PPLI Annual Report (2019) - Flipbook - Page 6
Director Review
The activity continues around what is still a relatively new Languages Connect Ireland’s
Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017-2026. The expanded brief continues to
present many possibilities and opportunities, and we now have almost a full team in place.
2019 was another year of taking on a significant number of new projects and challenges
and it was one very exciting year.
The first new project to be introduced was a pilot for the provision of Content and Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL) in TY. MFL teachers of French and Spanish delivered two TY modules based on this approach,
teaching Well-being and Fairtrade through French and Spanish. There were face-to-face CPD sessions, the
development and sharing of resources, and virtual communities of practice organised. Teachers reported the
benefits of cross-curricular collaboration, the opportunity to reflect on their own language and a different level
of engagement among students. Students reported that classes were more interesting and that using the
foreign language to learn a subject increased their confidence.
For the first time supports for Foreign Language Assistants and their Co-operating Teachers were provided in
seven locations around the country and a new team of associates were engaged to support the delivery of this
training as well as to assist with facilitating Communities of Practice, of which there were fifty-seven in 2019.
Ten additional schools received funding for new school language exchanges, and teachers commented on a
new level of engagement and enthusiasm in their classes as a result. Students came back encouraged to look
at language learning in a different way and many said they had the best time of their lives. Schools used the
exchanges to raise awareness of the value of language exchanges, sharing their experiences with others in the
school community and on social media as well as in local print media.
Polish and Portuguese were introduced for the first time in schools in Cork, the provision of Lithuanian was
expanded in Monaghan, a school in Drogheda introduced Russian, and other schools in Dublin opted to
diversify their languages curriculum with Japanese, Korean, Polish, Lithuanian and Russian. Seven schools were
enabled to diversify the provision of the traditional curricular languages after their own teachers took part in
the Scheme for Teacher Upskilling. Expressions of Interest were sought for the new Leaving Certificate
languages due to be examined for the first time in 2022 and PPLI look forward to supporting Chinese in 2020
along with existing languages.
Online support was introduced for Lithuanian, Polish, and Portuguese (the non-curricular languages that are
soon-to-be curricular) and nearly 100 students registered, receiving support from online tutors for up to eight
essays per year.
Summer camps to support the maintenance of heritage languages were also facilitated for the first time. Some
students reported that they had been sent by their parents but stayed because they were having such fun.
Others commented that the camp had encouraged them to respond to their parents in their home language
rather than in English and to think about taking their language for Leaving Certificate.
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