Part 1: Introduction, first and second language acquisition ...

Transcríbhinn: Podchraoladh – Sealbhú teanga 

Part 1: Introduction, first and second language acquisition, bilingualism. 

0:00 Dia is Muire duit, agus fáilte romhat go dtí an podchraoladh 1 seo mar 

Marie gheall ar shealbhú teanga 2 . Welcome to this podcast about language 

acquisition. It’s part of a series of NCCA podcasts and you can find more 

information and more podcasts on www.action.ncca.ie. 

Today I’m talking to Dr. Muiris Ó Laoire, and Muiris, can you tell me a 

little bit about yourself please? 

0:26 Ok Marie. I’m a senior lecturer at the Institute of Technology, Tralee, and 

Muiris I also work part time at the National University of Ireland, Galway. I 

started as a teacher of Irish and French, many years ago, and I became 

fascinated by the way students were learning language and then that 

drove me to do research in applied linguistics 3 , particularly the 

acquisition of Irish. I am past president of the Irish Association of Applied 

Linguists (IRAAL), I have held research fellowships in New Zealand, and 

I’m a founding member of the International Association of Multilingualism. 

My research areas include Irish language, multilingualism 4 , language 

acquisition, bilingualism 5 , those areas. 

1:08 Thank you very much Muiris. 

Marie So as I said, this podcast is about language acquisition. It’s divided into 

sections, and some of those sections are in Irish and some are in 

English, depending on the questions that we’re talking about. So for 

example parts dealing specifically with the teaching of Irish will be as 

Gaeilge. And a full transcript of the conversation is available on our 

website. 

So to start off Muiris, could you define what exactly do you mean by 

language acquisition? 

1:36 Well, that term is very important Marie really, because when you acquire 

Muiris something you have it for life, as you know. So acquisition means, then, 

acquiring a language as one does one’s first language 6 . And when you 

think about it, we acquire that first language without really knowing what 

we’re doing, so in other words we acquire it subconsciously. When we 

learn a language, what we learn may not necessarily be acquired 7 , may 

not necessarily be processed and it doesn’t enter long term memory 8 . 

So we all had the experience of learning vocabulary 9 or grammar 

exercises or poems or whatever for a test and then months later what 

happens is we’ve forgotten it. Now why does that happen? Because what 

we learn probably enters short-term memory 10 only, and doesn’t enter 

long-term memory. So long term memory is crucial – that it’s activated for 

acquisition. So when we acquire language then, it remains in long-term 

memory, it’s automised. And that’s the difference between language 

acquisition and language learning. So learning we simply forget it, 

acquired we have it, and our ultimate aim, I suppose, in the classroom as 

teachers, would be that our learners acquire language rather than just 

learn and practise it. 

2:53 And is there a particular order, then, in how we acquire languages, 

Marie Muiris? 

Gluais/Glossary 

1 podcast 

2 language acquisition 

3 sa teangeolaíocht 

fheidhmeach 

4 ilteangachas 

5 dátheangachas 

6 L1 (English 

abbreviation) T1 (as 

Gaeilge) 

7 sealbhaithe 

8 cuimhne 

fhadtéarmach 

9 stór focal 

10 cuimhne 

ghearrthéarmach


2:59 This is a very very interesting question. It’s a question that has exercised 

Muiris quite a lot of theorising and empirical research over the years. Now to 

begin with I’ll talk about learning a second language 11 . And recent 

research has investigated evidence that maybe yes, learners do acquire 

in a specific sequence 12 , what they call developmental stages 13 . And 

for example, two linguists, Florence and Myles, tell us that young learners 

of a second language – English for example – when they’re leaning the 

negative 14 , you know, I did not or whatever, they might put the negative 

particle either at the beginning or end of a sentence, they’d say: 

no me playing here or me playing here no. Then they might go and insert 

that negative particle in a verb phrase: car not coming 

And then finally they manipulate it correctly. So it’s a very interesting 

thing then, that there seems to be an order. 

Now that’s based on very interesting research that took place in the 

1970s by Brown. And he looked at the way that children acquire their first 

language and he said, yes, they pass through similar stages, from crying 

to cooing to babbling, to just intonation 15 , to one-word utterances 16 , to 

two-word utterances to inflection 17 (that means they can change words, 

they can add plurals for example) to questions, to negatives and then to 

complex sentences. 

And he looked at children acquiring morphemes (a morpheme 18 is the 

smallest meaningful language unit. It could be a word, a part of a word, 

like dog or even the s, that’s a morpheme too, ‘s’ in dogs). So he found 

for example that, in the case of English, and in other languages there 

seems to be this order: 

• a present progressive 19 : so you’d have boy singing – ‘ing’ comes 

first; crying, doing, 

• then followed by prepositions 20 : doggy in car 

• followed by plural 21 : sweeties 

• followed by past irregular: gone 

• possessive 22 : [for example baby’s pram] 

• past regular comes after that: wanted 

• third person singular: eats 

• and the auxiliary: is running 

There has been just one research study that I know of regarding 

acquisition of Irish as a first language. It was a study done by McKenna 

and Wall in 1986 with two young children, Áine and Máire. Áine was 18 

months and Máire was 28 months, in Cnoc Fola in northwest Donegal 

Gaeltacht. And they studied what’s called the MLU - Mean Length of 

Utterance, or how long their sentences were in terms of time. And they 

did look at order. They found that these children began with questions, 

and then they went to the possessors 23 : the mo (you know–my) and they 

worked from there to imperatives 24 (giving orders), and ended, 

interestingly enough, with negatives. 

