The Irish language is a minority language undergoing the attenuation and accelerated change commonly seen as threatened languages come under increasing pressure from the dominant language. The decline of the numbers of traditional speakers and growing numbers of L2 speakers of Irish has given rise to some contested spaces regarding authenticity,…

Difficulties establishing support for English speakers taking second language electives in postsecondary education in Ireland led to research on how language classes could be more accessible, multicultural, plurilingual and relevant for students in a university language centre. It is important to try and discover why students choose a foreign…

In webconferencing-supported teaching, the webcam mediates and organizes the pedagogical interaction. Previous research has provided a mixed picture of the use of the webcam: while it is seen as a useful medium to contribute to the personalization of the interlocutors' relationship, help regulate interaction and facilitate learner comprehension…

This paper considers the attitudes and behaviours of university language lecturers and their students regarding the use of the L1 in the higher education L2 classroom. A case study of one Irish higher education institution was carried out and qualitative interviews conducted with six lecturers in Japanese and six in German. The results indicated…

Research on the routines of doctor-patient consultations has been conducted in language and culture concordant dyads and in dyads where either doctor or patient uses a foreign language; yet there is an absence of scholarly engagement with consultations where both participants are using a foreign language. In seeking to address this gap, this…

Increased attention to integrated approaches has resulted from demands to prioritise literacy learning while maintaining a balanced curriculum in primary schools. Limited empirical evidence to support integrated approaches to teaching physical education (PE) exists. This study explored the integration of PE content learning and the learning of…

This article focuses on qualitative self-report data from a mixed-methods study which investigated Grade 5 and 6 (n = 274), 11-12-year-old, Irish-medium (IM) immersion students' improvement in linguistic accuracy in response to an explicit-inductive approach to form-focused instruction (FFI). A series of typographically enhanced PowerPoint slides…

Since the establishment of a Language Support Service in 1999, all newcomer children with limited English skills arriving in schools in Ireland are entitled to two years of additional English language support. This is provided mainly by designated Language Support Teachers (LSTs). During the peak of the Celtic Tiger, there was a sharp growth in…

The focal point of the article is Irish language teaching in the Republic of Ireland. Firstly, we deal with the most significant documents where the status of the Irish language is being defined. In this respect, for the purposes of analysis, we have chosen the document titled "20 Year Strategy for the Irish language" which plays a…

A review of the literature on language teaching reveals predominantly negative attitudes towards the use of translation in language teaching (TILT) (Cook, 2010). The purpose of this article is to explore the question of whether this negativity is reflected in the attitudes and behaviours of university lecturers engaged in language teaching as well…

Interlingual subtitling has been extensively investigated for language learning and teaching purposes in the last decade. However, there is a lack of research into the creation of subtitles as a means of intercultural learning. This article is a first empirical attempt to verify the potential of subtitling for intercultural language education. It…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the challenges facing Irish organisations in the training and development of non-Irish workers. It analyses the importance of fluency in the host country's language and the approach taken by organisations in relation to language training. In-depth semi-structured interviews provide significant insights for the…

Drawing on qualitative interview and focus group data collected from Internationally Educated Teachers (IETs) in the context of two different research studies conducted in Ireland and Manitoba, Canada, this article critically examines how national/regional linguistic requirements and expectations of a hidden curriculum are experienced as barriers…

A drive for the development of European citizenship (EC) through Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teaching has existed for some time within the academic literature as well as policy institutions. Nevertheless, the views of MFL teachers on the role of MFL in developing EC have rarely been given a voice. This article presents the findings of a study…

In the 2011 census almost one in three Irish teenagers claimed to be unable to speak Irish (Central Statistics Office, Ireland, 2012), despite the language being taught daily in school. The challenges facing the Irish language in schools are complex and multifaceted. The research reported here attempts to address some of these challenges by…