New generation of Gaelic speakers

[Seonaidh]

Och 3sel, dè air a tha fios agad telebhisean na R.A. o chionn 30 bliadna? A bheil thu eòlach air "Monty Python's Flying Circus"?

[Thrissel]

Uill, chan fhaca mi san telebhisean iad, ach tha grunnan sgeidsichean aca air YouTube (fiù 's senail "oifigeach"), agus on a tha Beatha Bhwian am measg nam filmichean fàbharach agamsa, thug mi sùil air sgeidse no dhà gu dearbh...

[Gordon]

Aiming to have the GSOL (Gaelic for Speakers of Other Languages) up and running for 2013 using the Council of Europe Framework for language levels!

[faoileag]

Very pleased to hear that, however much one might want to tinker with the descriptors or argue with the founding principles etc, as it's time Gaelic stopped relying on vague 'levels' like 'intermediate' and 'fluent' and nothing in between, or college-specific levels no one else knows what to make of.

It also integrates Gaelic into a European framework which gives its awards and users more international / professional standing. Irish has been using the system for years. Welsh too, I think.

SOme background on Gaelic in relation to certification here:

http://glasgow.academia.edu/NicolaCarty ... plications

I know Gordon has long used it in his Guthan nan Eilean projects and very useful it's proved to be.

[Gordon Wells]

I know Gordon has long used it in his Guthan nan Eilean projects and very useful it's proved to be.

Ah, I just feel a need to disambiguate the Gordons here, Faoileag. "Gordon" on Foram na Gàidhlig is not me (Gordon Wells of Guthan nan Eilean fame/notoriety/anonymity) but another Gordon - also Hebrides-based, but further north.

But thanks for pointing out that I do benchmark the Island Voices vids against CEFR levels. That's true. The online catalogues also list duration and topic and summarise functional/notional content. Each vid also comes with a transcript.

But there's no link between Guthan nan Eilean and the other Gordon's proposed "GSOL" provision, of which I know nothing.

[faoileag]

Ah, sorry, both Gordons - quite a coincidence that both are CEFRing!

OK, so I think the Gordon who posted earlier about the CEFR must mean he will be using the system for his Gaelic courses in Stornoway as well as his TEFL ones. Local, not national? Anyway, the principle remains.

[Níall Beag]

I understand Deiseal are working on linking Ùlpan to the CEFR levels too, as it's pretty much essential now to be able to cite CEFR levels if you want any funding whatsoever. I would never criticise anyone for "aligning" to the CEFR, as it's good commercial practice, but I still maintain that CEFR is every bit as vague as "beginner/intermediate/advanced". I have never yet seen a course that genuinely follows the CEFR as published.

How so?

B2 specifies language related to your "field of specialisation". No course I have ever taken has attempted to teach me anything about IT. No public examinations I'm aware of have the option to choose between healthcare, chemical engineering or stagecraft-specific language papers.

The CEFR is just another set of vague level names, but at least it means that there's only one set of vague level names....

[Thrissel]

B2 specifies language related to your "field of specialisation"

Does this mean that somebody like me with no specialisation can never get above B1? Taken to extreme, even in his/her L1?

[Níall Beag]

Yup. That's the CEFR.

[Seonaidh]

I'm still quite taken with the long-CEFRing Gordons...