Madam, - The realisation in the 1980s that our education system was seriously lacking in language diversity (with only French commonly taught in schools alongside Gaeilge) has generated several initiatives promoting the teaching of German, Spanish, Italian and more recently Japanese. This has created an environment in which we are, if not at the forefront of practice in this area, at least moving in the same direction as our European counterparts.
Indeed the aim to "foster a sense of European identity by encouraging an interest in the languages and culture \ of other European countries", published in the Department of Education and Science's Strategy Statement 2001-2004, suggests a commendable intention on the part of the Government to continue to support developments in language education.
In the light of this and other statements, it is astounding that the Department of Education and Science has chosen the start of 2004 to close Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann (ITÉ). This central national body, the Linguistics Institute of Ireland, plays an important role in many research and development projects in language education across the country, as well as providing a valuable advisory service and library resource for language teachers and researchers.
In contrast to this decision, CILT (the UK National Centre for Languages) and its Scottish partner, Scottish CILT, are actively pursuing large-scale projects in language education funded at national level as well as participating in international projects, no doubt with European funding, which will benefit their national systems. As these are countries with systems very similar to our own, and with similar weaknesses in relation to language diversity, it is all the more worrying that we are taking this backward step.
It would be interesting to know if those in the Department of Education and Science who made this decision have any plans to replace ITÉ with another central body to bring together language teachers and researchers at national level and to enable them to keep abreast of international initiatives.
If not, they have taken a serious step backwards in a country which needs to promote diversity in language teaching for both educational and economic reasons. - - Yours, etc.
Prof ANGELA CHAMBERS, Director, Dr JEAN E. CONACHER, Associate Director, Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Limerick.