But more and more studies need to be done so that we can determine if 

that order that you refer to actually takes place in first language 

acquisition and then if there’s an order in second language acquisition. 

And if we know about the order in first language acquisition (how you 

acquire your mother tongue) should we … replicate that order in the way 

we present language to learners? 

11 L2 (abbreviation) 

T2 (Irish abbrev) 

12 ord, seicheamh 

13 céimeanna 

forbartha 

14 diúltach 

15 tuin chainte 

16 ráiteas aon‐fhocal 

17 infhilleadh 

18 morféim 

19 an t‐ainm 

briathartha 

20 réamhfhocal 

21 an t‐iolra 

22 sealbhach (nó 

ginideach) 

23 an aidiacht 

shealbhach 

24 an modh 

ordaitheach


6:18 And if I’m understanding you correctly then Muiris, that there’s a 

Marie difference between the order in how we acquire our L1 and how we 

acquire our L2 or other additional languages, are there any particular 

things that teachers should be aware of or watching out for when we’re 

thinking about teaching second or additional languages? 

6:36 Absolutely. I think the thing they must be aware of is what they call 

Muiris interlanguage 25 . Interlanguage is a mixture of the first language and the 

second language, the mother tongue and the second language that 

they’re learning. It’s like they’re meeting and the two of them are trying to 

co-exist side by side. Interlanguage is not stable – it produces errors. 

Young children when they’re hearing language, first of all they’re looking 

for the meaning in their first language, they’re noticing how things are 

different. 

Now there can also be transfer 26 . In Irish teachers will know about for 

many years the Tá sé fear. This is a transfer from He is a man in English. 

And the transfer sometimes can be positive as well, if structures work in 

the same way in the first language: Tá sé mór- he is big and that’s a 

positive transfer 27 . So, as I said, it causes instability. It can cause as 

well what they call fossilisation 28 , and actually can stay in the system 

forever … somebody could actually go on saying forever Tá sí liathróid. 

That would be regarded as fossilisation and it can be very difficult if the 

language is not acquired correctly then. 

So interlanguage is very complex, and I think it’s good that teachers 

realise that if learners make errors it’s actually part of their developmental 

acquisition and they have to go through the stage where sometimes they 

make hypotheses 29 about language themselves and say Well, it must 

work in this way. Then they produce something and the utterance is 

deviant from what’s acceptable and that is when error occurs. 

But it’s good to think that sometimes: errors – you’re going to meet them, 

it’s not necessarily that the teacher has done something incorrectly or 

whatever, it’s the nature of acquisition. 

8:20 When you talk about this developmental order and how we have to 

Marie accept that children will be making errors, it immediately brings to mind 

questions about: well at what stage and … the ages of children. Because 

when you think about learning Irish as second language children start at 

age four. Is there any research or information about optimal ages 30 for 

learning languages or anything like that? 

8:40 Oh there is, there’s been a lot of work done in that area Marie as well. 

Muiris They’ve talked about, that when we acquire languages, Chomsky and 

people spoke about this thing called the LAD –the language acquisition 

device 31 … like a biological function 32 which is in the brain, and which 

is strongly activated when we are acquiring a first language. Now the 

thinking was that that language acquisition device, like other biological 

functions … works successfully only when it’s stimulated 33 at the right 

time. And that made them research this idea of what’s called a critical 

period hypothesis 34 – that there’s a specific and limited time period for 

language acquisition. And the thinking is that yes, young children 

between four and twelve, before puberty, have this – almost – ability to 

acquire language naturally, and later there seems to be a cut-off-point 35 , 

maybe beyond adolescence 36 , although the thinking on this, and the 

theorising on this, isn’t necessarily fully established. 

25 idirtheanga 

26 traschur 

27 traschur 

deimhneach 

28 iontaisiú 

29 hipitéis 

30 aois bharrmhaith, 

an aois is fearr 

31 mianach 

sealbhaithe teanga 

32 próiseas 

bitheolaíoch 

33 spreag (briathar) 

34 hipitéis na tréimhse 

criticiúla 

35 scoithphointe/ 

pointe scoite 

36 ógántacht


So yes – there appears to be a cut off point in children’s natural ability to 

acquire language, and yes, early language learning appears to be good. 

Although, as I said, the jury is out on if there is a cut-off-point at twelve, 

thirteen, fourteen. 

9:54 That’s very interesting Muiris. Young children acquiring language 

Marie naturally – it automatically brings to mind questions about bilingualism. Is 

there anything you’d be able to tell us about that? 

10:03 Well, first of all, bilingualism is the most natural thing in the world. People 

Muiris used to have this fear of bilingualism in the past, in other words if I learn 

a second language will it interfere with my first language? But when you 

look at the world and its demography 37 , we remember that if you speak 

one language – if you are a monolingual – you are actually in a minority. 

