Page 283 - Karmen Pižorn, Alja Lipavic Oštir in Janja Žmavc, ur. • Obrazi več-/raznojezičnosti. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut, 2022. Digitalna knjižnica, Dissertationes 44
P. 283
rethinking language teaching: the theory and practice of plurilingual education
the early 1990s; later in the decade there was a rapid increase in the num-
ber of asylum seekers and economic migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan
Africa and Eastern Europe; migrant workers were recruited from non-EU
countries to serve the expanding economy; and large numbers of immi-
grants came from Eastern European and Baltic states after the enlargement
of the EU in 2004, 2007 and 2013. Between 1996 and 2016 the population
grew by 31 per cent, from 3.6 to 4.8 million, and today Ireland is a linguisti-
cally and culturally diverse society.
The immigrant population is not spread evenly across the country:
most immigrants live in urban areas where they can find jobs and housing
is affordable. Some schools have many immigrant pupils/students,1 some
have a few, and some – especially in rural areas – have none at all. Immi-
grants have brought with them some 200 languages, and the pre-school
experience of their children is mostly lived through one of these languag-
es rather than through English or Irish. At the end of the 1990s, the gov-
ernment responded to the educational challenge this posed by funding two
years of English language support for each EAL pupil/student (that is, pu-
pils/students for whom English is an Additional Language). EAL pupils/
students are assigned to a mainstream class, usually on the basis of their
age, and provided with English language support in small groups with-
drawn from their mainstream class for the purpose. From 2000 to 2008,
Integrate Ireland Language and Training (a not-for-profit campus compa-
ny of Trinity College Dublin of which David Little was non-stipendiary di-
rector) developed support materials and resources and mediated them to
teachers in regular in-service seminars (Little and Lazenby Simpson, 2009).
In 2008 funding was withdrawn from IILT, and since then schools have
mostly been left to their own devices.
Primary schooling in Ireland lasts for eight years, from 4½ to 12½.
There are two preliminary years, Junior and Senior Infants, equivalent to
pre-school in other countries, and six grades, known as Classes. The Pri-
mary School Curriculum (Government of Ireland, 1999) is divided into sev-
en areas: language (English and Irish); mathematics; social, environmental
and scientific education (history, geography, science); arts education (visual
arts, music, drama); physical education; social, personal and health educa-
tion; religious or ethical education. This last area is the responsibility of the
different school patron bodies, predominantly the Roman Catholic Church
and the (Anglican) Church of Ireland.
1 In Ireland it is usual to refer to pupils at primary and students at post-primary level.
283
the early 1990s; later in the decade there was a rapid increase in the num-
ber of asylum seekers and economic migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan
Africa and Eastern Europe; migrant workers were recruited from non-EU
countries to serve the expanding economy; and large numbers of immi-
grants came from Eastern European and Baltic states after the enlargement
of the EU in 2004, 2007 and 2013. Between 1996 and 2016 the population
grew by 31 per cent, from 3.6 to 4.8 million, and today Ireland is a linguisti-
cally and culturally diverse society.
The immigrant population is not spread evenly across the country:
most immigrants live in urban areas where they can find jobs and housing
is affordable. Some schools have many immigrant pupils/students,1 some
have a few, and some – especially in rural areas – have none at all. Immi-
grants have brought with them some 200 languages, and the pre-school
experience of their children is mostly lived through one of these languag-
es rather than through English or Irish. At the end of the 1990s, the gov-
ernment responded to the educational challenge this posed by funding two
years of English language support for each EAL pupil/student (that is, pu-
pils/students for whom English is an Additional Language). EAL pupils/
students are assigned to a mainstream class, usually on the basis of their
age, and provided with English language support in small groups with-
drawn from their mainstream class for the purpose. From 2000 to 2008,
Integrate Ireland Language and Training (a not-for-profit campus compa-
ny of Trinity College Dublin of which David Little was non-stipendiary di-
rector) developed support materials and resources and mediated them to
teachers in regular in-service seminars (Little and Lazenby Simpson, 2009).
In 2008 funding was withdrawn from IILT, and since then schools have
mostly been left to their own devices.
Primary schooling in Ireland lasts for eight years, from 4½ to 12½.
There are two preliminary years, Junior and Senior Infants, equivalent to
pre-school in other countries, and six grades, known as Classes. The Pri-
mary School Curriculum (Government of Ireland, 1999) is divided into sev-
en areas: language (English and Irish); mathematics; social, environmental
and scientific education (history, geography, science); arts education (visual
arts, music, drama); physical education; social, personal and health educa-
tion; religious or ethical education. This last area is the responsibility of the
different school patron bodies, predominantly the Roman Catholic Church
and the (Anglican) Church of Ireland.
1 In Ireland it is usual to refer to pupils at primary and students at post-primary level.
283
