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ABSTRACTThere can be significant diversity in the language experience of minority language children, and in the levels of proficiency reached. The declining numbers of children now exposed to Irish include those from homes where only/mainly Irish is spoken, those with only one Irish-speaking parent, and children from homes where one/both parent(s) speak ‘some Irish’, while levels of language use in the wider community also vary widely. The proficiency of children from Irish-speaking homes seems impressive compared with their L2 learner classmates, but still shows particular linguistic needs. Since acquisition of complex morphosyntactic features depends on both the quantity and quality of input, and extends well into the school years, assessing children’s performance on features such as grammatical gender may provide a useful index of need for language enrichment, even among young speakers judged by teachers and parents to be fluent. We report data from 306 Irish-speaking participants aged 6–13 years from a range of language backgrounds, most of whom live in Gaeltacht (officially designated Irish-speaking) areas. Information was collected from parents on children’s home language and new measures of receptive and productive use of grammatical gender marking in Irish were administered. Performance on these measures is compared with scores on standardised measures of Irish and English reading vocabulary, as well as teacher and parent ratings.

National longitudinal datasets offer opportunities to explore sub-samples of immersion pupils. Here, the Growing Up in Ireland(GUI) dataset is used to examine a sample (n = 569) of 9-year-olds attending Irish immersion schools, comparing immersion pupils whose families speak at least some target language (Irish) at home (n = 264), with those from English-only homes (n = 305), as well as mainstream school pupils from English-only homes (n = 6,704). The groups are compared on SES, home literacy activities, academic achievement, and attitudes both to school and to Irish. Children in Irish immersion are more likely to be in higher SES households with more home literacy activities, and these advantages appear further amplified among households where some Irish is spoken. It was socioeconomic and home literacy variables which significantly predicted scores in English vocabulary and mathematics, rather than home language or school programme. In attitudes, while Irish immersion pupils were somewhat less likely to look forward to school than mainstream pupils, they had much more positive attitudes toward Irish than them.

This study examines the importance of parental support for early immersion in the context of a study of Irish-medium pre-schools or naionrai. Data were collected from all of the major participants in this early immersion model, including parents, teachers, classroom assistants and inspectors, in addition to detailed tests of 225 three-year-old children. This allows an analysis, not only of the effect of the parents' support for the child's early learning in the naionra, but also of the impact of the child's target language learning on the language use in the home. Focusing here on the results from parents allowed the development of a profile of those choosing early immersion in Irish, based on socioeconomic and educational data. Parents' reasons for choosing this type of pre-schooling are examined, as well as their satisfaction with their child's experience. Multivariate analyses of children's test results show the significant influence of parents' ability in the target language on their children's language scores. Finally, parents' requirements are examined in order to target ways of increasing their active support for their children's language acquisition. Overall, these data indicate an urgent need to involve parents as partners in order to maximise the effectiveness of early immersion.

The problems of second language readers of Irish in the elementary school are analysed. The results of a survey of 50 9-year- old children's attitudes to Irish reading are given, as well as a discussion of their parents' attitudes and difficulties in this area. The low frequency of the children's Irish reading and their restricted access to Irish materials has inevitable repercussions on their L2 reading ability. The effect of supplying tapes to accompany leisure books in Irish was explored. It was found that such tapes considerably increased the children's motivation to read, resulting in more frequent reading of a taped compared to a non-taped book. There was a significant increase in frequency of reading even in the case of a book which was perceived to be difficult by the children. In addition to the marked improvement in the motivation to read, there were indications that the tape facilitated comprehension and increased the children's reading rate and accuracy of pronunciation. These benefits indicate that the provision of tapes to accompany leisure readers is an important form of environmental support for second language reading, and an especially useful tool to increase exposure to a minority language in particular.

Pre-Primary Education in Some European Lesser Used Languages Helen O'Murchu, Dublin: The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages, 1987. Pp. 47, ISBN 1-870675-00-2. Price 5 ECU.The Education of Linguistic and Cultural Minorities in the OECD Countries Stacy Churchill, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1986. ISBN 1-905028-34-1 (cloth): £34.00, ISBN 0-905028-33-3 (paper): £11.95.Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens. George Saunders. Avon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. 1988. Pp. xiii + 274, ISBN 1-85359-009-6 (paper): £7.95. ISBN 1-85359-010-X (cloth): £23.00Minority Education: From Shame to Struggle Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Jim Cummins (eds). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1988. Pp vii + 410. ISBN 1-85359-004-5 (cloth): £42.00. ISBN 0-85359-003-7 (paper): £14.95

Measures of profiling linguistic development have been valuable both for those dealing with language impairment and for research on normal acquisition. The value of profiling the acquisition of a minority language such as Irish is discussed, and the adaptation of LARSP to this Celtic language is detailed. This adaptation is based on longitudinal data from four children acquiring Irish as their mother-tongue. The problems of comprehensiveness and representativeness in adapting the profile to Irish are discussed, and the solutions arrived at are illustrated. Finally, it is recognized that there is a need to test this profile against further samples of children in order to develop age norms.