Research estimates that 60% plus of the world’s population is actually 

bilingual or multilingual. And I refer to research done by David Graddol 

(1997) back at the end of the nineties on English, and he said that about 

375 million people speak English as a first language, but that another 

billion use it as an L2. So that shows clearly that most people are 

multilingual or bilingual. 

Now there are different types of bilingualism, Marie, and it might be 

useful just to talk about them. There is of course simultaneous or 

balanced bilingualism 38 : that’s when you are bilingual from birth, and 

both languages develop simultaneously and it’s quite balanced. Now a lot 

of the bilingualism we are dealing with as teachers is what’s called 

additive bilingualism 39 : we’re adding the second language to the first 

language, we’re learning a language in school. And then we must be 

aware as well of subtractive bilingualism 40 : and that means that people 

can actually loose their first language when they learn their second 

language – in the context of immigration 41 . So were I, for example, 

Spanish and I come to live in England, and over the years I may loose, or 

use my Spanish less and less, so it becomes subtractive. 

11:32 That’s a very interesting point when you think about all the children that 

Marie are learning English as an additional language but already have other 

first languages. 

11:39 Absolutely, and maybe we should think of that a little bit more: that they 

Muiris are actually bilinguals and in fact additive bilingualism is occurring with 

English but subtractive bilingualism could be occurring with their first 

language. 

11:51 And would you say that there are any advantages to being bilingual? 

Marie 

11:55 Oh, there are indeed. There’s very important research has been 

Muiris conducted to show the advantages to being bilingual. There’s research 

by Ellen Bialystok carried out in Canada, and she’s been working on this 

for a long time. She’s been asking Are bilinguals better learners? Her 

work has compared cognitive development 42 – particularly in younger 

children in the four to eight year age group – and she has compared 

bilingual children to their monolingual 43 counterparts. And she has 

shown consistently and clearly that, for example in areas like problemsolving 

that includes a little bit of misleading information, bilingual 

children perform significantly better. 

37 déimeagrafaíocht 

38 an dátheangachas 

comhuaineach nó 

cothrom 

39 an dátheangachas 

suimitheach/ 

breiseánach 

40 dátheangachas 

dealaitheach/ 

aghdaithe 

41 inimirce 

42 forbairt chognaíoch 

43 aonteangach


They are better able to make the distinction between a symbol [the word] 

and the thing to which it refers [the picture], to understand that words are 

only referents 44 . And they can block out any misleading information. And 

that holds true for bilingual children not only in pre-reading skills, but also 

in tests to do with mathematical concepts, shapes, and sizes etc. 

12:57 And is that also true for children who are additive bilinguals, children who 

Marie have actually learned their second language, maybe at school, as well as 

people who’ve been … bilingual from a very early age? 

13:08 Yes, that’s a good point. Jim Cummins said that there’s a certain 

Muiris threshold 45 … there’s a threshold hypothesis that once you’re an 

additive bilingual at a certain capacity – so it won’t happen immediately – 

some of these advantages to being bilingual accrue as well, in terms of 

cognitive development. 

13:24 And are there any other advantages as well as the cognitive ones? 

Marie 

13:28 The cognitive ones … yes, there are indeed, there are the advantages of 

Muiris maybe being more imaginative, of seeing the world—as somebody 

said—in two different ways, in problem solving, in creativity. But the 

strongest evidence that Ellen Bialystock has produced is definitely in 

cognitive development. And all the other areas that I just mentioned: 

imagination, openness, seeing the world in a dual way, are all being 

investigated. 

44 tagráin (tagrán) 

45 tairseach


Part 2: Language teaching: insights, theories, approaches and factors. 

13:52 So Muiris I might move on a bit now to start thinking more about teaching 

Marie languages, and I suppose one of the first questions that teachers might 

be asking: What kind of factors affect how a child acquires a second 

language? Things like the child’s first language, or the language in the 

community, or intellectual ability 46 , what kind of factors 47 would be 

affecting it? 

14:13 That’s a very good question and research at the moment is focusing very 

Muiris much on those factors, like the child’s background, their first language, 

things you just mentioned, the language the child hears in the 

environment, the intellectual ability, the amount of time spent learning is 

one – they definitely affect the acquisition of second language. 

Research, I think, is coming more and more to the conclusion that what 

they call individual factors 48 play a very important role in language 

learning; quite a lot of books now on what’s called the individual factor in 

language learning. Even we know that learners within the same family, 

they often differ greatly in the degree of success they achieve when 

learning the second language. So they [researchers] have categorised all 

these individual factors into two big categories. 

One—cognitive factors. They talk there about intelligence, language 

aptitude 49 and language learning strategies 50 . 

And then importantly as well, and sometimes overlooked in research up 

to now, the affective factors 51 , like the language attitudes, the attitudes 

they’d have to the speakers of the language, motivation, the language 

anxiety 52 (sometimes when learners are called upon to produce 

language they can become anxious, is the language correct) and then at 

the other end of the scale a thing called the willingness to 

communicate 53 : that in certain groups – if you take a group of 20 

learners – some of those are more willing to communicate than others, 

and they’re investigating those what’s called WTC – willingness to 

communicate factor in second language acquisition. 

