Is Tusa an Muinteoir: Engaging Children and Parents as Learners of the Irish Language in an English-Medium School

Abstract

The lack of opportunity for the majority of children attending English-medium primary schools to speak Irish outside of school, coupled with a documented decline in attainment in Irish language proficiency in recent decades in English-medium schools, constitute an ongoing concern within education and broader society. This study seeks to explore the overarching outcomes of enacting a sociocultural theory (SCT)-informed pedagogical approach to create meaningful domains of use for learners of Irish in terms of the impact on learners? (a) Irish language use and self-assessed proficiency and (b) motivation and attitudes towards the Irish language. It also seeks to review and evaluate learners? experience of an SCT-informed language pedagogy. Utilising a participatory action research methodology with children and parents as project partners, this is achieved through the piloting and evaluation of two specific SCT-informed pedagogic approaches: (i) tutoring and (ii) technology-mediated language learning (TMLL). Findings indicate that children demonstrated an increase in Irish language use and self-assessed ability in addition to sustained motivation levels. The study indicates that children and parents were positively disposed towards the piloted teaching and learning approaches and that parents gained a greater understanding of their child?s Irish language education and learning experience. The participatory action research methodology also emerges as a crucial element of the study in providing a mechanism for child and parent participants to both share their learning experiences and be part of the design and research process. Key recommendations for policy and practice in relation to the development of Irish language opportunities for learners of Irish as an additional language (IAL) are identified in the context of school, local, national and international domains.