naidheachdan mygaelic.commygaelic.com news

Le/By Gemma Fraser

Education Reporter

A SIDE from being able to offer milk and sugar in a cup of tea and ask someone how they are - "ciamar a tha thu?" - the only thing I took away from my foray into the Gaelic language 14 years ago was a frustration that I had to give up without ever achieving my goal of becoming fluent in the language.

Armed with only a phrase book and cassette tape 20 years out of date borrowed from the local library, it wasn't the best way to pick up a language that was all but extinct in my home town of Dumfries.

Things are a lot different now, though. While I'm not sure that schools in south-west Scotland will ever fully embrace Gaelic, schools in other parts of Scotland, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, have made massive commitments to teaching the language to children.

In the Capital, the Gaelic Medium Education (GME) unit in Tollcross Primary is bursting at the seams, with pupil numbers rising from 90 to 132 in the past five years.

It has become so popular, in fact, that the council is looking into creating a dedicated Gaelic school so it can reach out to even more children interested in taking up the language.

While that might sound like a sensible and practical solution to dealing with increased demand, the proposal has come under fire given the costs involved and the fact that the council has already closed seven schools in less than two years.

Again and again the question is asked: "Why spend vast amounts of money on a dying language?"

With only one per cent of Scots speaking the language, it's a valid point, but the Scottish Government is firmly behind preserving this part of our heritage, while supporters of the language are increasingly pointing towards the general educational benefits of being bilingual.

A glowing HMIE report has just highlighted the great academic success of children at Tollcross Primary, where "a significant proportion achieve national levels in English, Gaelic and mathematics earlier than might normally be expected". It adds: "Children learning through the medium of Gaelic progress very well."

Antonella Sorace, professor of developmental linguistics at Edinburgh University and director of the new information service Bilingualism Matters, says: "The results are consistent with research on child bilingualism, which shows that growing up with two languages brings a range of benefits to children.

Bhon Albannach/From The Scotsman.

Airson barrachd a leughadh agus do bheachdan fhagail air an storaidh seo/to read more on this story and leave your comments: briog an seo/click here