Gaeilge by Text
This presentation describes the Mobile-Assisted Language Learning pilot project which was conducted by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in partnership with the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE). The pilot project investigated the use of mobile phones and web-based text chat for teaching and learning Irish. 69 second year students and their three Irish teachers participated in the pilot project. Students received mobile phones and used them to (1) dial an Irish question prompt system and (2) receive vocabulary text messages each day. The web-based text chat facilitated students’ written conversations on a pre-supplied topic. Findings from the evaluation of the pilot project included improved student competency in Irish, increased enjoyment in learning Irish and enhanced ability to learn autonomously. Students embraced the ‘new age’ technology and it proved to break down barriers to their learning and speaking of Irish.
Katrina Keogh is an education officer with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). Her areas of work at NCCA including the Mobile-Assisted Language Learning Project, ACTION website, English as an additional language, modern languages at primary level and Primary Curriculum Review. Katrina has a B.Sc. in Applied Computational Linguistics and taught German at primary level for over five years. She is currently completing her Ph.D. thesis in the area of Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning.