A Comparative Study Investigating Education and Language Policy in Scotland (With Respect to Gaelic) and Israel (With Respect to Hebrew)

[摘要] Gaelic education in Scotland has no developed system for second language learning on an intensive, immersive, communicative basis. The Israeli situation was investigated and used as a comparator and contrastor to inform the present revival of the Gaelic language and to suggest possible future developments for intensive immersion language courses. Israel has long experience in second-language teaching and their ulpan method is renowned throughout the world. Both the Basques and the Welsh have adopted ulpan techniques. It was felt that the Gaelic situation could be best informed by investigating the ulpan system at source, and then to take cognisance of how two minority languages, Euskara and Welsh, had implemented an Israeli-based technique. The Irish situation was included to provide a more closely-related comparator with Gaelic. The methodology used in this investigation includes: taped personal interviews; personal learning of immersion techniques by participating in a 24 day Hebrew immersion course in Israel; personal observation of classes in language schools; and desk research. Two visits to Israel were undertaken, one for 12 days (23 December 1991-3 January 1992) and the other for 6 weeks, spanning July and August 1992. The Basque Region of Spain (11-15 February, 1991), the Republic of Ireland (21-25 January 1991,) Wales (25-28 May 1993) and Friesland (20-25 March 1994) have also been visited to inform thinking for this research study. As far as is known, the study is the first to investigate Israeli ulpan methodology for the Gaelic world, and the first to develop formal links with Israeli linguists for this purpose. The main difficulty encountered in this study was the fragmented and limited range of information on immersion methodology.

[发布机构] University:University of Glasgow

[关键词] Education policy, Foreign language education, Language arts, Bilingual education