A Consideration of Language Teacher Education in Ireland, North and South

Authors

  • Patrick Farren NUI, Galway
  • Eugene McKendry QUB

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35903/teanga.v24i0.38

Keywords:

Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper surveys the context of language teacher education in Ireland, north and south, across the sectors (primary and post-primary, Irish, Modern Languages and English as an Additional Language). The discussion and analysis that follows arose through the contributions by language teacher educators to a conference organised by the Queen’s University of Belfast under the auspices of the Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South (SCoTENS)1. The authors suggest that a traditional view of diversification in language education, focusing on Irish and the main European languages, must be reconsidered in light of the new demographic and linguistic landscape of Ireland, North and South.

Author Biographies

Patrick Farren, NUI, Galway

Patrick Farren is a Lecturer in Education at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Specialising in language teaching methodologies, he took his Ph.D. in 2008 from Trinity College Dublin. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of Teanga and a former member of IRAAL’s national executive committee. His research interests include enquiry-based practice, the impact of the European Language Portfolio, second language acquisition, professional
beliefs and attitudes, language education and society, and teacher and learner autonomy.

Eugene McKendry, QUB

Eugene McKendry recently retired as a Lecturer in Education at the Queen’s University of Belfast, where he coordinated the Modern Languages PGCE programme. He is the former Director of the Northern Ireland Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (NICILT). His research interests include Irish language and literature, language learning and acquisition, language policy, language teaching, and immersion education. He
has been involved in various international research projects and coordinated the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme’s CRAMLAP project on regional and minority languages in Higher Education in Europe.

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Published

2018-11-15

How to Cite

Farren, P., & McKendry, E. (2018). A Consideration of Language Teacher Education in Ireland, North and South. TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics, 24, 83–90. https://doi.org/10.35903/teanga.v24i0.38

Issue

Vol. 24 (2016): TEANGA 24

Section

Articles