A chara, - Professor McNicholl (May 9th) raises some interesting points which bear further examination.
He asserts that it is "internationally recognised that the basic groundwork of a child's education should be in the language of the home". In fact, a considerable corpus of research into modern immersion schooling comes to the opposite conclusion. Condemnation of second language medium education was based largely on work carried out in the barrios of large American cities. Early findings in this research attributed poor academic achievement among Hispanic children to the fact that although they were Spanish speakers, they were educated through, the medium of English. Further investigation proved this conclusion to be inaccurate. Educational problems in the barrio resulted from a whole constellation of difficulties: poverty, social deprivation, cultural dislocation, consciousness of low status, poverty of domestic educational stimulus. The language of instruction in the children's schools was a tool of acculturation, viewed negatively by both children and parents. To compare this with the positivism, the pride, the consciousness of achievement and the social acceptability of gaelscoileanna is not to compare like with like.
References to IQ are equally problematic. The most cursory examination of the literature reveals that IQ is not a fixed quantity. It changes according to circumstances, environment, health, etc. Psychologists typically describe IQ as falling within a particular range. It is perfectly possible, therefore, that the stimulus and challenge offered by second language medium instruction develops IQ, and with it a child's educational prospects.
Professor McNicholl's letter does, however, point to a genuine lack: no serious research into the achievements, possibilities or problems of second language medium education has been conducted in Ireland. This is a matter which should be remedied urgently. A research project examining cognitive development in matched populations of gaelscoileanna and English language medium schools would, in the context of the overall budget of the Department of Education, be relatively inexpensive. Such a project should be initiated forthwith. - Mise le mormheas,
Priomhoide,
Scoil Chronain,
Rath Cuil,
Co Atha Cliath.