Curriculum Development and Textbook Design for North American Learners of Irish

Abstract

During the past decade, the number of institutions of higher education in North America that offer courses in modern Irish has multiplied. However, there is still no standard college level textbook available for Irish language students. This article will provide a brief review of the literature and share results of a survey of Irish language instructors at third level institutions in North America. In the first part of the paper, the author identifies Irish language textbook use, assesses student needs and goals, and refers to research articles involving syllabus design, all within the context of learning Irish in North America. The second part shares findings of the author's current investigations. Three research questions were posed: (1) Do instructors of Irish prefer a course textbook to be in standard Irish or one of the regional dialects? (2) On what language learning approach should such a course textbook be based? (3) How should culture be depicted in such a textbook? Twenty-seven instructors of Irish who have taught at institutions of higher education participated in the survey. The analysis of their questionnaires provided rich data that will serve to inform future textbook designers.