An interactive website to improve teaching and learning of spoken Irish in post-primary schools has failed to add the Donegal Irish dialect to their criteria much to the consternation of one leading Donegal Senator.
Abair Leat! is a virtual online language laboratory in which students can improve their Irish by interacting over the internet with native Irish speakers.
Students can use the website to listen to native Irish speakers, record their own material i
n Irish and undertake self-correcting exercises. Teachers can assess student's work on the website and give spoken feedback online or written feedback by email.
Senator Pearse Doherty: "Although I welcome any initiative which promotes Gaeilge as a spoken language I am concerned at the absence of the Donegal dialect in this new programme. I believe that this initiative needs to be administered in conjunction with the Department of Education and Science syllabus which states that all three distinct dialects must be taught. The Donegal dialect must not be discriminated against and it is important that the student has experience of all three dialects in preparation for the Scrúdú Béil at leaving cert level."
He called on the Minister for Communications, Eamonn Ryan to clarify his intent that adequate Broadband facilities will be available for the future roll-out of this project. Oral skills are set to become still more important in the Leaving Cert exam. From 2012, the percentage of marks for the oral component of Leaving Cert Irish will increase from 25 to 40 per cent.
The pilot phase of Abair Leat!, which will be rolled out in 14 post-primary schools initially, is aimed at supporting the oral syllabus in first year of post primary school.
Launching the site, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe said its mix of audio-visual material, vocabulary and grammar lessons, and self-correcting exercises makes it an innovative, flexible and modern online tool to improve learning and teaching in Irish.
The launch was also attended by the comedian Des Bishop, whose documentary "In The Name Of The Fada" recalled his experience learning Irish in the Connemara Gaeltacht. He said the site was an important step in the ongoing efforts to make the learning and teaching of Irish more enjoyable and interactive by focusing on the primacy of the spoken word.