In the past 20 years though only, Marie, are researchers turning to these 

and seeing them as extremely important in developing theories of second 

language acquisition. 

15:50 So another question then that would spring to mind is that at the very 

Marie start of the podcast you mentioned how language learning and language 

acquisition are at two ends of a spectrum of development 54 . What’s the 

role of formal language teaching on that spectrum? 

16:06 That’s a very very good question. Because when Chomsky and Krashen 

Muiris and all these theorists came out in the seventies and said Well, look, 

language acquisition is a very natural thing, then it called into question 

Well, what can a teacher do, really, in a classroom if language acquisition 

occurs naturally, occurs subconsciously? 

Now I think that communicative language teaching 55 plays an 

enormous role here and the syllabi in Irish language is the cur chuige 

cumarsáide, the communicative language teaching. The theory here is 

very interesting: that if learners engage meaningfully in communication, 

then language acquisition occurs almost subconsciously – they’re not 

aware they’re learning. 

46 cumas intleachtúil 

47 tosca (toisc) 

48 tosca an duine 

aonair 

49 inniúlacht/mianach 

teanga 

50 straitéisí foghlama 

teanga 

51 tosca 

mothachtálacha 

52 buairt/imní 

53 fonn cumarsáide 

54 speictream/ 

contanam na 

forbartha 

55 cur chuige na 

cumarsáide i 

múineadh teangacha


Also sometimes when learners are learning subjects through the medium 

of the target language – it’s called CLIL, Content and Language 

Integrated Learning 56 – this occurs too. They’re not actually focusing on 

learning the language, but they’re focusing on doing something through 

the language, then that actually fuels and drives language acquisition as 

well. 

17:10 And we actually have another podcast, all about the communicative 

Marie approach, with Dr. Kènia Puig i Planella, which is also available on the 

website www.action.ncca.ie. 

Now Muiris, earlier you were talking about the developmental stages, and 

you were just mentioning there how the teacher is a facilitator 57 in 

facilitating this acquisition, so how does the teacher go about 

sequencing 58 the tasks and sequencing the language that the children 

are learning? 

17:39 Remember what I was saying earlier that we’re not fully fully convinced of 

Muiris the research yet, because it’s still … experimental, but if there is a 

developmental stage then how we actually prepare our language learning 

materials to fit in with that would be crucial. However, research also is 

showing that language learning isn’t linear 59 – it doesn’t [necessarily] 

happen in that developmental sequence I was just talking about. And we 

all know that too, in our classroom one day a learner might produce a 

form which is absolutely correct, and then, maybe a couple of weeks later 

or a month later, they can produce that form again totally incorrectly. So 

when this happens then, what’s happening is that maybe the 

interlanguage system is being incorporated. 

18:24 And what about mistakes? I mean – should I be correcting the children to 

Marie try and move them on to the next stage, or should I never correct them? 

Should I correct them some of the time? 

Muiris That’s another good question. These are the questions that constantly we 

want to know as teachers Am I doing the right thing, should I correct? 

Well, the thinking is that there are two types of correction. There’s 

explicit correction 60 : that if a learner makes an error that you correct the 

error immediately and you bring the learner’s attention to the error. So if 

somebody says, for example, An dtaitníonn sé leat? and they say Sea, 

that you would correct that as No, you say Ní thaitníonn, ní deir tú ‘sea’, 

ní thaitníonn nó taitníonn. That’s what’s called explicit [correction]. 

The other is implicit 61 [correction]. Now a lot of teachers use that: 

implicit, or recasts 62 . So again if you say An dtaitníonn sé leat and a 

learner replies Sea that the teacher would say Ó, taitníonn sé leat? and 

then from that the learner might infer Look, I’ve made a mistake, and this 

is the right for’. So you’re not drawing attention to the error but you are 

giving the right form. 

Now again the jury is out in research on that – on both types. Actually, 

both might be of very little value unless the learners notice that they’ve 

made an error. To give you an example, if I said Tá an carr ar an 

mbóthar, learners at a stage of developing will hear the words carr and 

bóthar, and they understand from that, particularly in meaningful 

communication; they get the idea: carr … bóthar. But at inputprocessing 

stage 63 they may not even notice m before the b – mbóthar 

– or they may not even notice Tá at all. So it can take a long time for 

learners sometimes to actually notice correct forms. I think time is crucial. 

56 Foghlaim 

Chomhtháite Ábhar 

agus Teangacha 

57 éascaitheoir 

58 seicheamhú 

59 líneach 

60 léircheartú /ceartú 

follasach 

61 ceartú intuigthe 

62 ateilgean 

63 céim próiseála 

ionhuir


So to answer your question, yes, I think we must constantly give the 

correct form, but do not be discouraged if it takes learners longer 

sometimes to arrive at the correct form; they will in time, it’s just that 

maybe they’re not noticing those correct forms - no matter how often it’s 

heard, they notice when their interlanguage is almost ready for that 

noticing. 

