Talk more, learn less is the answer to boosting Irish language skills
■ Conversation will be key in changes to Leaving Cert exam
CHANGES are on the way for the Leaving Certificate oral Irish exam because it is encouraging a “learning off by heart” culture among students.
Curriculum chiefs are considering a new structure for the test so there is more opportunity for spontaneous conversation, rather than an over-reliance on material students have prepared in advance.
Any changes will kick in for students starting fifth year in September, so as not to spring surprises on those who are halfway through senior cycle.
The move arises from a review of the impact of a new-style Irish oral introduced in 2012, when marks for this component of the exam rose from 25pc to 40pc.
The new approach was intended to make Irish more appealing to students by putting greater emphasis on the spoken word, at the expense of poetry and prose because fewer marks would be available for the written exam.
Now, research conducted for the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has highlighted a number of concerns.
A key problem is how students are dealing with an element of the oral exam – a sequence of pictures around which they build a story as a basis for discussion.
From fifth year on, students prepare about 20 picture sequences – provided by the State Examinations Commission – one of which is used as a stimulus on the day.
At the time the changes were being introduced, Irish
language interests warned against dumbing down the exam. One worry expressed was that giving students picture sequences so far in advance would result in them learning off the material and would do nothing for their communicative ability.
The NCCA review found it encouraged rote learning and students were also spending too much time on this section of the oral, eating into the time allocated for more spontaneous conversation.
Research conducted for the NCCA also found there was no significant change in the level of spontaneity in conversation encountered at the orals between 2011, the year before the changes were introduced, and 2015.
The entire Leaving Certificate is about to undergo an overhaul, to follow on from reforms happening at Junior Cert level, but it is expected to take several years and the NCCA is keen to address the problem with oral Irish exams pending those changes.
Consideration has been given to a number of ways of addressing concerns, including using unseen picture sequences, but that is unlikely to happen because it would be regarded as too radical a departure in the short term.
It is more likely the picture sequence section will be put to the end of the exam, allowing more general chat between students and examiner before it is introduced into the conversation, while also reducing the opportunity for students to keep talking about it.