How language research is changing lives in Northern Ireland

Research undertaken by linguists at Ulster University is transforming lives across Northern Ireland, helping to strengthen the profile of minority languages there.

Dr Christina Sevdali is senior lecturer in Linguistics at Ulster University’s School of Communication and Media. She’s also a member of the Ulster Centre on Multilingualism, and leads a programme called Language Made Fun (LMF), in collaboration with children’s charity Barnardo’s Northern Ireland, alongside Fane Street and Holy Rosary primary schools in Belfast.

This programme, funded by the Lottery Community Fund as well as the Flax Trust, aimed to assist the children of refugees and asylum seekers with their English language skills, while also promoting multilingualism.

Sevdali and her colleagues at Ulster University devised a programme, where the children were paired with a linguistics student for 16 weeks of one-to-one sessions. This enabled the students to listen to the children closely, transcribing their language, and recording errors.

The two partner schools have a high proportion of non-native speakers. "Very often these children sit at the back of the class or don't join in for fear of making mistakes. As a result, the teachers don't identify their mistakes," she explains

This is not the right approach. Not only can it make the parent feel “inadequate”, but also deprives the child of the chance to listen to and speak to their parent in their native tongue, she points out. There was traditionally a belief that it is up to the parents of such children to develop their English. “The old school of thought for immigrant parents was to speak English to your kids, even if it is broken English,” she says.

As a Greek national, she knows her own child will reap great benefits by being multilingual - but only if she makes the effort to continue talking to her in Greek at home.

“As part of LMF, I would talk to the parents about the benefits of multilingualism, to dispel the myth that they need to speak their non-native language at home. As a linguist I know that multilingualism has massive benefits. It’s something we have done a lot of research into at Ulster. These children have the right and the ability to be multilingual. It’s the job of formal education, and society more generally to teach them the majority language, it is not the job of the parents at home.”

Unfortunately, “when you come here as an asylum seeker, you don’t perceive your own language to have prestige,” she says.

“The result (of not talking to children in their mother tongue) is that the kids are not bilingual, they will be less attached to their heritage, they will not have the benefits of multilingualism and they will not be able to talk to their grandparents. It’s a lose-lose situation,” she says.

[ Ulster University ]

In addition to LMF, the linguistics team were also asked to develop a group play-based intervention, called Language Together, to assist children, such as those from the Roma community, who, because of a more nomadic lifestyle, could not commit to the one-to-one programme.

Sevdali’s team is currently collaborating with the Conway Education Centre and Extern, to develop a linguistically-informed programme to help unaccompanied minors aged between 16 and 18 years.

I see the pride my students have in this work and it makes me proud too

The English programmes that are available out there are not best suited to unaccompanied minors, or young people. “Some of these young people hadn’t been in school for up to seven years,” she explains.

“Not having English stops them socialising, stops them gaining access to further education, yet these are really motivated kids, who want to be engineers, for example. So we are piloting a programme, again with volunteer Ulster University students, to assist them.”

Using academic research to develop solutions for real world problems is an important part of her work. “This is one of the most rewarding parts of my job,” says Sevdali. “I see the pride my students have in this work and it makes me proud too.”

Transformation of legislation

Academics at Ulster University have also played a direct role in the transformation of legislation to recognise Irish language rights in Northern Ireland, leading to the language occupying a central role in the development of the New Decade, New Approach programme for NI government.

Dr Niall Comer is a lecturer in Irish at Ulster and also president of Conradh na Gaeilge, the all-island democratic forum for the Irish-speaking community. The organisation has played a huge role in helping to drive legislative change for the Irish language in Ireland, both north and south.

Beginning in the 1920s, Irish was systematically removed as a subject in the primary school curriculum in Northern Ireland. For many years it was largely taught only by Catholic grammar schools, says Comer, who grew up in Newry, Co Down. “You either had to have a scholarship to, or be able to afford to pay fees,” he adds.

Learning the language was very much a preserve of the middle class, until the Education Reform Act in the 1940s, which meant that grammar school education became more available.

The rise of the Gaelscoil movement over the past 30 years has helped restore the language somewhat, but at secondary level in Northern Ireland modern languages have not been compulsory at GCSE level, the equivalent of the Junior Cert, since 2004.

“It means pupils can go through school here without any language at all,” says Comer. Much greater emphasis is placed on STEM – science, maths and engineering – subjects. Yet today, demand for Irish speakers in the world of work far outstrips supply, he points out.

The Irish department at Ulster University developed a research partnership which saw its research being used by Conradh na Gaeilge to help inform NI government policy.

That research facilitated conversations with leaders of all major parties north and south, informed by the examples of best practice for language legislation and minority language protection.

“We looked at models all over the world, particularly the Welsh model, to get a baseline. Currently, even at a local level, different councils in Northern Ireland have different policies on bilingual signage, for example,” he points out.

“The discussion document talked about what should be best practice at government level, and contained recommendations as to what the legislation should cover, such as the introduction of a language commissioner to oversee it. It was acknowledged by the parties that our input into this was significant,” says Comer.

I very much support the idea of research for societal change

Ulster University’s research directly influenced the creation, and rolling out of the Irish Language Translation Hub which has been established within the NI Assembly this year and Comer has been appointed to form and lead an advisory group to establish translation standards within the NI Assembly.

The university’s work is helping to pave the way for the use of Irish in courts, to register births and deaths, and to access public services through Irish.

The majority of parties and people in NI are supportive of such developments, he says, unfortunately it appears that the implementation has been delayed by the discussions surrounding the Northern Ireland protocol. Representatives from Ulster University and Conradh na Gaeilge have travelled to Westminster to help progress matters.

For Niall Comer, as for Christina Sevdali, using academic research to effect real world change is a huge part of the appeal of their work. “That’s what attracted me to this. I very much support the idea of research for societal change, as opposed to research for the sake of research,” he says.

“The work we do is not just going to end up in an academic journal or two gathering dust on a shelf, it’s going to cause a change in society - and inspire further research.”

Discover more about Ulster University's modern languages research at ulster.ac.uk