupils in sixth class. The results of this study were published in an article in the international journalLanguage, Culture and Curriculum and in a chapter by John Harris and Lelia Murtagh in a book entitled, Third International Conference on Minority Languages: Celtic Papers edited by McEoin, G., Alqvist, A. and Ó hAodha, D. (1987). These studies show that children in Gaeltacht schools and in all-Irish schools generally have substantially higher levels of receptive and expressive skills in Irish than their counterparts in other schools.
Studies of various aspects of the teaching and learning of Irish by Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann have continued since these national surveys of the 1980s and this more recent work is summarised in a major report, Teaching and Learning Irish in Primary School, by John Harris and Lelia Murtagh published in 1999. One of the major findings of this work is that children have significantly higher levels of achievement in listening to and speaking Irish in schools and classes where the focus is more on communication than on traditional language practice and memorisation.
The Educational Research Centre and Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann are preparing jointly to carry out a survey of achievement in the Irish language at sixth class in primary schools towards the end of the current school year. The survey will assess speaking, listening and reading skills. It will be carried out in a representative sample of schools, including Gaeltacht and all-Irish schools outside the Gaeltacht as well as other schools. It will allow comparisons between current standards of Irish and those that obtained in the 1980s. It will also provide a baseline for measuring any changes that occur after teachers begin to implement the revised curriculum. The research work done on teaching and learning Irish provides valuable insights into the complex process of language learning and language development. I am committed to doing all that is necessary to ensure that our pupils' experience of learning and of using Irish is positive and successful.
The recently revised primary curriculum is designed to cater for the language learning and development needs of all pupils, whether they attend Gaeltacht, all-Irish or other schools and whether their mother tongue is Irish or English. Last December I announced the setting up of An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta. Its work will support the teaching of Irish in Gaeltacht schools, all-Irish schools and in other schools and will also support the provision of education through Irish.
