forbairt an dátheangachais

Bhí scéal spéisiúil ar BBC online mar gheall ar dul chun cinn sa dátheangachas i dTuaisceart Éireann agus sa Ríocht Aontaithe

Local UK languages 'taking off'


More and more state school children in the UK are being taught in Welsh, Gaelic and Irish, the BBC has learned.
The number of Northern Ireland children learning Irish grew from just 484 in 1992 to 3285 in 2008.
In Wales, 20% of schoolchildren are now being taught entirely in the Welsh language - up from 16% in the 1990s.
Some experts believe that bilingual children are at an advantage at school, because learning two languages boosts their ability to learn.

Welsh schoolchildren are still far more likely to learn their native language than Scottish or Irish children - however, the statistics suggest Gaelic and Irish are growing in popularity.

In 1997 just 112 Scottish pupils learned Gaelic. In 2007, 2,601 students were learning it, either in an exclusively Gaelic school, or in a bi-lingual one.

Devolution has meant profound educational changes, says the BBC's Colette Hume, in Northern Ireland, as a demand for speakers of these languages grows.
It seems having two languages in the brain stimulates it
And she said that the growth in demand for this type of education may reflect a growing sense of identity and confidence in the nations of the UK.
She visited a tiny Irish-medium school in Northern Ireland which opened last year with just 12 pupils, but now has 28.

In Scotland, the country's first Gaelic-medium secondary school opened in Glasgow in 2006.
The BBC launched a Gaelic channel, BBC Alba, in September last year, which promotes the Gaelic language, while hoping to appeal to audiences across Scotland.
The latest figures from the Welsh Assembly Government show that 40,756 secondary schoolchildren out of a total of almost 207,000 are being taught in "Welsh medium schools" - where most or all subjects are taught in Welsh.

David Reynolds, a professor of education at Plymouth University, said learning Welsh had "really taken off" and that any reservations about learning the local language seemed to have disappeared.
"In Wales, the evidence is that 40% of children are fluent in Welsh, and 20% of their parents.
"In terms of use, you are able to sell your language in a way you couldn't 20 years ago, and it is of direct use to you because of burgeoning employment in the devolved states."
Globalisation

Professor Colin Baker from the University of Bangor is an expert in bilingual education, and says bilingual children have an advantage in terms of intelligence.

Some parents want their children to identify strongly with their nation"They actually have a higher IQ," he said. "It seems having two languages in the brain stimulates it, adds extra associations into the brain and deepens thinking."
Professor Reynolds identifies a further reason why this trend towards learning a local language appears to have taken hold.

He said that in an increasingly globalised world, people are more keen to keep sight of their identity, and one way of achieving this is through learning your local language.
"Knowledge of your own local area gives you identity and roots, I think," he said.
"If you look at why it might be happening, I think it's a desire to root children, and also adults, in a local experience

teangacha, fotheidil agus comhlachtaí príobháideacha

Dhá scéal spéisiúil a léigh mé san rss ar maidin....

Mhol Gay Mitchell ar Lá 'le Bríde( Eisean atá ina Fheisire de Pharliamint na hEorpa -Baile Atha Cliath-Fine Gael) gur chóir go dtaispeánfar gach scannán le linn féile Naomh Phádraig le fotheidil Gaeilge.


Cinemas should subtitle films in Irish for St Patrick's festival week - Mitchell

Fine Gael MEP for Dublin, Gay Mitchell, has proposed that all public showings of films during the St Patrick's Festival should be subtitled in Irish and has sought meetings with studio representatives in Ireland on the subject.
"In Brussels it is the norm that films shown publicly in cinemas are subtitled, often in more than one language. This can happen at the theatre also. I attended a Gate Theatre tour production of a Beckett play in Brussels last year which had subtitle screens discreetly placed on either side of the stage."It is time to try this in Ireland. I have asked for a meeting with the studio representatives in Ireland (Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Sony, Disney and Warner Bros) to propose that they introduce this, in the first instance on a trial basis, for all public showing of films for the coming St Patrick's festival week. Most of us have some Irish but lose the little we have because we cannot use it daily. Here is an opportunity to help those of us whose Irish is weak to start to build on what we have locked away from our school days."There are now 212 Gaelscoileanna in Ireland of which 170 are primary and 42 are secondary. In Dublin alone there are 32 primary and 8 secondary schools. There is a clear demand for the language. In addition, for St Patrick's festival week I believe most Irish people would welcome the opportunity to renew their interest in Irish."

Gan amhras bheadh gníomh mar sin iontach ar fad ach bheadh amhras orm a mbeadh an dea-thoil ag na comhlachtaí móra tabhairt faoi fotheidil ag an tráth seo nuair atá an saol agus a mháthair ag caint faoi gearradh siar.

Ceist amháin eile cad is brí leis an ráiteas all public showing of films for the coming St Patrick's festival week. An mbeadh gach scannáin atá á dtaispéant i bpictiúrlanna na tíre clúdaithe faoin ráiteas seo, céard faoi scannáin atá á dtaispeánt ar tamaill roimhe sin -an mbeadh gá ann iad a fotheidliú chomh maith? Ní dóigh liom go bhfuil an moladh seo réadúil agus gan amhras bheadh daoine áirithe sa tír (tuigeann tú féin cé h-iad) ag tabhairt amach faoi.

In ionad ráiteas chomh ginearálta a eisiúint b'fhéidir go mbeadh toradh ar an bhfeachtais dá ndíreofaí ar scannán nó dhó ach go háirithe ar scánnáin a bheadh dírithe ar dhaoine óga atá fós sa chóras oideachais mar bhunchéim don bhliain seo.
Agus an dara scéal ón Virtual Linguist scríofa ag Susan Purcell...

More laws to promote the Welsh language in Wales

The Welsh Assembly government has made a bid to have the right to pass legislation itself on the use of the Welsh language; at the moment all such decisions are taken at Westminster. The aim is for Welsh to have official status and eventually create a truly bilingual Wales (Welsh Assembly page in English here and in Welsh here). The Welsh government wants to compel certain private companies eg telephone, fuel and rail companies to provide information in Welsh as well as in English. Other private companies eg supermarkets will not be obliged to do so. At the moment, under the Welsh Language Act of 1993 only public sector bodies are legally obliged to communicate with the public in both Welsh and English.