Abstract The Irish Republic has d...

Abstract

The Irish Republic has discloseed and implemented language maintenance and language revival policies since gaining independence from British method in 1922. At that time, the recent Irish government envisioned a bilingual state in which the two Irish and English would be used (O Riagain, 1997) and language policies were created to support that goal. as it is policies were implemented using drills as the primary vehicle to maintain and revive the Irish language. As a consequence two distinct forms of schooling were differentiated for language majority, English-speaking pupils The first involves schools in which English is used as the primary medium of instruction, with Irish taught as a compulsory bring under rule in school. Second are immersion gymnasiums known as Gaelscoileanna, in which Irish is used as the medium of instruction apart from the teaching of English.

This paper explores students' and parents' attitudes toward bilingualism in Ireland among observers who participate in these sum of two units different types of schools. The inquiry utilized an adapted questionnaire from Cazabon, Lambert, and Hall (1993) Qualitative research findings from focus assign places to interviews with students supplement findings from the questionnaire. Findings advise that qualitative data provide important insight to understanding the complexity of attitudes toward bilingualism.

Introduction

In 1922 the Republic of Ireland' was established after 26 counties of Ireland gained independence from British sway In the Irish Constitution, the persons of the newly formed Republic recognized the sum of two units languages that formed their society: Irish2 and English. Despite the fact that Irish was in a dismal state, being parole by only 18%' of the population located principally in the western periphery called the Gaeltacht, Irish was granted status as the first official national language (O Riagain, 1997)

The restraint generated Irish language policies and programs to support the Irish language using the drills as a primary vehicle for policy implementation. by dint of definition, schools located within the Gaeltacht areas were already Irish medium indoctrinates Therefore, government policies directed toward Irish language use in the Republic were differentiated between first language .maintenance" efforts in the Gaeltacht region and secondary language "revival" efforts in the Galltacht or English-speaking areas (O Riagain, 1997) For native English-speaking scholars Irish was to be taught, at a minimum, as a make submissive in school set forth by way of the curriculum established by the centralized Department of Education and Science.

Thus, couple models of schooling emerged by the and of which to teach the Irish language to English-speaking scholars The first model of schooling was to teach by the and of the medium of English, with Irish as a compulsory institute subject. The majority of gymnasiums (regular schools) taught Irish subordinate to this model. The second pattern used Irish as the medium of instruction in seminarys either partially or fully. similar schools offered an immersion' education in consequence of Irish for these children. As added incentive for all Irish institutes (AIS), the government offered extra stores in the form of a "capitation grant" for those pupils who were taught from one side the medium of Irish (Hindley, 1990; O Riagain, 1997) and teachers who taught end Irish were paid an additional stipend. In short, language policies were created to encourage bilingualism through the education system; pupils were to become competent in the two Irish and English.

Growth in Irish Medium place of educations

By the early 1940 the number of AIS outside of the Gaeltacht reached a high of more than 250 representing approximately 4% of total primary flush national schools. While the intent of the denominations was on language revival, the manners used to teach were viewed as traditional and rigid (O Riagain, 1997) Teachers focused in succession Irish grammar, for example, and placed les emphasis forward oral ability. Teachers' competence was based almost exclusively in succession how well they could teach Irish (Cummins, 1978) as oppos to their teaching ability and fitness in other subject areas. Consequently public support for these gymnasiums and for the Irish language in general began to decrease (Coolahan, 1981; Cummins, 1978; O Riag/in, 1997) A dramatic decline of AIS began, then, in the 1950 and continued in consequence of to the 1970s. Table I displays this decrease in number of AIS from 1940 to 1970

With public attitudes toward the language and language policy discouraging, the command began a series of policy realignments in the early 1970 First, the direction recognized that schools alone would be unable to adapted the revival goals originally inflict forth. Consequently, various government bodies were established to dignify and expand the Irish language beyond the sect setting. One such institution was the Committee forward Irish Language Attitudes Research (CILAR), which was created to gauge the expanse of public support for Irish and Irish language policy. CILAR course of lifeed its first comprehensive survey in 1973 The committee's report confirmed that a large portion of the population was dissatisfied with the way Irish was taught in the drills A second policy shift occurr with the government's elimination of the requirement of passing the compulsory Irish language paper in order to pass the secondary academy Leaving Certificate examination. Thus, the part of the education system was de-emphasized, and language policy became increasingly decentralized.