1 February, 2010 Minister O’Keeffe and Des Bishop launch new website to teach Irish

The Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe TD, today (Monday) launched an interactive website to improve teaching and learning of spoken Irish in post-primary schools in a move backed by popular comedian Des Bishop.

Abair Leat! is a virtual online language laboratory in which students can improve their Irish by interacting over the internet with native Irish speakers.

Students can use the website to listen to native Irish speakers, record their own material in Irish and undertake self-correcting exercises.

Teachers can assess students' work on the website and give spoken feedback online or written feedback by email.

The pilot phase of Abair Leat!, which will be rolled out in 14 post-primary schools initially, is aimed at supporting the oral syllabus in first year of post-primary school.

Launching the online platform in Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig, Co Cork, today, Minister O'Keeffe said: "Abair Leat!'s mix of audio-visual material, vocabulary and grammar lessons, and self-correcting exercises makes it an innovative, flexible and modern online tool to improve learning and teaching in Irish.

"The website encourages independent learning by allowing students to practise their oral Irish at home and in the classroom and it gives teachers the opportunity to assess them online.

"I want to acknowledge the continuing support of Des Bishop who has generated significant goodwill for Irish and championed the cause of the language as a living part of the community.

"The proportion of marks for oral Irish in the Leaving Certificate examination will increase from 25pc to 40pc from 2012 so it is timely to examine new ways to improve students' oral competency by leveraging the power of the internet."

Des Bishop, whose award-winning documentary "In The Name Of The Fada" was based on his year learning Irish in the Connemara gaeltacht, said he wants to continue to work with Minister O'Keeffe to get more young people speaking Irish.

"Abair Leat! is an important step in our ongoing efforts to make the learning and teaching of Irish more enjoyable and interactive by focusing on the primacy of the spoken word," said Mr Bishop.

Abair Leat! was initially developed as a CD-ROM by the well-known Irish college, Coláiste Lurgan, in Indreabhán, Co Galway, and was adapted for the internet for Coláiste Lurgan by Galway-based information technology companies Digilog and Block 5.
 
Content for first-year students for the pilot programme was provided by teachers seconded to the Second Level Support Services for Irish (SLSS-Gaeilge) and the lessons available will be expanded in the coming months.

Des Bishop will now embark on a tour of a number of the pilot schools demonstrating Abair Leat! to students and teachers.

Thirteen of the 14 schools, including Coláiste Choilm, are part of the Government's €16 million high-speed wireless broadband plan.

It is expected that these schools will have wireless broadband speeds of up to 100 megabits per second before the Summer.

Abair Leat! is at www.abairleat.com

ENDS