The ability to speak, read and think in several languages matters more and more in today’s world of artificial intelligence, geopolitical reordering and economic reconfiguration. Skills of understanding, insight into other cultures and critical thinking about alternatives are indispensable tools for navigating a world dominated by big corporate entities using technology to reinforce their power.
Ireland has progressive policy positions on language learning, but conspicuously lags in the schools offering them, in teaching methods, abilities and the numbers studying languages in universities. More than 200 languages are spoken in this State by a population of whom one fifth were born elsewhere and who would benefit from having English to work and live here. They bring new energy to reviving the Irish language in schools and communities. We need to recognise and value their languages if this new multiculturalism is to be linked with an engaging interculturalism.
A recent valuable survey of language trends in Irish post-primary schools by the British Council in co-operation with the Department of Education and Skills shows pupils and teachers are willing to take up modern European languages; many do so for the Leaving Certificate. Spanish has overtaken French as the most preferred language, with German and Italian less popular. Other languages, such as Polish, Romanian, Russian and Arabic, are popular and may also be studied. Ireland is better geared to languages than the UK, it states.
Teachers and pupils say oral proficiency needs much more priority. There is too little opportunity to have multilingual conversations outside the classroom. They also want to hear better arguments for the hard work of learning languages, which many don’t value because of global English and automatic translation.
There has been a “catastrophic decline” in language learning at third level, according to Michael Cronin, professor of French at TCD. Only four per cent of students now study them. That falls way short of the 20 per cent target set by the Government’s Languages Connect programme. It is not enough to provide the teachers and skills needed in schools, just as European languages are introduced at primary level for the first time, alongside English and Irish.
It is an uneven picture, since official policy draws on the more progressive positions set out in Council of Europe and EU guidelines to encourage intercultural engagement and new methods of learning several languages together. Linguists call this the plurilingual approach to language learning, with languages taught together, including Irish and the home languages of immigrant children.
In schools, this creates a more inclusive approach as one language leads to another. According to one primary pupil: “Sometimes when we learn a language it’s easier to learn other ones; sometimes it’s not really about which language you’re learning, it’s how to learn a language.”
But this approach remains quite rare in primary schools, where teachers are generalists and need coaching in such methods. Pilot studies show it can be done, but resources are scarce. It would be good to see this issue and the wider oral use of Irish and other languages in local communities taken up by the Convention on Education. It is currently considering how primary and secondary education in Ireland should be organised over the next 30 years. Consisting of 150 people involved in the schools system, including groups of parents, teachers, pupils and stakeholders, it has been organised on deliberative lines drawing on citizen assembly experience. It will conclude in November with a comprehensive report to follow.
Multilingualism refers to the presence of two or more languages within a society, while plurilingualism concerns the ability of individuals within it to speak several languages. Ireland is now a complex multilingual and multicultural society but its plurilingual character lags behind other European states. That is partly because other countries treat English as a second language right through their educational systems. That has crowded out French speaking in Germany and German speaking in France, for example.
So Ireland may not lag as much as we think; and the enthusiasm for Irish among the urban young brings new energy and opportunity to the development of a more plurilingual society.
The potential cultural, cognitive, functional and competitive advantages of that deserve more public discussion and political attention in this age of AI and high technology. Some 2,500 language, humanities and social-science academics complain strongly that the Government does not understand or value their role of encouraging such qualities in its research and development strategy. Overemphasis on Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) in the new Research Ireland organisation and the commitment to link up with corporate interests will inhibit that, they say.
Language competence is now just as much part of Ireland’s competitive infrastructure deficit as poor planning for its larger and more complex population.
