It is one of the most eye-catching plans in the new primary curriculum: the introduction of foreign languages for pupils from third class to sixth class. But after a century of teaching Irish and English, are primary schools ready?
Schools like Scoil Chrónáin in Swords, Co Dublin, have a head start: teachers have been volunteering to teach foreign languages such as Japanese and French to their pupils for several years.
The senior national school is one of more than 1,300 primary schools in Ireland to have embraced Say Yes to Languages, a programme that has been aiming to foster early engagement with modern foreign languages since 2021.
It is a 10-week module and takes place within the normal timetable. Weekly hour lessons can be taken as one, or a combination of shorter classes across the week to make up the hour, and can be in any language the school chooses.
Where feasible, schools are encouraged to nominate a teacher on staff to deliver the module, but visiting tutors or members of the wider school community are permitted to teach.
“In year one we had nine teachers out of 40,” says Jane O’Toole, a teacher and school leader at Scoil Chrónáin. “But this current year, 30 teachers came forward for it. There’s a real ‘let’s give it a try’ attitude. I imagine part of the reason is, with modern foreign languages on the horizon as a school subject, people are willing to say, ‘let’s see how my language is – I’d like to brush up a bit on that and I think I could give a few lessons a try’.”
Once the new curriculum rolls out, all primary schoolteachers will be expected over time to teach modern foreign languages. It will begin with simple awareness of different languages and greetings before moving to basic communication in fifth and sixth class with a focus on oral skills. Policymakers hope earlier exposure will encourage more students to take up a foreign language at second level and stick with it until the Leaving Cert.
O’Toole says the Say Yes To Languages programme has been a good stepping stone. There is strong enthusiasm among staff and students, but she is aware of the challenges ahead.
“I think as the date is getting closer for the curriculum to be published in the autumn, and we’re all awaiting updates, there is a realisation that it will be an incremental process,” she says. “Maybe, most schools might start with a Say Yes to Languages model of a few weeks a year building into more. We don’t know what’s going to happen just yet.
“There are challenges. I don’t want to misrepresent [anyone] because I love languages – I did them in college and then I did teaching – but I see the systematic challenges as well at national level. I think the only way modern foreign languages can come in is on a staggered [basis]. It won’t be two years any time soon because we haven’t looked at the upskilling or the capacity within schools.”
In January, a consultation report from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment revealed some educators hold concerns over the impact modern foreign languages could have. Some dismissed the plans as “aspirational”, while others expressed alarm that the new subjects could undermine the status of Irish. For Scoil Chrónáin, the opposite has been true.
“We hear lots about levels of Irish maybe not being great at primary,” O’Toole says. “[This programme] makes children see how good their Irish is. If you’re starting a new language and looking at the basic self-introduction, numbers and colours – all of a sudden, the children see ‘wow, I can say all of that as Gaeilge’.
“Even as a teacher using the target language, if I’m struggling or if I can’t think of a word in Japanese or French – I can use Irish. I think there are opportunities there to celebrate the Irish that children do have if they start another language. It has the potential to elevate Irish and encourage children to see Irish as a living language as well.”
Loreto Desmond, principal at Scoil Chrónáin, thinks some of the concerns around the changes to the curriculum have been overblown. She highlights that the points requirement to study primary teaching – 473 last year – means it is more than likely for a qualified primary teacher to have a decent level in a foreign language.
“Among primary teachers, there is that base of knowledge there,” Ms Desmond says. “I’ve seen ideas about networking and people employing [external teachers] for Spanish and that. I’m thinking, ‘why?’ The skills must be there within the staff.
“You might need to dust it off. Our board of management has offered to pay for night classes people can do. If staff members want to brush up on their Spanish or Italian or whatever they have, the board will sponsor that. It’s a win-win all round. The school benefits and the teacher revives their language.
“I’m sure there’ll be summer courses offered and I’m sure Oide will provide upskilling. It’s not as if we have to teach primary schoolteachers a new language from scratch. There are lots of them that will have a language of some sort.”
Outside of actual competence, teachers believe the introduction of foreign languages at primary level will help bring about a more inclusive environment for students from different backgrounds. Desmond, for example, points out that a number of children at Scoil Chrónáin speak another language at home.
Improving the learning environment for those pupils is part of Karen Ruddock’s work as director of Post-Primary Languages Ireland, a unit funded by the Department of Education that introduced the Say Yes To Languages programme.
“If you look at the last census, 15 per cent of respondents said that they spoke another language at home,” Ruddock says. “A language other than English and Irish – I think Irish was around 1.5 per cent. So, we have a huge percentage of pupils in our schools speaking other languages.
“It’s very important to respect these languages. We want to recognise these languages and cultures as present in our schools, even when they’re not taught. That’s part of the purpose of introducing foreign languages at primary.”
Despite this, the proportion of Leaving Cert candidates sitting exams in foreign languages dropped from 75 to 65 per cent over the last five years. Ruddock feels there are a variety of reasons behind the drop-off.
“When we look at a decrease in Leaving Cert sits, we have to temper that with the knowledge that there are all these new subjects,” she says. “There’s never been as much choice for students. In the last, we had four traditionally taught languages – French, German, Spanish and Italian.
“Then we added Japanese and Russian. Now, students can take one of 10 foreign languages in the Leaving Cert. I suppose the numbers are spread across more language subjects. As well, there are other new subjects.
“We have drama, film and theatre studies; we have climate action and sustainable development; we have politics and society; we have PE. You can’t increase the number of subjects and not see a decrease in other areas.”
Ruddock also believes the pandemic, even after the lifting of restrictions, has curtailed students’ appetite to avail of opportunities to study abroad. Paired with the removal of a matriculation requirement in certain third-level institutions, some sort of drop-off in the number of students taking foreign languages for the Leaving Cert is understandable, she says.
“We don’t really want students to choose a foreign language because it’s mandatory,” she says. “We want them to want to do it. We really hope that the whole experience in primary – more than developing significant language competence, we want it to develop an enthusiasm and an interest and an excitement about learning languages.”
