The participation of multilingual children in minority language immersion programmes is under-researched internationally. The Republic of Ireland (RoI) has become a linguistically and culturally diverse society. In the RoI, parents have the opportunity to educate their child in English-medium or Irish-medium (IM) schools. However, the cohort of…

The aim of this study is to examine which predictor variables are related to literacy attainment in Irish (Gaelic)-English bilinguals. The participants were in their second (n = 115) and third (n = 125) year of schooling in Ireland and were drawn from both native speaker and new speaker backgrounds. The constructs of phonemic awareness, verbal…

This study investigated the reasons Irish parents chose to send their children to Irish-medium preschools settings over other forms of early childhood education. The international literature on parental decision making regarding childcare and relevant studies on immersion education in Celtic countries were reviewed. A parental questionnaire,…

There have been many instances when parents have been advised by educational professionals against bilingualism or immersion education for their child with special educational needs (SEN). Some parents follow the advice given and decide to use only one language with their child, mainly the majority language of the community. This study…

Little research exists in relation to the prevalence of special educational needs (SEN) in immersion education throughout the world. Parents are often dissuaded by educational professionals against this form of education and bilingualism for their child if they present with SEN. Nevertheless, some parents still choose to educate their child with…

Over the last decades, migration across Europe has continued to increase. Consequently, offering educational support for migrant students in the schools of host countries has been an extensively debated issue across Europe and further afield, especially in countries with a history of immigration. However, less is known about how education systems…

This study examines out-of-school use of Irish and motivation to learn Irish among final year post-primary students from three different instructional backgrounds: mainstream students studying ordinary and higher level Irish as a subject only and immersion students. Information on motivation and use is linked to student proficiency in Irish.…

The references in this unannotated bibliography were compiled from material available in the library of the Institiuid Teangeolaiochta Eireann (Linguistics Institute of Ireland). Most of the references were published during the seventies. They include books, journals, and microfiche. Arrangement is by subject, with an author index. Subjects…

This paper examines the evidence on negative effects associated with Irish immersion programs and concludes that even in earlier immersion schools, which frequently lacked parental support, there is little evidence of detrimental academic effects. Many Irish immersion teachers emphasized the importance of parental commitment to immersion…

The present paper questions the validity of Macnamara's (1966) finding that teaching arithmetic through a bilingual's weaker language leads to retardation in problem arithmetic. By comparing the performance of immersion pupils on an Irish (as a second language) version of the problem arithmetic test with the performance of non-immersion pupils on…

This book contains 19 readings covering three decades of the work of academic Jim Cummins. Section 1, "The 1970s," includes: "A Theoretical Perspective on the Relationship between Bilingualism and Thought"; "The Influence of Bilingualism on Cognitive Growth: An Synthesis of Research Findings and Explanatory…