The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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one primary schools) and a further 10 Irish- medium units attached to English-medium host schools. There were 4,633 pupils in Irish-medium education in 2012/13, mainly in primary schools (ages 4-8). The 2006 Bain Report recommended that the Department of Education (DE) should develop a comprehensive policy for Irish- medium education. The department initiated a major review of the development of Irish- medium education to ensure high-quality provision for all children. Since then the majority of the recommendations have been achieved or progressed considerably. In the Republic of Ireland, Irish-medium education has been one of the fastest- growing fields of education for more than 30 years. There are approximately 40,000 pupils 26 The Linguist Vol/55 No/5 2016 www.ciol.org.uk FEATURES In recent years, the native Irish and Scottish Gaelic areas have lost their geographical integrity, and now represent a mosaic of small areas with comparatively high densities of speakers. With the loss of a continuous Gaeltacht/Gaidhealtachd (the native words in Irish and Gaelic for these areas), it has become less and less common for the languages to be passed on to younger people. Irish will continue to have an important political function, but otherwise it is unclear whether the languages can survive. An Irish TV series, No Béarla, in which presenter Manchán Magan attempted to live his life only by speaking Irish, highlighted the unease many Irish citizens feel towards the language. Irish schoolchildren spend many years studying the language – but so do many UK children study French, and no one would expect them to be able to get by in French in the UK. Irish has a particular cultural connotation in the republic, and for some citizens a lack of competence can become something approaching guilt. Education Celtic-language medium schools have expanded in all the Insular Celtic areas in the last decades. In Northern Ireland, there are currently 29 Irish-medium schools (all but receiving education through the medium of Irish outside the Gaeltacht. In Scotland, you find Gaelic-medium education in 63 primary schools. There is more and more education in Gaelic at pre-school, in secondary schools and in further education. The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 created a statutory body, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, with the functions of promoting the use and understanding of the Gaelic language, culture and education. The Welsh-Medium Educational Strategy, launched in 2010, is a historic milestone, setting the Welsh Government's strategic direction, and outlining improvements in the teaching and learning of Welsh. One of the most interesting features of Celtic-language schools is that they have created pockets of Celtic-speaking young people in otherwise predominantly or entirely English-speaking areas. The reasons for parents choosing a Celtic-language school in an English-speaking area – particularly when they themselves have limited or no knowledge of the language – are complicated, but raise issues of the (perceived) quality of education, social class, and politico-linguistic ideology and aspirations. The Celtic-language medium schools – in some respects rather like English faith The old distinctions of mother-tongue Celtic areas versus the rest have changed hugely in the last few decades 'A RRIVÉE DE LA GRANDE PARADE DES NATIONS CELTES', ÉDOUARD HUE VIA WIKIMÉDIA 5/8/12 (CC BY-SA 3.0)