Panel 4 | Shaping a Language Support Infrastructure for New Speakers Coordinator: Deirdre Ní Loingsigh
This panel will discuss a new leadership initiative in Limerick City, Ireland which has been designed with four specific aims in mind: (1) to investigate the language support requirements of new speakers and adult learners of Irish in the local urban context; (2) to explore agendas, strategies and tools for a more vibrant public engagement and networking in relation to Irish language support and language planning; (3) to investigate the organisational structures and leadership required at local level in order to create a sustainable language support framework and boost language vitality; and (4) to reflect on the relationship between language advising initiatives and local language planning and policy. Core values in the project are a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach; the creation of a “communicative space” as promoted in the field of adult education; strong interconnectivity between “critical colleagues” in language support and planning; the promotion of a multidisciplinary approach; the creation of “experimental language spaces”; and the probing of reflections on minority language for the “public good”. The term “incubation space” is borrowed from business to represent all of the supports that are necessary in the start-up phase of this language project. Therefore, the mentoring, advising and leadership required and ways of promoting public engagement and networking are a key focus. In the first research cycle of the Participatory Action Research (PAR) project, a strategic approach to language planning in tandem with health promotion is explored. The scope of this new and experimental agenda for Irish language networks will be focus of the panel and data from a public consultation - information and Idea Lab event will be presented and analysed. Participants in the event are representatives from Irish language promotion and education groups in Limerick; local contacts involved in Irish language initiatives; and representatives from mental health, student welfare and local sporting partnerships. The potential to steer language policy in new directions and to focus innovations and supports at local level on Language for Well being is the position taken by panel members. We are interested in how this agenda and our experimental practices may inform how the governmental strategy to grow the number of Irish speakers might be realized and the majority of them are new speakers.
Participants:
Deirdre Ní Loingsigh, Director, Aonad na Gaeilge, University of Limerick (academic)
Helena Ní Ghearáin, Tutor, Aonad na Gaeilge, University of Limerick (academic
Séamus Barra Ó Súilleabháin, teacher of Irish language classes for adults & verbal word artist (stakeholder)
Ainle Ó Cairealláin, Director, ACLAÍ (is the Irish word for fit) personal training facility in Cork (stakeholder)
Report on Panel pgs 4-8