PPLI Audit of Foreign Languages - Flipbook - Page 6
An increase in the number of classes in many schools for Italian would indicate that Italian is sometimes
introduced as a new subject in 5th year.
• 61% of schools do not have qualified language teachers who are not currently teaching a language, on average
each school has 0.8 teachers who are not teaching the languages that they are qualified to teach. 21% of schools
have one and 10% have two unused language teachers. Dublin and Cork are the only two counties which really
have spare capacity.
• The two main languages with spare capacity are French and German, and as already highlighted French is taught
in virtually every school and while German is not taught in every school, it is taught in every county. There is some
spare capacity in Spanish and Italian but 29% of principals stated that the teachers who were not teaching either
a language or one of their languages were in another role; 20% stated that it related to allocation; 16% stated
that it was because it could not be fitted into the time table; and 16% stated that it was due to insufficient
numbers of students interested in taking the language.
• 76% of schools would like to offer additional languages, with Spanish and Chinese the two most frequently
mentioned.
The comments that are repeated for Spanish relate to demand from both parents and students, popularity of
the language, a useful language for holidays and travel, spoken in lots of countries, and to a lesser extent, for
future career opportunities.
In relation to Chinese, most of the comments refer to it as a language for business and many principals mention
that they would like to provide it because their teachers are taking CPD modules in the language (this training
refers to the provision of Chinese classes to teachers by the Confucius Institutes which realistically would only
prepare teachers to deliver the TY unit which is primarily culture focussed. The preparation required to teach a
language would be the minimum of a degree in the language but for languages such as Chinese which take three
times the length of time as European languages for English speakers to achieve a basic proficiency in, significant
time living and working in the target language country would be required).
German is seen as advantageous for the school to offer a wider range of languages, a useful language for trade,
and for third level study (very useful for an Erasmus placement). In relation to German, and other languages,
schools mentioned availability of a teacher on staff.
Japanese was mentioned in the context of a positive experience working with PPLI. Italian was mentioned in the
context of it presenting the possibility of broadening the curriculum, of it being accessible and of having a
qualified teacher on staff.
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Audit of Foreign Languages Provision in Post-Primary Schools 2017
Post-Primary Languages Initiative February 2017 Draft Report