An tÚll Mhór - Learning Irish in New York

I'm in New York from tomorrow for 8 days. I'm there to talk to Irish language learners and teachers about what they use to learn Irish outside of Ireland. I've been working really hard to get the podcasts, flashcards and quizzes ready for launch on www.talkirish.com - I haven't got an official launch date just yet, but I'll email everyone who's already signed up and post here as soon as I do!

Seems like Irish is a hot topic now, and Des Bishop, the Irish-American comedian, has a great show called 'In the name of the Fada' which tackles the national problem with the national language. Catch up with the show online at RTE.

Des's website, www.desbishop.com, has a link to some interactive Irish learning materials. The materials certainly look good, but I haven't had a chance to test the content out yet, and I'm not sure at what level it's aimed at. If anyone else has tried it out, let me know!

A blank canvas...language learning in a 3D world

I've been thinking about how an immersive 3D environment could help language learning. I've worked on a project where we created an entire house and garden as an environment for learning Irish. The learner could click and explore all the objects in the house, and clicking certain objects opened up language learning games or activities.

This worked well for the average learner - they could see an object, click to hear how to pronounce the name of the object, and also see a text label.

But we decided what went in the house, what was placed where, what the learner had to learn.

What I'd love to experiment with is a 3D environment that has nothing in it. Just a big white space that the learner enters with an avatar.

The idea is that as the learner learns words, the objects appear in the 3D world. So if they learn the colours of the rainbow, a rainbow appears in the empty space. If they learn the words for sky and grass and trees, these appear. As the learner progresses in the language, the world fills out. The learner makes the world. If they discover how to say 'I have a blue dog and five friendly sisters' then a blue dog and five friendly sisters appear in the world.

And learners could connect with each other via text chat or audio...populating their world with real conversations.

But learning a language isn't just about learning a word and ticking a box. It's also about retention...so in this 3D world, objects could begin to fade if the learner doesn't use the vocabulary...every time they log in they could be presented with a list of endangered objects that they must 'save'.

Right. Who's got a few million in development funding for me?

Language Learning Facts

I'm reading How the Brain Learns by David Sousa. It's an introduction to what parts of the brain are used for what function, and is written specifically for teachers and trainers.

At the moment I'm particularly interested in language learning. According to David, a newborn baby's brain is not a blank slate. Certain areas are specialised for specific stimuli, including spoken language.

And apparently the window for acquiring spoken language opens soon after birth (although I suspect it happens even earlier - in the womb). The ability to acquire spoken language tapers off around the ages of 10-12 years. Beyond that age, learning any language becomes more difficult.

In the UK, educators tend to provide language learning only at the age where the ability to learn is decreasing.

In the Republic of Ireland, Irish-language learning is provided from the first years of school, and has been since the earliest years of the Republic's inception. Yet the Irish language has been in steady decline.

So not only must we introduce language learning early so we can take advantage of the developing brain, we really need to analyse what kind of language learning works.

David points out that the genetic impulse to learn language is so strong that children found in feral environments often make up their own language. Children's brains are wired for learning quickly and effectively. As teachers and educators, we need to learn how to best deliver the information they need, when they're most receptive.