Bilingualism and Pre-School Provision: Gaelic-medium Playrooms Joanna McPake University of Strathclyde, Scotland Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh, Alba

Key Questions What are the linguistic advantages and disadvantages of early years language immersion programmes? What are the educational advantages and disadvantages? What approaches maximise linguistic and educational benefits? How can early years practitioners best be supported to achieve the challenging goals they have been set?

Two Studies Glasgow Gaelic School Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu : Review of Gaelic Medium Early Education and Childcare (Scottish Government and Bòrd na Gàidhlig) : Young Children Learning in Gaelic (British Academy) Research Team: University of Stirling: Christine Stephen, Irene Pollock, Tessa Carroll University of Edinburgh: Wilson McLeod University of Strathclyde: Joanna McPake

Aims Review To map the current extent of GM provision for early years education and childcare Young Children To investigate the everyday experiences of children attending GM pre-school settings

Methods Review Mapping provision from existing statistics A survey of identified providers Interviews with key informants Young children Three case study settings, six visits across the school year Systematic observations Structured conversations Access to child profile records Profile of language learning environment in each setting

Gaelic Medium Education (GME) Gaelic speakers in Scotland:59,000 people = 1.2% of population Fewer than 1% of families with young children use Gaelic at home Just over 700 children enrolled in GM pre-school in National Plan for Gaelic: aims for 4000 children starting GME by 2021

Gaelic Medium Pre-School Provision Scottish children entitled to two years of state-funded pre- school education, from age 3- 5: 475 hours per year From the Review, we found 127 providers of GM early years education and care in : state and private nurseries, playgroups and child-minders Iochdar Nursery, South Uist Croileagan An Iochdair The Review found GM pre-school provision in 14 of the 32 local authorities in Scotland, not only in the Gàidhealtachd

Gaelic Medium Pre-School Practitioners Nursery staff may be ‘fluent speakers’ or ‘learners’ of Gaelic Educational qualifications range from basic vocational qualification (SVQ2) to B.Ed. No pre-school or early years initial training is available in Gaelic. None includes a focus on bilingualism, language learning and teaching or principles and practice of immersion education. CPD for Gaelic medium pre-school and school practitioners is with English-medium colleagues, and in English. GM practitioners are expected to ‘translate’ this into GM practice.

A Language Immersion Model c. 80% of children do not come from Gaelic speaking homes Providers outside the Gàidhealtachd have very few Gaelic speaking children Non-Gaelic speaking parents choose GM provision for: -historical reasons -benefits of bilingualism -social reasons -small classes Gaelic-speaking parents often choose English medium education

Curriculum for Excellence: Early Years Active, experiential learning Follows children’s interests and motivations ‘Play’ an important medium for learning Holistic perspective on development – cognitive, emotional, social, expressive and aesthetic and physical Learning is process of construction not transmission Process valued as well as product

Challenges To provide children with a positive start to their educational careers, meeting all the demands of Curriculum for Excellence To do this using a language unfamiliar to most of the children To ensure that children develop competence in Gaelic, enabling them to progress to GM primary education

An Cumachd Ms Robertson: James, dè tha ann an cumachd? James: Rocket. Ms Robertson: Chan e. (Asks others.) Ms Robertson: Eil sibh ag èisteachd le na cluasan? Cumachd. ’S e shape a th’ ann.

An Doctair Two girls lie down and role play going to sleep Mairi: I’m pretending in the game that I’m ill. Ms MacNeill: Dè tha ceàrr ort? Laura: They don’t know. Ms MacNeill: Dè tha an dotair ag ràdh? Mairi: I don’t know.

Isaac Newton Ms Blair: Cò bha Isaac Newton? Shona: An apple fell on his head. Ms Blair: Carson a thuit an ubhal? Shona: Because there was gravity.

Am Burrais Ms Blair: Dè thachair? Lisa: He was a mòr caterpillar. Ms Blair: How long? Lisa:Dà weeks.

Gaelic Exposure and Use In just over half the observation episodes for target children across all settings the language they heard was Gaelic Children spoke English almost all the time Overwhelming majority of instances of Gaelic use were when singing or at story time (adult-led activities) Children clearly understood commands and polite phrases and sometimes embedded these in English (e.g. ‘tidy up’, ‘thank you’) They very occasionally embedded other single words in responses to practitioners Limited evidence that they were aware of emergent bilingualism or its purpose

Theoretical Perspectives Sociology of childhood: being and becoming -the being child: a social actor in his or her own right, actively constructing his or her own childhood (present orientation) -the becoming child: an adult in the making (future orientation) Uprichard, E. (2007): Children as ‘Being and Becomings’: Children, Childhood and Temporality Children and Society, 22:

Conflicting Goals? Being Becoming Curriculum for Excellence Early Level Process-orientation: Child-centred Active Play-based Holistic GM Pre-school and Primary Education Goal-orientation: Language revitalisation-centred Rapid, substantive growth in numbers of Gaelic speakers Fluency

Some Answers Linguistic advantages and disadvantages Educational advantages and disadvantages Maximising the benefits Supporting practitioners ‘This is real writing’