PPLI Primary Guidelines - Flipbook - Page 24
Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
ppli.ie
2.3.2 Including Irish and home languages in the delivery of curriculum content
Irish
The use of Irish for classroom management and to reinforce the communication of curriculum content ensures that
the language is not confined to the Irish lesson pupils have each morning but becomes part of their everyday reality.
This effect is strengthened by spending a few minutes each day getting pupils to share their news in Irish – perhaps
something they heard or saw on the way to school (chonaic mé…/chuala mé … bhí timpist ar an mbóthar/is é seo
mo bhreithlá/ etc.) or some other event that has made an impression on them (e.g. bhí accident ar an mbóthar):
language that has personal relevance is easy to retain. Allow pupils to use English words to fill gaps in their knowledge
but write the missing Irish words on the whiteboard. Correct grammar and pronunciation, but without comment. Pupils
should always write new words and phrases in their copybooks; in junior classes they may draw matching pictures.
Alternatively, they can write the words and phrases on slips of paper that are kept in a box and referred to when needed.
By the time pupils are in First Class it should be possible to introduce individual lessons and topics in Irish, using the
whiteboard to model correct language use. The Irish that pupils write in their copy books can then be translated into
English and/or home languages for homework.
Home languages
By encouraging EAL pupils to volunteer words and phrases in their home language, the teacher ensures that those
languages are always activated to support pupils’ learning. EAL pupils know that the teacher and their classmates do
not know their home language, which means that they can contribute information that would otherwise not be
available to the class. This is empowering and fosters self-esteem. The teacher may tell the class that a small orange is
called a mandarin and ask EAL pupils what it is called in their language. Always accept whatever they offer – e.g.
mandarinka in Polish – even though you may have no way of knowing whether it is right or wrong: experience suggests
that in the great majority of cases it will be right. Contributions from EAL pupils are almost guaranteed to produce
interesting insights. For example, cold is fuar in Irish; in Romanian it is frieg, which sounds a bit like fridge, which is cold.
A plurilingual approach to classroom discussion – Make the translation of key words and phrases into Irish and EAL
pupils’ home languages a regular feature of classroom interaction. Write the translations on the whiteboard and have
pupils write them in their copybooks. If EAL pupils do not know how to spell the words and phrases they offer, get
them to ask their parents to write them down so that they can share them with the class the next day. The following
activities have been used successfully in various classes:
• Writing a single text in two or more languages
• Writing a text in one language and summarizing it in another
• Providing a list of key vocabulary for a text written in a language of the pupil’s choice
• Writing a factual text using a sequence of different languages
• Writing a dialogue between two or more characters, each of whom speaks a different language
• The countries of origin of EAL pupils’ families are located on a map. The pupils tell the class which languages are
spoken in these countries. Sometimes they can provide more information than the teacher; for example, Filipino
pupils may be able to give the class examples of the many loan words from Spanish that entered Tagalog as a result
of Spanish colonisation of the Philippines.
Delivering
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