Dr Fiona Lyddy, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, examines emerging biliteracy in Celtic languages in the UK and Ireland.

Of the six modern Celtic languages, four are extant community languages: the Gaelic languages Irish and Scottish Gaelic and the Brittonic languages Welsh and Breton. Within the UK and Ireland, efforts to conserve Welsh, Gaelic and Irish have been greatly bolstered by school systems, through varying degrees of formal exposure, including total immersion. However, the impact of such exposure is frequently questioned, particularly in terms of the cost to literacy attainment in English and the effect on weaker readers.

Cross-language comparisons of literacy attainment reveal differences in the development of reading and spelling skills, some of which reflect the orthographic properties of particular languages. Languages with a deep orthography, such as English, exhibit inconsistencies between spelling and pronunciation that may affect reading development, with slower progress of key skills such as decoding and qualitative differences in associated errors.

Seymour et al (2003) found that children from most European countries achieve foundation level reading within the first year of instruction. The exceptions comprised French, Portuguese, Danish and English, orthographically deep languages. Word and non-word reading were hindered by orthographic depth, with a particularly stark effect for English. English readers required at least two and a half years of literacy instruction to achieve the level of proficiency evident in shallower languages within one year. Variation in progress was also found to be wider in deep orthographies.

Cross-language comparisons cannot fully control for linguistic, cultural and educational differences but apparent difficulties concerning English might lead one to question the provision of minority language education and particularly the effect on weaker readers. In the context of the Celtic languages, recent research may allay such concerns.

Welsh, Gaelic and Irish have relatively transparent alphabetic orthographies that have been subject to regular review and standardisation in recent decades. Notwithstanding differences across dialects, compared with English they have fewer inconsistencies, with relatively predictable print-sound mappings. However, the Celtic languages share features with particular implications for reading. For example, the spelling and pronunciation of words change with grammatical function such that initial letters are accompanied or replaced by other consonants. Therefore, in order to look up a word in a dictionary, the root word must be recognised across mutations.

The consistency of the orthography may have benefits in terms of initial reading strategy. Spencer and Hanley (2003) tested primary school children in Wales in their second and third years of reading instruction and compared children whose home and schooling language was either Welsh or English. Other factors (age, instruction method, etc.) were comparable for the two groups. During year two, an advantage was evident in word reading in Welsh as the primary language, with less able readers apparently benefiting most. The Welsh-dominant children also demonstrated better non-word reading and phoneme awareness. Errors in word reading suggested qualitative differences in reading strategy; the English speakers produced more real word substitutions and refusals, while Welsh speakers were more likely to attempt to sound out unfamiliar words and produced more non-word errors.

Re-assessment one year later showed that, while both groups improved, the advantages for the Welsh speakers now included greater second language ability, with reading of regular English words equal to the English group. The Welsh advantage was also apparent when considering the poorest readers overall.

Studies of reading in Gaelic and Irish are more difficult to evaluate, due to the pervasive influence of the English language, particularly when it comes to written form, and difficulties isolating demographically matched comparisons. However, the existing research is encouraging. For example, Johnstone et al (1999) compared the progress of pupils in Gaelic-medium and English-medium primary schools in Scotland. Assessing English, they found an advantage for Gaelic-medium pupils, particularly with respect to writing. Similarly, in the Republic of Ireland, a national survey of English reading found an advantage for Irish-medium schools (DoE, 1991). Data currently being analysed by my research team suggests similar benefits from Irish for reading generally. Studies from other countries (e.g., Canada) support the idea that literacy emerges through immersion without disadvantaging the 'majority' language.

Some of these effects may be due to orthography. Perhaps, learning a shallow orthography encourages appreciation of the relationship between writing and sound, facilitating reading generally. At the least, it would appear that concerns over the effect on English literacy are unsubstantiated. Formal exposure to these languages plays an important role in promoting bilingualism and cultural identity and protecting an endangered heritage. That it can be achieved without detriment to English literacy is encouraging for language protection policy.

References

Department of Education (1991) Report on the National Survey of English Reading in Irish Primary Schools. Dublin, Ireland: Educational Research Centre.
R. Johnstone, W. Harlen, M. MacNeil, B. Stradling and G. Thorpe (1999) The Attainments of Pupils Receiving Gaelic-medium Primary Education in Scotland. Stirling: Scottish CILT.
P.H.K. Seymour, M. Aro and J.M. Erskine (2003) Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, vol. 94, no. 2, pp. 143-174.
L.H. Spencer and J.R. Hanley (2003) Effects of orthographic transparency on reading and phoneme awareness in children learning to read in Wales. British Journal of Psychology, vol. 94, no. 1, pp. 1-28.

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