PPLI Primary Guidelines - Flipbook - Page 37
ppli.ie
Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
Texts in three languages
Sooner or later EAL pupils begin to produce parallel texts in English, Irish and their home language. At this stage it is a
good idea to encourage pupils not always to begin with the same language so that they learn how to move freely
among the languages in their repertoire. In Third and Fourth Class, it is not unusual for pupils to produce parallel texts
that run to several pages.
Not to be outdone by their EAL peers, some Irish pupils
may produce text in English, Irish and a language that is
not taught at school – an older sister may be learning
Spanish at secondary school or a neighbour may be a
native speaker of Italian. It is important to recognize that
with appropriate help pupils can produce well-formed
text in a language of which they know little besides the
text they have written. Even if they have no further
contact with the language, performing such a task is a
worthwhile learning experience, to be set beside the
learning of fragments of EAL pupils’ home languages
when playing in the school yard.
PPLI delivering
Supported by
37