Gaeilge labhartha na bpáistí i scoileanna lán-Ghaeilge i dTuaisceart na hÉireann The spoken Irish of pupils in Irish-medium schools in Northern Ireland Pádraig Ó Duibhir, Coláiste Phádraig, Ollscoil Bhaile Átha Cliath [email protected] Jill Garland, Coláiste Ollscoile Naomh Muire, Béal Feirste [email protected] December 2010 Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ................................. 6 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 6 3.2 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 7 3.2.1 Objectives ............................................................................................................... 7 3.2.2 Ethnomethodology: collaborative task and stimulated recall ................................. 7 3.2.3 Quantitative approach: analysis of pupil speech ..................................................... 9 3.2.4 Phenomenology ...................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Participants ................................................................................................................ 9 3.3.1 Invitation to participate in the study ..................................................................... 11 3.4 The research instruments ....................................................................................... 11 3.4.1 Playground-design task ......................................................................................... 12 3.4.2 Stimulated recall ................................................................................................... 13 3.4.3 Principal and class teacher interviews .................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 4: DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS OF PUPILS’ SPEECH .....................16 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 16 4.2 Description of corpus .............................................................................................. 16 4.2.1 Analytic systems ................................................................................................... 16 4.2.2 Preliminary type/token analysis ............................................................................ 17 4.3 50 most common words: Variations by school type ............................................. 19 4.4 Analysis of corpus for the presence of errors ....................................................... 24 4.5 Code-mixing and code-switching ........................................................................... 26 4.5.1 Intrasentential use: The 25 most common English words .................................... 27 4.5.2 The general use of English words ......................................................................... 29 4.5.3 Pupil-pupil exchanges: Language related episodes .............................................. 30 i 4.6 Discussion of results ................................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER 5: THE SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL FEATURES OF IRISH-MEDIUM AND ALL-IRISH SCHOOL PUPIL’S IRISH ...........................................................34 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 34 5.2 Syntactic and morphological features of Irish ..................................................... 34 5.2.1 Initial mutations in Irish ........................................................................................ 35 5.2.2 Word order principles in main clauses ................................................................. 35 5.2.3 Word order principles in verbal noun clauses ...................................................... 36 5.2.4 The copula Is and substantive verb Bí .................................................................. 37 5.2.5 Irregular verbs ....................................................................................................... 38 5.3 The syntactic and lexical features of all-Irish pupils’ Irish ................................ 39 5.3.1 Layout of glosses .................................................................................................. 40 5.3.2 Syntactic features of pupils’ Irish ......................................................................... 40 5.3.3 Use of the copula ‘Is’ ............................................................................................ 41 5.3.4 The substantive verb Bí ........................................................................................ 50 5.3.5 Morphology of the verbs caith, cuir, déan and faigh ............................................ 56 5.3.6 Use of numbers ..................................................................................................... 67 5.3.7 Use of interrogative pronouns Cad, Cad é, and Céard .......................................... 68 5.3.10 Pupils’ use of the pronoun é ‘it’ ........................................................................ 70 5.3.11 Mapping English syntax onto Irish ................................................................... 72 5.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 75 5.4.1 Morphology of verbs ............................................................................................ 75 5.4.2 Use of numbers ..................................................................................................... 76 5.4.3 Influence of English .............................................................................................. 77 5.4.4 Analytic teaching methodology ............................................................................ 77 CHAPTER 6: PUPILS’ REFLECTIONS ON THEIR COMMUNICATIVE PERFORMANCE IN IRISH ....................................................................................79 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 79 6.2 Stimulated recall activity ........................................................................................ 79 6.3 Pupils’ perceptions of the quality of their Irish and code-mixing ...................... 82 6.4 Correction of mistakes following reflection on output ........................................ 84 6.4.1 Correction of specific mistakes ............................................................................. 84 6.5 Pupils’ insights into the incorrect features of their Irish output ........................ 87 6.5.1 Monitoring of output ............................................................................................. 87 6.5.2 Translation from English ...................................................................................... 88 ii 6.6 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 89 CHAPTER 7: PRINCIPAL AND CLASS TEACHER INTERVIEWS REGARDING THEIR PUPILS’ PROFICIENCY IN SPOKEN IRISH. ............................................92 7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 92 7.2 Method ..................................................................................................................... 93 7.2.1 Study sample ......................................................................................................... 93 7.2.2 Interviews of teachers ........................................................................................... 93 7.2.3 Data analysis ......................................................................................................... 94 7.3 Results ...................................................................................................................... 94 7.3.1 Teacher satisfaction with students’ proficiency in Irish ....................................... 95 7.3.2 Features of pupils’ spoken Irish ............................................................................ 96 7.3.3 Pupil willingness to speak Irish .......................................................................... 103 7.3.4 School planning and staff meetings in relation to pupils’ proficiency in Irish ... 105 7.3.5 Teachers’ professional development needs ........................................................ 106 7.4 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 107 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................110 8.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 110 8.2 Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 111 8.2.1 Irish-medium education in Northern Ireland .....................................................