The Teaching of Chinese and A Languagesineducation Policy in Ireland

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The Teaching of Chinese and A
Languages-in-education Policy in Ireland

• Muiris Ó Laoire

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• Structure of Presentation
• The changing sociolinguistic landscape of Ireland
• A languages- in- education policy for Ireland
• The challenges of diversification
• What the research tells us
• Possible pathways towards progression

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1. The changing sociolinguistic landscape of
Ireland

• The multilingual reality of contemporary Irish
  society
• Worldwide, the linguistic needs of bilingual and
  multilingual children have not tended to be
  sufficiently addressed by education systems whose
  linguistic habitus (Bourdieu 1991) has remained
  on the whole monolingual.

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• Ireland has a long history of bilingualism
• How has it managed its bilingualism?
• How will it manage its multilingualism?

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2. A languages-in education policy for Ireland

• Background
• The Official Languages Act (2003)
• National Council for Curriculum and Assessment
  2002
• Little (2004)addressing the changing
  sociolinguistic landscape
• The need for an overarching language policy
• NCCA Report (2004)
• Council of Europe CoE Process and Report (2007)
  

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3. The challenge of diversification

• Irelands school-going population is likely to
  remain multinational, multilingual and
  multi-ethnic.
• linguistic access to education
• the question of appropriate mother tongue support
  

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• How can other languages be included in the
  curriculum, in order to cater for the needs of
  new communities and their linguistic heritages,
  but as well as to benefit from the imported
  languages as a national resource for Ireland?
• CoE Report (2007)

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4. What the research tells us

• Research on immigrant/ L1 in a wide variety of
  contexts Al-Issa Tousignant 1997
  Pernice-Brook, 1996, Roer-Strier, 2000
• Emotional resonance that L1 has for its speakers
• emotional possibilities that a given
  language has for a bilingual, the sense of self
  that language makes possible
• Affords migrants a bilingual self-concept which
  promotes continuity in the process of change
  (Walker, 2004).

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4. What the research tells us

• The post-structural approach to language and
  identity (Lantolf Pavlenko, 2000 Norton, 2000)
  as well as the social-psychological perspective)
  emphasise a socially situated view of the self,
  articulated through linguistic means in social
  interaction

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4. What the research tells us

• When people interact through language they are
  not only exchanging information with target
  language speakers, but they are constantly
  organizing and reorganizing a sense of who they
  are and how they relate to the social world"
  (Norton 2001 166).

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4. What the research tells us

• Language is, after all, seen as a key factor in
  settlement and integration but more often than
  not in terms of migrants language problems,
  defined by a lack of host language proficiency or
  English deficiency.
• Such a monolingual perspective fails to
  recognize bi/multilinguals as complete people and
  typecasts them as inadequate monolinguals.
• The sole focus on English may be in stark
  contrast with migrants own self-perception as
  bi/multilinguals. It ignores their existing
  linguistic repertoires, which form part of the
  dynamics of the overall sociolinguistic ecology
  the wider sociocultural conditions (Lantolf,
  2000).

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4. What the research tells us
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4. What the research tells us

• Languages are closely associated with personal
  histories and therefore have the potential to
  connect peoples past with their future being and
  becoming (Fishman, 2001) in a new sociocultural
  context

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4. What the research tells us

• Fishmans (2001) notion of continuity
• Language Self Identity Knowing Doing
  Being
• Continuity of being thus suggests a continuity
  of self via ethnolinguistic membership, which in
  turn is facilitated by mother tongue.
• Multiple proficiencies and practices can act
  as mechanism to connect with the past and a
  common cultural heritage through the sharing of
  values which help strengthen ties with family and
  community and facilitate a more positive
  self-concept
• (Gibbons and Ramirez,
  2004).

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5. Possible Pathways Towards Progression

• In Language Policy research showing the
  importance of broker compromise
  situations-management linguistic ecosystems
  (Mühläuser, 1996)
• Avoiding a streamlining approach- Fettes
  (1997)-national level language planning might be
  inappropriate or impossible-each language exists
  in its own language ecology
• A new paradigm -the localised site or micro level
  for language planning agency ecology and rights

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5. Possible Pathways Towards Progression Goal
Oriented Framework at Micro-level for Chinese