Important: Participants in this course will not be entitled to EPV days upon completion of the course.
This course is aimed at primary school teacher who wish to learn more about principles and lesson structures of the communicative approach. In each module two sample lessons, based on the themes from the curriculum, are presented using the communicative approach, including the pre-communicative, the communicative and the post-communicative phases.

Although we would encourage you to use as much Irish as possible in your answers, you can use English if you need to.

The main objectives of the course are:

• to give teachers a better understanding of methods of teaching the Irish curriculum as well as the principles and lesson structures of the communicative approach;
• to give teachers new ideas about the teaching of Irish and to enable them to implement these ideas in the classroom in order to improve the standard of Irish teaching, to inspire interest in the language and to improve the ability of pupils to communicate;
• to improve teachers’ Irish-teaching skills and to give them confidence in teaching the language.

Údar

Is í Siobhán Patten a scríobh ábhar an chúrsa seo.

There are five modules in this course and each module contains a mixture of sample lessons, sample activities, useful vocabulary, videoas and exercises.

All the exercises are interactive. Once you have completed an exercise, you can then click on the ‘Seol’ (Send) button and receive feedback immediately. You’ll be told which answers were correct and which were incorrect, and you’ll be given the correct answers and a score.

At the beginning of each module, you’re told what the focus of that module is.

In order to move from one screen to another, all you have to do is click on the arrows which appear on the left-hand side (to go back) or on the right-hand side (to go forward), at the top and bottom of each screen. You can also click on any line of text under the words PLEAN AN AONAID on the left-hand side of the screen in order to access another part of the module.

On the last page of each module, an leathanach scoir, you’re given an overview of the work that you’ve done in that module and your total score for the module. You’re given several choices as well: to continue to the next module, to redo the module you’ve just completed, or go back to the very beginning of the course.

When can I begin the course?

Immediately! Students study the course independently of a teacher. This means that you can improve your Irish in the office or from the comfort of your home, at your own pace, and at whatever time suits you.

What happens if I have a question?

Write it on the forum! You’ll be able to contact other learners through this discussion forum. You can send messages, ask and answer questions, and express ideas there. Members of the Gaelchultúr team keep an eye on the forum, so they’ll be able to answer any tricky questions.