PPLI Primary Guidelines - Flipbook - Page 12
Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
ppli.ie
pupils from immigrant families become literate in their home language by transferring the skills they are developing in
English and Irish. In this they receive help from their parents, older siblings and other family members, and in some cases
from weekend classes organized by their community. But there is ample evidence to suggest that the high levels of
motivation generated by the school’s language policy enable pupils to make a great deal of progress under their own
steam. By doing so, they confirm Cummins’s Interdependence Hypothesis, according to which skills developed in one
language can be transferred to another language provided there is adequate exposure to that language and sufficient
motivation. The key procedure adopted by Scoil Bhríde is the production of parallel texts – that is, texts with the same
structure and thematic content – in English, Irish and home languages. To begin with, in Senior Infants, the texts are very
simple: “My name is …, my teacher is …”. But as pupils gradually learn to write more complex texts in English and Irish,
so the texts they produce in their home language become correspondingly more complex. Transfer of skills between
languages is fundamental to the Primary Language Curriculum, to which we now turn.
1.4 An integrated approach to the teaching and learning of Irish and English
As we pointed out in section 1.1, the Primary Language Curriculum embodies a version of the plurilingual approach
because it aims to provide pupils with a learning experience in which English and Irish support one another. It also
acknowledges in its core curriculum document and its support materials the role of EAL pupils’ home languages and
includes the use of “other languages” in its learning outcomes (see Section 1.1 above). The rationale for the curriculum
recognizes that language is “central to how and what we learn” and “our chief means of intrapersonal and interpersonal
communication”, noting that language “develops through communicating – by giving, receiving and making sense of
information”. The rationale defines language learning as an “integrated process” that is the product of “meaningful
interactions and conversations” and entails the transfer of skills between languages. To adapt a key formulation from
the CEFR, the Primary Language Curriculum aims to help pupils to develop a communicative competence to which all
knowledge and experience of English, Irish and other languages contributes and in which English, Irish and other
languages interrelate and interact. The pedagogical principles implied by the CEFR’s plurilingual approach (see section
1.1) are thus directly relevant to the Primary Language Curriculum:
•
The teaching and learning of Irish and English should be grounded in language use that is spontaneous and
authentic; this ensures that both languages are an integral part of pupils’ daily communicative experience.
•
Teaching and learning should draw on all the linguistic resources available to learners, whether or not the class
includes pupils with a home language other than English or Irish.
•
Teaching and learning should acknowledge that English and Irish are discrete entities that differ greatly as regards
vocabulary, morphology, syntax and phonology.
•
By encouraging reflection on the similarities and differences between the two languages, teaching should help
pupils to develop language awareness and understand what it means to learn how to learn a language.
Delivering
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