[Irish Independent] Irish lessons 'are a waste of time'

Dun

Taken from Today's Irish Independent.

Irish lessons 'are a waste of time'

LEARNING the Irish language is seen by a majority of people as a "necessary evil" or a "waste of time", an expert report concludes.

The report from the Government's advisory body on the curriculum also finds most people perceive learning the official first language as the price they pay for citizenship.

It says schools cannot make Irish the preferred medium of daily communication for the majority of the population.

The report, prepared for the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, acknowledges only a minority of those who are not native speakers leave school with the capacity to participate fully in events conducted in Irish.

The report's author, Prof David Little from TCD, says Irish is a key element of the country's heritage and a big part of its life today. He argues it is entirely appropriate the language should be an obligatory part of primary and secondary curriculums for all.

He says continued insistence on a single syllabus for native and non-native speakers is illogical and indefensible.

A single syllabus achieves the worst of both worlds. It offers the minority of native speakers what is effectively a foreign language syllabus, while placing unrealistic demands on most non-native speakers.

As disclosed in the Irish Independent last Friday, the report suggests Irish and a foreign language should be compulsory for all students through post-primary education - at present a foreign language is not compulsory for these students, although Irish is.

The report will be published as a discussion document in autumn, followed by a consultation process and decisions on a languages policy for schools.

Meanwhile, a separate report suggests modern languages be introduced to fifth and sixth classes in all primary schools. At present they are available in 347 schools as part of a pilot project.

The report by Dr John Harris and Mary Conway from Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann is positive about the pilot project.

But it says unless we are prepared to wait a long time for a universal primary programme, we will have to accept training large numbers of primary teachers in modern languages involves radical measures. Such a scheme could cost €28.24m. Prof Little's report also says schools should help dispel ignorance of the existence of Irish Traveller Cant, Travellers' traditional secret language.

The report also suggests a transition year project on the deaf community and Irish Sign Language, the preferred language of 5,000 deaf people in Ireland.

John Walshe
Education Editor

Disappointing, but hardly surprising. Very interesting point what they say about the two strands of Irish - native and non-native having one syllabus. I always was against literature and the like being introduced while language skills were still lacking, but I never thought of native speakers having to study 'what is effectively a foreign language syllabus'.

simu

Yup, I'm a native speaker of Irish and I spent many an hour at school learning grammar that I already knew. However, the Leaving Cert being just a mechanism for getting points to go to college as opposed to a real educational programme, most native Irish speakers are happy that they have at least one subject where they can get an A easily.

As for ppl not liking Irish at school, that's not surprising - but then again how many people love Shakespeare or the honours maths course?

As for not being able to speak irish after years of classes at school - few people seem to realise that once you pass a certain age, learning a language requires huge amounts of personal effort - simply listening to the teacher in class and doing a bit of homework from time to time is not enough to learn any language! I have become fluent in French but this required a lot of work and determination- learnig new vocab and grammar regularly, finding French books to read even though i could read many times faster in English, going to France and making a huge effort not to hand around with other English speakers but finding French people to talk to (this is especially hard when you start out as you don't know alot of the slang), looking stuff up in dictionaries in the middle of the night as I woke up and suddenly realised that I didn't know how to say X in French.

Of course, learning a language is also very rewarding mentally and culturally but it's not easy! Sure, you can learn enough Irish at school to do well in exams but that is not the same thing as the life-long process of learning a language!

Lord Nikon

Ta me ag gaire.

simu

Cén fáth?