20:32 That’s a very interesting point Muiris, because it’s probably a source of 

Marie frustration for a lot of teachers, maybe particularly with written work, 

where they’re correcting things, and correct the same things over and 

over and never see any changes; that it’s all about when the learner 

notices and that’s where the importance lies, not in the correcting or not 

correcting, of the mistake. 

20:53 Absolutely. One way to get learners to actually improve their language 

Muiris skills is to get them to notice very very good language. So if they could 

hear somebody, or see a piece written, that’s at a stage better than their 

own stage of development, and ask them to reflect on Why is that better? 

What do you notice as being very good about this? then once noticing is 

activated and triggered, actual acquisition might occur. 

21:27 And that brings up then the question of language awareness 64 and 

Marie getting children to notice features 65 about language 

21:30 Yes, absolutely, and I think that the more we can make our learners 

Muiris curious about language, and we have wonderful opportunities sometimes 

in our classrooms with speakers of other languages than English as a 

first language; get them aware that people pronounce 66 words 

differently, there are different sounds in language, you can actually ask 

the children to say some words, to try and get children to repeat these 

words from Russian or Arabic or French or whatever, and that makes 

them very curious; that’s a very simple language awareness task. So we 

can’t just simply assume that because they hear language and they see 

it, and they use it, that they actually notice the correct forms. 

22:05 And I suppose another crucial point then is the post-communicative 

Marie stage 67 of communicative language lessons where you actually explicitly 

focus on features or errors … 

Muiris Absolutely, and that can be done sometimes by reflection, saying How 

did you get on? What did you find easy, what did you find difficult? Postcommunicative 

or post-task language teaching, you know you have your 

pre-task where they prepare the language, they do the task 

communicatively and in the post-task stage you’re focusing on How well 

did you do it? Did you notice anything difficult? Did you notice anything 

you did well? Always. If you were to ask somebody else to do it – maybe 

a native speaker – this is what they might say and get them to notice it, at 

various levels of ability. But also encouragement, all the other 

educational principles obviously apply in language teaching as well. 

64 feasacht teanga 

65 gnéithe teangacha/ 

comharthaí sóirt 

teangacha éagsúla 

66 fuaimniú 

67 tréimhse 

iarchumarsáideach


Cuid 3: Sealbhú agus múineadh na Gaeilge/acquisition and teaching of Irish 

22:53 Agus ag bogadh ar aghaidh anois a Mhuiris, chun díriú isteach go 68 specifically 

69 language 

Marie sainiúil 68 ar mhúineadh na Gaeilge agus ceisteanna sealbhaithe 

teanga 69 a bhaineann le múineadh na Gaeilge, is dócha gur í an chéad 

cheist a ritheann liomsa ná an bhfuil an Ghaeilge níos deacra ná 

teangacha eile, le foghlaim nó le múineadh? 

23:09 Ceist mhaith agus tá sí minic cloiste agam. Níl aon fhianaise 70 go bhfuil 

Muiris a leithéid fíor ach ceaptar a leithéid go mionmhinic. Cinnte, dearfa, tá 

gnéithe 71 áirithe a bhaineann leis an nGaolainn 72 nach bhfuil a leithéid 

againn sa Bhéarla: cuir i gcás an séimhiú, an t-urú 73 , an rud seo, an 

t-infhilleadh 74 (athruithe ar fhocail agus mar sin de) agus tá an forainm 

réamhfhoclach 75 (agam, agat, orm, ort) rud atá acu, dála an scéil, sa 

Pholainnis agus sa Rúisis. Dá mbeadh teanga Cheilteach eile againn 

mar mháthairtheanga 76 , a mbeadh na gnéithe sin ag baint léi, bheadh 

sé níos fusa. Tá ar deireadh rud ar a nglaonn siad ansin psychotypology 

nó typology 77 : is é sin má labhraíonn tú teanga amháin mar theanga 

dhúchais 78 agus tú ag foghlaim teanga eile atá gaolmhar (a bhaineann 

leis an gclann chéanna teangacha) ansin ar ndóigh tá sé níos fusa. Ach 

tá difríochtaí idir córas an Bhéarla agus córas na Gaeilge agus níor 

mhiste ansin b’fhéidir … bhíomar ag caint ó chianaibh 79 ar cheachtanna 

feasachta teanga, language awareness, caithfimid iad sin a bhunú níos 

mó ar na difríochtaí sin. 

24:14 Ach é sin ráite, mar a deir tú, ní hí go bhfuil sí [an Ghaeilge] i bhfad níos 

Marie deacra agus gach rud atá fíor ó thaobh sealbhú teangacha 80 eile de, tá 

sé fíor i dtaobh na Gaeilge freisin? 

24:24 Díreach é. Níl sí níos deacra, agus gach aon rud a dúirt (mé) ansin ó 

Muiris chianaibh mar gheall ar shealbhú teanga ó thaobh na dteangacha eile de 

bheadh sé fíor chomh maith i leith na Gaolainne. 

