Learning Irish and learning through Irish: a child’s perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT Irish Medium Education (IME) is a form of immersion education which uses extensive exposure to the Irish language to meet the language needs of children, helping them develop proficiency in the target language. In many cases, both in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland, children in IME come from homes in which English is the dominant language, and so immersion school staff play a pivotal role in developing children’s second language proficiency. This paper considers young pupils’ perspectives on their experiences of learning Irish in an immersion setting and focuses on what they understand to be the purpose of learning Irish and learning through the medium of Irish. These insights are based on the nature of their learning experiences and the support they have received from others. Children’s responses highlighted their feelings about the Irish language, their understanding of the process of learning Irish and those people who had been involved in helping them develop proficiency in the second language.