Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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220. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to promote the teaching of sign language in schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12390/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Department, through its Post-Primary Languages Initiative, has developed a specification for a short course in Irish Sign Language (ISL) which will be available as part of the new Junior Cycle.

In this short course the emphasis is on developing communication skills in ISL at level A1 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). This short course develops students' ability to understand ISL in live and in recorded situations, to produce the language and to interact with other signers in a simple way and on familiar topics.

Students will be actively involved in monitoring their own progress and derive enjoyment and confidence from communicating in a new language. They also develop awareness and skills in relation to language learning through comparing and contrasting patterns in ISL and in other languages they know. They become better language learners through identifying and developing their own language learning strategies.

In a multicultural society it is important that young people have opportunity to learn about other cultures, appreciate similarities and differences and learn to observe, reflect and suspend judgement when discovering the new culture and reflecting back on their own. This course offers opportunities to do this.

Finally, there are increasing opportunities to learn languages and to discover different cultures using digital tools. In this short course, students will learn how to use these tools to support language learning. By taking part in this course students may have their accomplishments in their new language formally recorded and benchmarked against the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

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