PPLI is happy to announce that applications are being accepted for the role of an additional Education Officer to support the implementation of Languages Connect – Ireland’s Foreign Languages in Education strategy.

The person appointed will be expected to be familiar with the key issues at all sectors of the education system in Ireland, will have significant experience of teaching at post-primary level, and qualifications relevant to language teaching.

The post is a full-time position. In the case of a teacher in Ireland contracted on secondment the initial contract would be for a fixed-term of 6 months. In the case of other candidates the contract is a one-year fixed term contract (with six-month probationary period). PPLI is based in Blanchardstown although alternative arrangements will be considered in exceptional circumstances.
More information at this link

Join the English Language Support Teachers’ 
Association of Ireland (ELSTA)!
 
Our vision for the English Language Support Teachers’ Association of Ireland (ELSTA) is to have a national association that is led by teachers and supports the teachers who work at the coal face in schools. 
This association has recently renewed its work after a very well attended AGM in late September this year. 
 
We have a strong and enthusiastic committee of experienced and hard working teachers in the new National Executive that includes:
Annie Asgard
Cathaoirleach (Chairperson)  
Narrell Byrne
Secretary
Livia Healy Public Relations Officer
Joan Ryan
Treasurer
Phil McCarthy Membership Secretary 
Maureen Browne Web Moderator
 
We are working hard to reestablish the English Language Support Teachers Association of Ireland’s communication platforms. We are building a new dynamic website that will support teachers. 
 
Why do we need an association? Why now?
 
Every few days, teachers forums receive messages from teachers asking questions like:
“I just got a job as an EAL teacher. What do I do? What planning is required? Where do I start? How much time do I give to each student?” Or 
“I’m a mainstream teacher. It’s my first time having a child who has no English. What do I do? They are coming on Monday. I don’t know where to start!” 
 
These types of situations worry teachers and cause unnecessary stress. 
 
ELSTA can provide support for these teachers and their students. For every teacher who asks for support on social media, there may certainly be teachers who do not seek advice but struggle to reinvent the wheel themselves while feeling isolated and alone.
We hope that ELSTA can provide teachers with this support as well as providing them with ongoing sustainable communities of professional practice that can offer teachers from all levels of experience opportunities for networking with teachers across Ireland.
 
We need an association that recognises that in the changing face of English language teaching is also impacted by our current limitations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The way we support teachers and their learners has changed and we need to change our ways of providing support, too. We will need to be culturally and linguistically responsive to this and provide new and innovative models of support. This includes the changes to our practice required for remote and/or blended learning, the range of issues faced by our students/families in our schools and our work as advocates for them.
 
We will start by looking at the resources and programmes provided by the existing support services such as the PDST, NCSE, SESS and the Yellow Flag Programme. We will link in with the existing curricular support services and other Teacher Professional Networks in collaborative and cooperative ways. We will work to ensure that teachers who work with English language learners and the students whom they serve are given the best possible opportunity to achieve the most they can academically, socially and linguistically. 
 
There is a huge need for innovation and we need to modernise our methodologies and materials in the area of English language teaching for developing multilingual students. 
 
Encouraging linguistically and culturally responsive practice within our profession is also a high priority of our association. With this as the bedrock of our professional practice, we can best meet the needs of our students and their families.
 
The maintenance and support of students’ mother tongue will be a major focus of our association going forward and we will work in partnership with Mother Tongues Ireland, minority ethnic community groups, NGOSs and migrant led organisations to encourage multilingualism, cultural understanding and unity in our society. 
 
Collaboration with researchers and academics and using evidence-based practice is also an important aspect of any teacher professional network. We will use research to help us to inform our practice and work towards bringing our students and teachers the results of recent research in the area of bilingual/multilingual education and pedagogy.
 
The developing multilingual students we work with every day in our schools are perfect examples of the linguistic and cultural diversity we aim to promote in our world while encouraging all our students to embrace our rich and deep connection with Irish language and culture, too.
 
We will offer our members our support through a “Members Only” section of our website with resources, planning/policy templates and exemplars, training videos, web links, an ELSTA Padlet, exclusive invitations to training webinars and conferences. 
 
We look forward to supporting teachers!
 
Please join us! 
 
