Project
The changing linguistic landscape in Ireland has resulted in a considerable increase in the number of children whose home language is not English. UL is working with Doras,the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB) and Paul Partnership, funded by SOLAS, on a project to co-create easy-to-use, culturally appropriate educational resources for parents and early years practitioners that promotes multlilingual language development.
There are a lot of myths about multilingualism which can lead to practices which have a negative impact on the speech and language development of children from migrant backgrounds. In addition, many migrant, multilingual families face systemic barriers to supporting their children鈥檚 oral language and literacy, including limited access to culturally relevant materials and low parental literacy in either English or their first language.
Doras Luimn铆, Limerick & Clare Education and Training Board, Paul Partnership
A pre project workshop exploring attitudes towards multilingual practices was held prior to the project with key stakeholders including language teachers, and families in the Limerick & Clare region. The final project launch will include post evaluation data collection of changes in knowledge and awarenes of evidence based approaches to mulitlingual language development practices amongst stakeholders. A policy brief is currently being prepared to summarise the findings including recommendations for policy decicion-makers around multilingual and intercultural learning. An artist has been commissioned to produce illustrations of the findings which will be disseminated in the form of posters, leaflets and in an accessible bound report booklet. An academic publication is in progress and will be submitted in June 2026. An application for funding to pilot resources is being prepared also.
Resources
