PPLI Primary Guidelines - Flipbook - Page 23
ppli.ie
Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
When Christmas is approaching, the song might begin:
Verse 1:
Verse 2:
Verse 3:
Tá Daidí na Nollag ag teacht (x 2)
Le féiríní do chách (x 2)
Santa’s on his way (x 2)
Hé hó mo dhaidio
Hé hó mo dhaidio
Hé hó mo dhaidio
Tá Daidí na Nollag ag teacht.
Le féiríní do chách.
Santa’s on his way.
The words in the second verse are translated by EAL pupils or their parents into their home language. The first verse is
repeated and sung, this time in English. Simply by imitating their classmates, all pupils in the class can learn to sing the
second verse in everyone’s language.
Events in the environment
An important task in the Infant classes is to develop observational skills that contribute to all aspects of pupils’
development, education and language learning. Both in the classroom and in the immediate environment, teachers
can use pupils’ observational capacity to support language learning; using Irish as the language of communication in
these situations encourages pupils to associate the language with interesting events. For example, on a walk around
the school grounds, the teacher stops and signals to everyone to be very quiet and listen to and/or look at the object
of her attention. Éistigí! Ar chuala sibh é sin? or Féach ar sin! Cad é? Using body language to indicate what she is listening
to or looking at, the teacher waits for a response from the children, who use whatever language they know to answer
the question. Their answers are confirmed by the teacher in Irish: Is éan é. Ta sé ag canadh. Back in the classroom this
event can be used to reinforce the language that has been learned. The teacher asks: Cad a chuala tú? Cad a chonaic
tú? With her help the children answer: Chuala mé… Chonaic mé …. Phrases like these can be reinforced until they are
a fully embedded part of each child’s linguistic repertoire and can be used as the basis for further language
development. Encouraging children to draw a picture of the bird and telling the class: Is éan é, helps to further reinforce
the language involved. Over the course of a week or longer, pupils can create similar pages with drawings of different
animals or objects of interest. Stapled together, the pages make a book. Children can then use their books as prompts
to recall the Irish they have learnt.
The spiral nature of the Primary School Curriculum helps to ensure that the language learned at this early stage will
develop to become a natural part of each pupil’s linguistic repertoire that can be expanded further with regular use.
Games
Irish and EAL pupils’ home languages can be used to perform action games like “Hand to hand”,“Toe to toe” and “Head,
shoulders, knees and toes”. Irish can be used to play other familiar games. Bingo is one possibility; another is a guessing
game in which one pupil hides an object behind her back and the pupil who correctly guesses what the object is takes
the next turn. Almost without effort pupils learn the language specific to each game – for the guessing game, Cad atá
i bhfolach agam? Cad atá i bhfolach sa bhosca agam? Cad atá i bhfolach faoin bhoird agam? Is ____é. Ta ____ agat.
Telling the time
When pupils learn to tell the time they should do so in English and Irish. EAL pupils can teach the rest of the class how
to tell the time in their home language.
Delivering
23