New Gaelic qualifications launched by SQA at the Mod

[faoileag]

The 12 units cover key skills for beginners - speaking, listening, reading and writing.

The qualifications will be piloted at Lews Castle College UHI on Lewis.....


...."These new units, with free-standing status, will enable learners to be assessed flexibly across different levels depending on their individual needs.".......

Artaigil air a' Bheeb:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-15349983

Agus gu math tairraingeach is feumail ... NOT!

A survey of 1,009 adults from across Scotland found 61% were made aware of the language through its use in the media and 39% through education.

The study suggested the Highlands and Islands had the highest concentration of people using Gaelic.

It found no fluent speakers in Central, North East and South of Scotland

It didn't look very hard in Aberdeen or Glasgow, then!

[Seonaidh]

...so it DID find fluent Gaelic speakers in Orkney and Shetland, then? And probably in South-East and South-West Scotland too! Maybe even in Eastern Scotland. But not, obviously, in Aberdeen (NE), Perth (Central) or Falkirk (S). Here's another version:-

A survey of 1,009 adults from across Scotland found 61% were made aware of the language through its use in the media and 39% through education.

The study suggested the Lowlands and Peninsulae had the highest concentration of people using English.

It found no fluent speakers in Central, South West and North of Scotland

[GunChleoc]

A survey of 1,009 adults from across Scotland found 61% were made aware of the language through its use in the media and 39% through education.

The study suggested the Highlands and Islands had the highest concentration of people using Gaelic.

It found no fluent speakers in Central, North East and South of Scotland

It didn't look very hard in Aberdeen or Glasgow, then!

Maybe everybody had gone to the Western Isles on their Summer holiday, doubling the population

[akerbeltz]

Seo na sgrìobh mi thuca:

The article makes the following claim "It found no fluent speakers in Central, North East and South of Scotland."

In a sample of a 1000 people, odd things may indeed happen due to the sampling size but in this case I suspect an error in the article, as Central Scotland has (relatively) the highest density of Gaelic speakers outside the Northwest Highlands and Islands. And that aside, density of speaker figures are very rarely based on survey samples of this size precisely due to such potential problems.

I really think this should be checked for accuracy in relation to the survey data and that aside, speaker densities should be based on the 2001 census, which is much more reliable and shows the above statement to be wrong and misleading.

Chì sinn na thachras ach 's urrainn dhuibh sgrìobhadh a-steach cuideachd an-seo

[Seonaidh]

Dèanata.

[Níall Beag]

"These qualifications have been designed to allow tutors and lecturers to measure the individual progress and attainment of learners in the four language skills,

Nononononononononononononono.

Nonononononononononononononononononononono.

Nonononononononononononononononononono.

The 4 skills are a myth. The 4 skills are surface phenomena and fail to pay any attention to what's actually going on in the learner's head. There is no theoretical framework within linguistics that supports the compartmentalisation of language in this way.

4 skills must die.
(See also these three posts on my blog discussing the matter.)

[Seonaidh]

Aidh, 's e CÒIG sgilean cànain a th' ann...

Must say, I've never heard of there being "4 language skills" - maybe it's something like "English, Gaelic, Faroese and Friese" or something. Or is it more "listening to the teacher, playing the tape, swearing and being inscrutable"? Or is it more "Ìlis, Leòdhasais, Uibhistis agus Glaschuis"? Or perhaps it harks back to "Reading, Riting, Rithmetic and Religious Knowledge".

[GunChleoc]

They are quite useful as targets though. It might keep a teacher or two from torturing their students with grammatical correctness and encourage them to be more fluent, even if they are making a few mistakes. We just have to make sure the pendulum doesn't swing the other way and teachers stop teaching grammar. IMO students need both.

[Níall Beag]

The problem of teachers "torturing" with grammar is caused by them teaching it badly. If they taught it well, it would be easy.

Even here at SMO, in the second-year grammar class I was told that the second noun is in the genitive. This is one of the worst and most persistent mistakes made in teaching Gaelic grammar. It's just.... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

But anyway, the point I make in my blog posts is that the nature of the 4 skills distracts from the real skills. In real classrooms, we measure people's listening skills with bizarre little abstract tasks -- gap-fills, comprehension questions, true or false. And if they get the answer wrong, there is no attempt to extract any information that tells us why they got it wrong. There are millions upon millions of hours of listening materials out there and I have never once seen one that attempts to diagnose and resolve language errors. No teachers' packs contain any predicted mistakes and no teaching manuals tell you to work out reasons. It's a pointless waste of everybody's time.

[poor_mouse]

The problem of teachers "torturing" with grammar...

Tha mi toilichte a' faicinn an "torturing" anns a' cho-theacsa sin! Hallo to Jane Austen...

Even here at SMO, in the second-year grammar class I was told that the second noun is in the genitive. This is one of the worst and most persistent mistakes made in teaching Gaelic grammar.

Nach innis sibh beagan mu dheidhinn sin? Chan eil fhios agam dè a' mhearachd a tha ann.

[Níall Beag]

Even here at SMO, in the second-year grammar class I was told that the second noun is in the genitive. This is one of the worst and most persistent mistakes made in teaching Gaelic grammar.

Nach innis sibh beagan mu dheidhinn sin? Chan eil fhios agam dè a' mhearachd a tha ann.

Anns a' Ghàidhlig, nuair a bhios "abairt ainmearail" anns a bheil barrachd air aon ainmear, bidh am fear mu dheireadh anns an tuiseal ginideach (genitive case). Mura bhi ann ach dà ainmear, sin an dàrna fear. Ach ma bhitheas trì no ceithir no coig no trì mille seachd ceud ceithir fichead 's a h-aon deug ainmearan san abairt, bidh an dàrna facal san tuiseal bunasach (=default =nominative/accusative).

It would be reeeeeeeeeeeeeally eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasy to say "the last one's in the genitive", rather than "the second one's in the genitive, unless there's another one after it, in which case the next one's in the genitive, unless there's another one after it, in which case the next one's in the genitive, unless there's another one after it, in which case the next one's in the genitive, unless there's another one after it, in which case the next one's in the genitive, unless there's another one after it, in which case the next one's in the genitive ..."

[faoileag]

[Seonaidh]

...but for the exceptions. We maybe all know "Mac bean dràibhear bùs na sgoile" and so on, but try, e.g., "Scotland's Coat of Arms". I would guess "Gearradh Arm na h-Alba", where both "arms" and "Scotland" are genitive.

[conmaol]

That's just a question of bracketing -

(Mac (bean (dràibhear (bùs na sgoile)))) - right-branching.

((Gearradh Arm) na h-Alba) - left-branching.

[poor_mouse]

Obh-obh, tha mi a' tuigsin -- 's e bitheantas a tha ann: tha an rud sin RO fhurasta!