24:36 Agus is dócha, ceist eile ansin a thagann chun cinn go minic ná go bhfuil 

Marie sé ráite go soiléir i gcuraclam na Gaeilge gur cheart na ceachtanna a 

mhúineadh trí mheán na Gaeilge 81 . Agus uaireanta bíonn sé sin deacair 

ar mhúinteoirí, mura bhfuil a gcuid Gaeilge féin chomh líofa 82 agus atá an 

Béarla acu. Cén fáth a ndeirtear sin, agus cén fáth a gcaithfimid bheith 

dian uaireanta ar na páistí agus a bheith ag iarraidh an Ghaeilge a 

ghríosadh 83 uathu. 

25:00 Bhuel, anois, níl an oiread sin den bheotheanga 84 , b’fhéidir, acu sa 

Muiris timpeallacht 85 is a bheifeá ag súil leis – bhuel, braitheann sé anois: má 

tá tú i dtimpeallacht na Gaeltachta agus mar sin de tá an bheotheanga 

sin timpeall ort. Ba cheart an oiread [agus is féidir] den bheo teanga sin 

a úsáid sa timpeallacht, i dtreo is go mbeadh an rud ar a dtugann siad 

ionchur (input) saibhir teanga ann. 

Mar sin, tá sé tábhachtach go labhraímid Gaolainn leo an oiread agus is 

féidir 86 nó go gcloisfidís an Ghaolainn oiread agus is féidir i rith an lae. 

Agus rud amháin, tá sé an-tábhachtach go dtuigfeadh na foghlaimeoirí é 

sin. Go minic, déanaimid é sin, ach an dtuigeann na foghlaimeoirí cad ina 

thaobh go mbíonn na ceachtanna as Gaolainn? B’fheidir .. ní thuigeann 

siad cad chuige a bhfuil an Béarla le seachaint 87 ? 

acquisition issues 

70 no evidence 

71 features 

72 Gaeilge (in Munster 

dialect) 

73 eclipis 

74 inflection 

75 prepositional 

pronouns 

76 mother tongue 

77 típeolaíocht 

78 native (first) 

language 

79 a while ago 

80 language(s) 

acquisition 

81 through the 

medium of Irish 

82 fluent 

83 urge/incite 

84 living language 

85 in the environment 

86 as much as 

possible 

87 to be avoided


Agus ar ndóigh, má thuigeann siad gur chuid den fhorbairt 88 agus gur 

chuid den sealbhú teanga é an bheotheanga sin a chlos agus a úsáid sa 

timpeallacht teanga b’fhéidir go gcabhródh sé sin leo ó thaobh 

spreagadh 89 agus mar sin de. 

Tá sé an-tábhachtach chomh maith go mbeifeá féin, mar mhúinteoir, ar 

do chompord 90 leis an teanga agus go mbainfí úsáid aisti mar 

bheotheanga chumarsáide 91 sa seomra ranga, agus ar ndóigh chomh 

minic agus is féidir lasmuigh de. Ba dheas liom go gcífeadh múinteoirí 

b’fhéidir, agus foghlaimeoirí, go mbaineann an teanga, ní hamháin leis an 

seomra ranga, ach leis an ngnáthshaol laethúil 92 lasmuigh den seomra 

ranga, agus arís tá an fheasacht teanga an-tábhachtach chuige sin. 

Féadann tú a rá leo Tá mise dátheangach 93 , tá dá theanga agam, 

Béarla-Gaeilge. Agus ansin dá mbeadh daoine eile, b’fhéidir, sa rang a 

mbeadh dá theanga acu chomh maith, Polainnis-Béarla nó rud éigin mar 

sin, d’fhéadfá é sin a úsáid le cur ar a súile dóibh gur rud iontach é seo, 

an dátheangachas 94 . 

26:47 Agus ag caint ansin ar an dátheangachas, agus ar an ionchur teanga nó 

Marie language input, ar cheart mar sin go mbeadh páistí ag éisteacht le 

cainteoirí dúchas 95 ? 

26:58 Ba cheart. Ba cheart go gcloisfidís raon leathan 96 de chainteoirí dúchais 

Muiris agus cainteoirí dara teanga. Ar ndóigh bheadh sé deacair, go háirithe 

nuair a thagann sé go canúintí 97 , b’fhéidir, nach mbeadh fiú cur amach 

iomlán ag múinteoirí orthu go minic, ach mar sin féin, leis na difríochtaí 

sin canúna 98 , na difríochtaí sin foghraíochta 99 : a mhíniú dóibh agus a 

rá Bíonn sé seo i ngach aon teanga. Tarlaíonn sé sin leis an mBéarla fiú, 

dá rachfá maidin amárach chuig Sasana, tá áiteanna ansin b’fhéidir nach 

dtuigfeá an cineál Béarla atá iontu go tapaidh. 

Ach mar sin féin tá sé an-tábhachtach go dtuigfeadh siad go bhfuil a 

leithéid de rud agus cainteoir dúchais ann, agus go bhfuil cainteoirí 

dúchais óg agus aosta [ann], agus fiú dá mbeadh cartúin, ar TG4 agus 

mar sin, gur féidir cuid díobh sin a úsáid fiú (cuid de na carachtair a 

bheadh ansin sna cartúin ar cainteoirí dúchas iad sin) chun aird na 

bhfoghlaimeoirí 100 a tharraingt air sin. B’fhéidir nach dtuigfidís, ach de 

réir a chéile 101 … ní sheachnóinn in aon chor an cainteoir dúchais cé go 

bhfuil dúshlán ag baint leis – ní sheachnóinn 102 é san ionchur teanga 

sin. 

