Sir, – I am not a lover of the Irish language but I was flabbergasted by the letter about the new Junior Cycle Irish curriculum from Mícheál Clancy (Letters, June 11th), a teacher unable to teach his students as they should be taught. It doesn’t surprise me that those who set this curriculum have yet to get it right.
For decades there have been voices out in the wilderness asking for change for the teaching of the Irish language. Even with a pandemic when everything was up in the air for education, and a new way of looking at how children learn, they produce a language curriculum with no oral exam.
Where is the logic? Irish is not, for the majority, their first language; learning it, is for speaking it. Do they teach poetry/novels/drama in Spanish or French class? I think not.
For a (second) language class, communication in that language is key.
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– Yours, etc,
VICTORIA MADIGAN,
Terenure,
Dublin 6.