Ní Dhiorbháin, Ashling ORCID: 0000-0001-5307-2516, Nic Aindriú, Sinéad ORCID: 0000-0001-8959-253X, Connaughton-Crean, Lorraine and Ó Duibhir, Pádraig ORCID: 0000-0003-2316-027X (2023) It’s more the invisible benefits – multilingual parents’ experiences of immersion education and their reasons for choosing immersion. Language and Education . ISSN 0950-0782
Abstract
The participation of multilingual children in minority language immersion programmes is under-researched internationally. The Republic of
Ireland (RoI) has become a linguistically and culturally diverse society.
In the RoI, parents have the opportunity to educate their child in
English-medium or Irish-medium (IM) schools. However, the cohort of
multilingual children attending IM schools is very small. This study
investigated the reasons why parents who spoke a home language
other than Irish or English chose to enrol their children in IM primary
education. It also investigated parents’ perceptions of the benefits of
this form of education. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken
with 15 parents from a variety of language backgrounds. It was found
that parents were motivated to enrol their child in IM primary schools
to provide them with the opportunity to learn a variety of languages
at an early age. Benefits associated with learning multiple languages
and immersion in Irish culture and heritage were seen as the main
advantages of IM education. A minority of parents chose an IM school
when there was no space for their child in an English-medium school.
Parents reported that they did not experience significant challenges in
IM immersion. Recommendations arise to support the participation of
multilingual families in immersion education.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article (Published) |
---|---|
Refereed: | Yes |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Immersion education; Irish; Irish-medium; multilingualism; multilingual parents; plurilingualism |
Subjects: | Humanities > Irish language Humanities > Language Social Sciences > Education |
DCU Faculties and Centres: | DCU Faculties and Schools > Institute of Education > School of Language, Literacy, & Early Childhood Education |
Publisher: | Routledge (Taylor & Francis) |
Official URL: | https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2023.2238680 |
Copyright Information: | © 2023 The Authors. |
Funders: | An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta [The Council for Gaeltacht and Irish-medium Education] |
ID Code: | 29680 |
Deposited On: | 08 Mar 2024 11:26 by Melissa Lynch . Last Modified 08 Mar 2024 11:26 |
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