In newly multilingual communities, where the language of education can no longer be assumed to be the home language of students, debates around language education policy can reflect broader sociocultural and political assumptions. As Ireland has become increasingly diverse in recent decades, the core compulsory status of the Irish language has…

In the two decades preceding Irish independence the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge, founded 1893), an organisation dedicated to the revival of the Irish language, campaigned to persuade both national and intermediate commissioners of education to reposition the language within the curriculum to reflect what the League believed was both its…

Following a period of close to a century when the Irish language was placed at the margins of the education system under British rule, there was a radical change in curriculum provision following political independence in Ireland in the 1920s. The importance of the Irish language in defining sovereignty, national identity, and nationhood in the…

Despite the increasing popularity of Chinese and the recognition of the growing commodifying ideology of Chinese language in many contexts [Liu, Y., & Gao, X. (2020). Commodification of the Chinese language: Investigating language ideology in the Irish media. "Current Issues in Language Planning," 21(5), 512-531.…

This is the first international and interdisciplinary handbook to offer a comprehensive and an in-depth overview of findings from contemporary research, theory, and practice in early childhood language education in various parts of the world and with different populations. The contributions by leading scholars and practitioners are structured to…

While research on Irish-medium immersion education (IME) has heralded benefits such as cognitive skills, academic achievement and language and literacy development, many studies have also identified challenges to its successful implementation. Immersion-specific research-validated tools can help school leaders navigate the school self-evaluation…

This article explores policy and practice in relation to support for speakers of community languages in Northern Ireland primary schools against the backdrop of the broader UK context, with reference also to the Republic of Ireland and wider European and international experiences. After an initial discussion of the educational, social and…

This paper examines, ''transformative pedagogy'' in post-primary, language teacher education in Ireland from philosophical, psychological and social perspectives. Links are made, where appropriate, to findings from a study at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. The construct supports teacher and pupils in developing their identity…

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…

As a language, Irish is unique to Ireland and is, therefore, of crucial importance to the identity of the Irish people, to Irish culture and to world heritage. The Irish language however has had a turbulent and traumatic history and has endured a complex and varied relationship with the Irish people. Since the foundation of the Irish Free State,…

The teaching and learning of Irish in primary school is both an important educational issue and central to the national language revitalization effort. The findings of Irish-language programme evaluations, therefore, are invariably scrutinized very closely by different sectors. This paper examines how the later stages of a major evaluation took…

Analysing the influence of new technologies/media (e.g., mobile phones, chats, instant messaging services) on the use and learning of maternal languages basic rules is the goal of this investigation, involving teachers and students (10th, 11th and 12th grade pupils, aged between 16 and 21) at the "Escola Secundaria de Silves" -- ESS…

This article by the Council of Europe discusses the fact that Irish is a required curriculum subject, Teachers disagree about whether Irish should be mandatory. (AM)

Language planning for the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland has featured prominently in international language policy and planning literature over the years. Researchers in the field may not be up to date, however, with recent developments in the area of Irish language planning and their impact on the language ecology. This monograph…

The lack of a Hiberno-English phonetic system that teachers of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) can refer to is addressed. Through the utilization of a questionnaire given to seven English as a Foreign Language (EFL) schools in Dublin, and two additional schools outside of Dublin, an attempt was made to measure the amount of interest in this…