Advising in Language Learning in a new speaker context: Facilitating linguistic shifts

Abstract

This article explores a specific example of advising for language learning utilized to support new speakers of Irish in the workplace. Advising in language learning (ALL) aims to provide a context that enables learners to achieve goals in a resourceful and fulfilling way and, ultimately, to equip them with the independent learning skills necessary to sustain, and transfer, their experiences in different settings. Key to this is the skilled work of language learning advisors.This study analyzes learning interventions between an advisor and a group of fifteen adults. It focuses on their language practices and experiences as observed during an immersion program in an Irish-speaking region. Data in the Participatory Action Research were collected at audio-recorded private and group language advising consultations and facilitated discussions on language anxiety; and in participant diaries and advisor observations. Change in learners’ attitudes; their reception by native speakers, reaction to language exchanges; transformative learning processes; and the advisor’s skillful interventions are examined. The study concludes with reflections and recommendations on the potential role of a local ALL framework to establish positive conditions for the growth of minority languages in revitalization contexts, and lays the foundations for further research on advising for new speakerness.