English Language Support Teachers' Association of Ireland (ELSTA)
Link to join
 
Annie Asgard
 
Cathaoirleach / Chairperson
English Language Support Teachers' Association of Ireland (ELSTA)
elstaireland@gmail.com

Language Assistant in the area of German as a Foreign Language / LektorIn für Deutsch als Fremdsprache.

Full details on this post are available on the College’s website:  https://www.mic.ul.ie/about-mic/vacancies
(including job description and application form).

The deadline for applications is Friday, 10th July at 2pm.

The Network of Experts working on the Social Dimension of Education and Training (NESET) has prepared a new report entitled: The future of language education in Europe: case studies of innovative practices.  It is available on: nesetweb.eu. The approach to teaching and learning in Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní) is featured on pp. 24,25 of the full report under the heading: Foreword: an example of innovative instructional approaches to language-sensitive teaching. 

A series of webinars based on the report above, hosted by NESET and co-chaired by the European Commission starts on 18 June 2020. All four webinars are open to the public and are free of charge. All information are on this direct link to the NESET page about the webinars. 

The 27th ICC Annual Conference "Innovation in Language Teaching" due to take place in Belgrade, Serbia on 08-10 May has been postponed to 16-18 October 2020.

Fintan O'Toole wrote a really good piece on the Irish Times (November 26th, 2019), describing the 'Babel of languages' in Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní), Blanchardstown as what is 'really on the ground of contemporary Ireland'.

Engaging with Linguistic Diversity describes an innovative and highly successful approach to inclusive plurilingual education at primary level. The approach was developed by Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní), Blanchardstown, as a way of converting extreme linguistic diversity – more than 50 home languages in a school of 320 pupils – into educational capital. The central feature of the approach is the inclusion of home languages in classroom communication. The benefits, which accrue to pupils from native Irish as well as immigrant families, include: an unusually sophisticated degree of language awareness; high levels of age-appropriate literacy in English, Irish, French and home languages; and from an early age, the motivation and capacity to undertake ambitious autonomous learning projects.
After describing the national context, the book traces the development of Scoil Bhríde’s response to an increasingly diverse pupil cohort and goes on to explore in detail the impact of the response on classroom discourse, pupils’ literacy development, and their capacity for autonomous learning. The authors illustrate their arguments with a wealth of practical evidence drawn from a variety of sources; pupils’ and teachers’ voices are especially prominent. Bearing in mind that Scoil Bhríde developed its approach without access to special funding or resources, the concluding chapter considers issues of sustainability and replication and the implications of the approach for teacher education.
The book makes sustained reference to a wide range of relevant research findings and theories, including translanguaging, plurilingual and intercultural education, language awareness and language learner autonomy. It is essential reading for researchers and policy- makers in the field of linguistically inclusive education.

David Little was formerly Director of the Centre for Language and Communication Studies and Head of the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. For the past ten years, he has played a leading role in the Council of Europe’s work on the language education of migrants.
Déirdre Kirwan was principal of Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní), Blanchardstown, Ireland, from 1987 to 2015. In 2008 she was nominated European Ambassador for Languages (Léargas) for her active promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity in the school, and in 2009 she received her PhD from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, for her research in this area.

On the 11th of October 2019, Ireland will celebrate their first anniversary as an observatory member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). On this occasion, the Embassy of France in Ireland, the Irish University Association, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie and Trinity College Dublin would like to invite you to “University of Tomorrow and la Francophonie: networking on shared values and objectives”, in order to discuss ways in which la Francophonie can play a part in Irish HEI’s international strategy and future network developments.
The full programme of the event is available here: ie.ambafrance.org/AUF

•       Friday 11 October 2019
  
•       9am – 4pm
  
•       Regent’s House, Trinity College Dublin (campus map)
  

You can register to the event via the link below and we hope to see you there!
Click here to register

Congratulations to Dr Déirdre Kirwan for her ground-breaking book "Engaging with Linguistic Diversity. A Study of Educational Inclusion in an Irish Primary School", co-authored with Dr David Little.
The volume, published by Bloomsbury Academic, in the series Multilingualisms and Diversities in Education, describes the innovative and highly successful approach to inclusive plurilingual education adopted in Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní), Blanchardstown. The experience, born out of the Irish context, is framed in educational theories and presented as a great example of plurilingual and multicultural education that can be replicated in other contexts.