Teachers Pointing Out Similarities Between Target Language And Irish

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The question was as follows: 'Do you point out similarities between the target language and Irish' Responses available were: always, often, sometimes, seldom and never. In comparison with the rather positive reports outlined above, when asked if similarities were pointed out between the TL and Irish, most respondents replied that they did so sometimes (29.3%, n = 44) and a vast number replied that they never do this (22.7%, n = 34). These responses were often accompanied by an unprompted written response as an aside, explaining that the respondent did not have knowledge of the Irish language, and therefore could not point out similarities where they may occur.

Across the variable of modern language taught, the most frequent response was once again sometimes, with Spanish teachers most likely to sometimes point out similarities between the TL and Irish, at 37.5% (n = 6) of these schools. Further, 32.2% (n = 29) of French teachers, 25.8% (n = 8) of German teachers and 10% (n = 1) of Italian teachers also chose this response. German teachers were slightly more likely to always point out similarities between the TL and Irish, ...
... with 19.4% (= 6) of them doing so, compared with 13.3% (n = 12) of French teachers, 10% (n = 1) of Italian teachers and 6.3% (n = 1) of Spanish teachers also doing so. The response for never pointing out similarities between the TL and Irish was relatively high, with 30% (n — 3) of Italian teachers choosing this option, 29% (n = 9) of German teachers, 22.2% (n = 20) of French teachers and 12.5% (n = 2) of Spanish teachers also reporting this. When looking at this variable in relation to school type, teachers in Gaelscoileanna were much more likely to always point out similarities between the TL and Irish, with 43.8% (n = 7) of teachers choosing this response. Only 9.9% (n = 13) of teachers in English-medium schools reported an always response. The pattern continues when looking at those teachers who never point out similarities between the TL and Irish, with 25.2% (n = 33) of teachers in English-medium schools and 8.3% (n = 1) of teachers in Gaelscoileanna reporting this.

Most language teachers use a mixture of the TL and English when explaining new vocabulary. Harris and Murtagh (1999, p. 3), while referring to the Teaching Through Irish Project, state that teaching through the TL represents the most truly communicative use thereof. They go on to tell us that teaching through the TL has been seen as highly desirable in communicative foreign-language teaching but has been difficult to initiate and promote. The findings in the present study show that some effort is being made to teach the TL through that language, while improvements can still be made in this regard. A small amount of French and German language teachers use a mixture of the TL and Irish, when explaining new vocabulary. This may be due to the higher proportion of Irish nationals teaching these languages.

All of those teachers, who reported using a mixture of the TL and Irish when explaining new vocabulary, were employed in Gaelscoileanna. Harris and Murtagh (1999) have referred to a number of authors such as White (1991), VanPatten and Cadierno (1993), Harley (1989), Day and Shapson (1991), and Lyster (1994) as having outlined the need for teachers attempting to increase language awareness in a second or third language, thereby facilitating the meta linguistic awareness of pupils under their tutelage. Summaries 5-11 show the findings from the present study.

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