27:59 Agus luaigh tú canúintí agus b’fhéidir sa Bhéarla go mbíonn canúintí ann 

Marie freisin cé nach smaoinímid air sin, an bhfuil aon chomhairle 103 agat do 

mhúinteoirí maidir le canúintí agus conas déileáil leo siúd? 

28:11 Arís ceist mhaith. An phríomhchomhairle 104 , is dóigh liom, a chuirfinn ar 

Muiris mhúinteoirí ná bheith chomh nádúrtha agus is féidir. Mar cuimhnigh gur 

chuig cumarsáid 105 í an teanga tar éis an tsaoil 106 . Agus is iomaí cineál 

cainteora atá ann. Dá mbeifeá ag obair i scoil Ghaeltachta, ar ndóigh, 

bheadh an-bhéim ar an gcanúint logánta 107 nó áitiúil. Ach mar a dúirt, 

b’fhiú cur ar a súile 108 d’fhoghlaimeoirí go bhfuil foghraíocht 109 ar leith 

ag baint leis an nGaeilge sa tslí chéanna ina bhfuil foghraíocht ag baint 

leis an bPolainnis nó ag Araibis nó an Fhraincis. Ach an príomhrud ná 

bheith chomh nádúrtha, chomh cumarsáideach agus is féidir sa treo is go 

dtuigfidís gur seo teanga chumarsáideach, agus bheith chomh nádúrtha 

agus is féidir laistigh de sin. 

88 of development 

89 motivation 

90 comfortable 

91 living means of 

communication 

92 with everyday life 

93 bilingual 

94 bilingualism 

95 native speakers 

96 wide range 

97 dialects 

98 those dialectical 

differences 

99 those phonetic 

differences 

100 the learners 

attention 

101 by degrees 

102 I wouldn’t avoid 

103 any advice 

104 the main advice 

105 communication 

106 in the end of the 

day 

107 local 

108 to make (learners) 

aware of 

109 phonetics


28:51 Agus an gceapann tú, a Mhuiris, go bhfuil cur chuige éagsúil 110 ag 

Marie teastáil ansin má tá duine ag múineadh i scoil Ghaeltachta? 

29:00 Or ar ndóigh tá. Mar bheadh an teanga ansin ar a dtoil 111 , ní ag gach 

Muiris páiste, ach ag an-chuid de na páistí. An príomhrud ná dúshlán 112 na 

bhfoghlaimeoirí ag an bpointe sin a thabhairt. Má tá siad siúd ag obair ar 

théacsanna 113 nó mar sin atá ag leibhéal ró-íseal dóibh ní spreagfaidh 

sé sin iad. Mar a dúirt Krashen fadó, caithfidh an t-ionchur teanga a 

bheith ag leibhéal amháin chun tosaigh 114 ar chumas na 

bhfoghlaimeoirí. 

Agus ansin sa Ghaeltacht b’shin an prionsabal a bheadh i gceist. 

Caithfidh an t-ionchur teanga a bheith saibhir sna seomraí ranga ar fad, 

ach sa Ghaeltacht caithfidh sé bheith ag leibhéal chun tosaigh [ar 

Ghaeilge na bpáistí] agus bheith chomh saibhir agus is féidir. Cur chuige 

eile mar sin dáiríre, dhíreofá ansin b’fhéidir ar stór leathan foclóra 115 , 

réimse leathan cora cainte 116 agus leaganacha 117 , comhchiallacha 118 

agus mar sin de, a thabhairt dóibh a luaithe agus is féidir. 

29:55 Agus an teoiric sin mar gheall ar dhúshlán na bpáistí a thabhairt? An 

Marie bhfuil sé sin fíor do sheomraí ranga eile freisin, nach bhfuil cainteoirí 

dúchais iontu? 

30:03 Tá. Ceist an-mhaith í sin. Ní bhaineann sé le cainteoirí dúchais amháin. 

Muiris Sin fíor maidir le daltaí agus le foghlaimeoirí i gcoitinne. Cuir i gcás dá 

mbeadh seanchleachtadh 119 ag na daltaí ar na gnáthrudaí, abair 

gnáthbheannachtaí 120 , Conas tá tú, cá bhfuil cónaí ort, cén aois tú? 

agus go bhfuil sé sin acu, abair, agus seantaithí acu [orthu]. 

Dá dtosóidís air sin arís, sa mheánscoil, (dá bhféadfainn an mheánscoil a 

lua anseo) an chéad lá nó an dara lá nó an chéad mhí nó mar sin, 

b’fhéidir go ndéarfaidís leo féin ansin Bhuel, an bhfuil aon dul chun 

cinn 121 ar siúl agam maidir leis an nGaolainn? Caithfidh tú cur ar a súile 

dóibh go gcaithfidh siad dul chun cinn a dhéanamh, go gcaithfidh tú, mar 

a dúraís ansin, a ndúshlán a thabhairt i gcónaí trí théacsanna atá leibhéal 

amháin níos casta ná an teanga atá sealbhaithe acu cheana féin. 

