PPLI Primary Guidelines REVISED EDITION - Flipbook - Page 30
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Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
Having explored a topic in class, e.g. favourite fruits, pupils are encouraged to draw pictures and, when ready, to write
about what they have been discussing. They do this in English in school. As they become familiar with the relevant
words in Irish they can write them too. EAL pupils should be encouraged to get their parents or older siblings to write
the equivalent words in their HL. In this way, EAL pupils can transfer their emerging literacy skills in English and Irish to
their HLs (Figures 5–6). An essential feature of this approach is that the children are encouraged to read aloud for the
teacher, their peers and visitors to the classroom, the texts they have written in two or more languages. It is also very
important that the languages used by the pupils are visible on classroom and corridor walls (Figure 7).
Figure 5: Texts in English and Tagalog are identical in structure and
content (Senior Infants)
Figure 6: Texts in English and Polish are identical in structure and
content (Senior Infants)
Figure 7: Classroom display of
children’s work
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