PPLI Audit of Foreign Languages - Flipbook - Page 7
Where heritage languages were mentioned the comments focussed on the importance of inclusion, a recognition
of the numbers of students speaking the language, and a desire to meet the real needs of the students in school.
Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic were mentioned in the context of these languages along with Polish and
Lithuanian.
• Among those schools that indicated the availability of teachers who with further upskilling could teach additional
languages, Spanish, Chinese and Italian are the languages most mentioned.
• When principals were asked what resources they would need in order to increase the provision of foreign
languages on the curriculum in their school, 58% mentioned an increase in allocation and 39% mentioned a
qualified teacher.
• 32% of principals who commented in the general comments section, referred to a serious shortage of MFL
(Modern Foreign Language) teachers. It was mentioned throughout the survey, and a reduced number of
teaching graduates from the HEIs confirms this.
• When asked about the numbers of candidates presenting for Leaving Certificate non-curricular languages, 41%
of schools mentioned a curricular language indicating that the term non-curricular language is often
misunderstood.
• 75% of English-medium schools reported that students have sat Leaving Certificate non-curricular languages,
compared to only 39% in Irish-medium schools. Despite this, only 20% of schools are aware of heritage language
support classes in the local area. 71% of schools are at least fairly interested in either e-Learning or blended
learning support for heritage languages.
• Dublin is the only country where all the relevant non-curricular languages and Arabic and Russian have more than
10 Leaving Certificate sits. Dublin is also the only country with more than 10 Leaving Certificate sits for Latvian;
Galway and Dublin are the only counties with more than 10 Leaving Certificate sits for Portuguese. Cork only
features in this data for Polish and Russian.
Polish has more than 10 Leaving Certificate sits in 19 counties, Lithuanian has more than 10 Leaving Certificate
sits in 7 counties, Russian features in 9 counties, Romanian only features in Dublin and Meath.
• In terms of demand for support classes for non-curricular languages, it is clear that the majority (69% in Englishmedium schools) do not see much demand for support classes, and only one in seven considers there is a great
deal of demand or a fair amount. Schools do not always understand that students and parents should be actively
encouraged to maintain their heritage languages, and informed of the benefits of maintaining them.
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Audit of Foreign Languages Provision in Post-Primary Schools 2017
Post-Primary Languages Initiative February 2017 Draft Report