Entire Annual Report (2) - Flipbook - Page 70
Awareness Raising
In early 2021, PPLI conducted a series of focus groups with parents of fifth- and sixth- class primary pupils,
and third- and fourth-year secondary students to better understand their attitudes towards choosing
languages for Junior Cert and Leaving Cert.
Some interesting insights were received relating to levels of awareness of choice of subjects, the influence of
parent’s own language learning experience in the choice, and the overall attitude towards where foreign
languages sit in a priority list of subjects that is ever-changing and growing.
One key insight was that parents really want the information around the subjects available and their
potential benefits in the future to come through the schools. They will have more trust in information
disseminated by and through the school than anywhere else – whether that is via teachers, guidance
counsellors, the school newsletter, parent’s talks, open days/nights, etc. In 2021, PPLI set about addressing this
through the introduction of our Open Night Toolkit and a series of Leaving Cert Videos through a larger scale
nationwide #ThinkLanguages event.
PPLI encouraged the schools to disseminate the information, promote their events in local press and on
social media. We also continued to promote our Guidance resources and got them all translated into Gaeilge,
to make the accessible to all.
A second key insight was in relation to the enthusiasm for languages at an earlier age than secondary. There
was wide-scale support for some sort of introduction to foreign languages at Primary school – before the
pressure of exams is present and the pupils are less self-conscious about trying out something new. In 2021,
the introduction of the Primary Sampler Module has addressed this in schools nationwide. The awarenessraising potential of the sampler module cannot be under-estimated and is something we plan to build on in
2022 and beyond.
The awareness-raising effort is the responsibility of all stakeholders named in the Strategy, and in 2021 PPLI
worked with partners across Ireland to promote various projects, events, and initiatives. These include
primary, secondary and third level education institutions nationwide, embassies, guidance counsellor
organisations such as the NCGE, IGC and Careers Portal, Mother Tongues, European Commission, Business in
the Community Ireland, among many others.
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- PPLI ANNUAL REPORT 2021 -