30:52 Agus as sin ardaítear ceisteanna mar gheall ar dul siar, mar chun dul 

Marie chun cinn a dhéanamh, ní mór dul siar 122 freisin. Agus éiríonn na páistí, 

mar a dúirt tú, bréan de 123 bheith ag dul siar ar rudaí céanna? Conas is 

féidir tabhairt faoi sin, n’fheadar? 

31:07 Tá an dul siar nó an t-athdhéanamh 124 sin thar a bheith tábhachtach, 

Muiris ach dá bhféadfá, b’fhéidir, é a dhéanamh i slite úra 125 , abair, seachas 

bheith ag druileáil agus an dul siar agus an t-athrá 126 arís. Go mbainfidís 

úsáid as, b’fhéidir, dráma beag, nó go gcuirfidís rud éigin le chéile 

bunaithe ar na focail agus ar na leaganacha atá á gclos acu ar feadh na 

seachtaine nó ar feadh na míosa. 

Mar sin dúshlán an-mhór …. mar dá mhéad uair a úsáidfidh foghlaimeoirí 

focal nua/téarma nua/cora cainte nua – i gcomhthéacsanna nua chomh 

maith – is amhlaidh is fusa a shealbhóidh siad sin. Tá an dul siar thar a 

bheith tábhachtach, ach cuimhnigh ar shlite úra nua cruthaitheacha 127 

ina bhféadfadh páistí na focail, na leaganacha atá sealbhaithe, nó 

foghlamtha acu, a úsáid arís. 

110 a different 

approach 

111 to be fluent in 

112 challenge 

113 texts 

114 ahead of 

115 wide vocabulary 

116 idioms 

117 forms of speech 

(idioms) 

118 synonyms 

119 strong familiarity 

120 ordinary greetings 

121 progress 

122 revise, go back 

over 

123 tired of, bored with 

124 revision 

125 new ways 

126 the repetition 

127 creative


31:55 Tuigim. Agus a Mhuiris, bhíomar ag caint níos túisce ansin mar gheall ar 

Marie earráidí 128 , agus ceartú earráidí agus mar sin de. An bhfuil aon saghas 

moltaí breise maidir le múineadh na Gaeilge, gramadach na Gaeilge, 

agus mar sin de, le cur leis an méid a bhí ráite cheana? 

32:10 Bhuel, arís déanaim tagairt don idirtheanga sin – gur cuid den fhorbairt 

Muiris nádúrtha agus de phróiseas an tsealbhaithe [é]. Tá sé tábhachtach na 

mórbhotúin 129 a cheartú cinnte, i dtreo is nach bhfanfadh na botúin sin 

reoite 130 . Agus arís bheith an-fhoighneach 131 ar fad, mar go dtógann sé 

an-chuid ama … gan misneach a chailliúint. Agus go minic bímid cráite 

nuair a bhíonn rudaí múinte – mar a thuigimid – i gceart againn, agus 

mar sin de, nach bhfuil siad sealbhaithe. Agus cuimhnigh ar na 

difríochtaí aonair 132 sin a mhaireann idir foghlaimeoirí. Is dóigh liom gur 

sin iad na léargais ón teangeolaíocht fheidhmeach 133 agus ó shealbhú 

an dara teanga a thugann, is dóigh liom, sólás dúinn mar mhúinteoirí mar 

tuigimid gur próiseas casta é próiseas an tsealbhaithe 134 . Agus má 

leanaimid orainn, le cúrsaí ama agus le spreagadh, agus leis an rud a 

dhéanamh chomh cruthaitheach agus is féidir agus chomh fuinniúil 135 

agus is féidir, éireoidh linn ar ball. 

33:04 Agus is deas an nóta dóchais é sin. Anois, is dócha go bhfuilimid ag 

Marie druidim chun deiridh, ach an bhfuil aon rud breise ar mhaith leat a rá faoi 

shealbhú teanga agus múineadh teangacha? 

33:15 Is dóigh liom gur an é rud is mó a chabhraigh liomsa féin ná gur thug sé 

Muiris léargas áirithe 136 dom. Go minic bhíos ag cur an mhilleáin 137 orm féin 

mar mhúinteoir agus ag rá Cad ina thaobh a bhfuil siad ag déanamh na 

mbotún? agus níor thuigeas an rud seo faoi idirtheanga. Níor thuigeas, 

mar shampla, na difríochtaí idir foghlaimeoirí agus mar sin de. Tugann sé 

cineál breismhisnigh 138 do mhúinteoirí agus sin, is dócha, an nóta 

dóchais ar mhaith liom tagairt dó ag deireadh an agallaimh seo. 

33:42 Agus is deas é sin mar chríoch don agallaimh. A Mhuiris, go raibh míle 

Marie maith agat. 

Muiris Míle fáilte romhat. 

128 errors 

129 the main errors 

130 frozen (fossilised) 

131 very patient 

132 individual 

differences 

133 applied linguistics 

134 the acquisition 

process 

135 energetic 

136 a certain insight 

137 blaming 

138 a certain amount 

of extra courage

Part 1: Introduction, first and second language acquisition ...

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