UK - Northern Ireland
Key Findings overall
The last decade or so has seen enormous changes in Northern Ireland. From being a country of emigration and conflict in the late 20th century it has become more peaceful and more globally connected with an increase in tourism, low cost air travel and immigration. Although it is still probably least linguistically diverse of the four UK nations, its history makes it sensitive to issues of language and culture and the measures adopted so far have been inclusive. However, as the Language Rich Europe research shows, Northern Ireland has a weak profile as regards foreign language learning and now needs to give this a much higher priority at all levels in the education system.
Promising initiatives and pilots
The proposed Languages Strategy for Northern Ireland, the result of more than five years’ consultation and discussion with policymakers, is intended to provide an assessment of needs and an action plan across the full spectrum of languages in education, business and public life and should offer opportunities for some focused development.
There have been some encouraging examples of development in Northern Ireland as regards teacher training in languages. A successful development is reported at Stranmillis University College to introduce an optional primary languages module which has now become an embedded feature of the Bachelor of Education (BEd) course1. In response to the demand for subject specific teachers in the growing Irish Medium Post Primary sector, St. Mary’s University College, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster have formed a partnership to offer a one year PGCE course to students interested in becoming teachers in Irish Medium secondary education. Additional places have been added to the PGCE intake quotas for both universities, specifically for those applicants who wish to teach in the Irish Medium Post-Primary sector. On completion of the course, these students will be awarded a Certificate in Bilingual Education from St. Mary’s University College in addition to their PGCE qualification.
1 Report of the Review of Irish medium education, Department for Education for Northern Ireland, undated.
