Will the participants’
performance be confidential?
Absoloutely. Apart from the
researcher carrying out the tasks, no
one will be able to see how any
participant performed.
Will the school ever be named in
papers or at conferences?
No. The school will never be named,
and no comparisons will be made
between individual schools.
Participants will fall into categories
depending on the languages they
speak at home and at school, and will
not be broken down into school
groups.
Ussher Assistant Professor Neasa Ní Chiaráin
Want to get involved?
If you would like your school to take
part, please e-mail ebarnes@tcd.ie.
Consent forms and information
leaflets for pupils and parents will be
sent to participating schools over the
coming months.
The researchers involved will be
happy to visit the school and answer
any questions parents may have.
Study
Predictors of literacy
Any questions? ability in children in
If you have any questions, please feel Irish-medium
free to contact the researchers. You
can contact Emily Barnes at Education
ebarnes@tcd.ie, Ailbhe Ní Chasaide at
anichsid@tcd.ie, or Neasa Ní Chiaráin
Information Leaflet for Principals and
at nichiarn@tcd.ie.
Teachers
School of Linguistic, Speech and
Communication Sciences, Trinity College
Dublin
Emily Barnes (PhD student)
Professor Ailbhe Ní Chasaide
 What is the aim of the study?
The aim of this study is to investigate
how certain skills - phonological
awareness, speed of processing and
working memory - contribute to
literacy ability in Irish and English.
What does the study involve?
Pupils in Junior Infants, Senior Infants,
and First Class will be invited to
participate.
Each participant will complete the
following tasks in Irish and in English: How much of a time commitment is
involved?

Why? This is a longitudinal study, and children

These skills can predict literacy ability,
and often form part of screening tests
in other languages. However, the
relationship between these skills and
literacy is not the same in each
language; phonological awareness
seems to be a better predictor in
English than in other languages, for
instance.
We would like to investigate this
relationship in Irish, which will
hopefully enable us to develop a
research-based literacy screening test
for pupils in Irish-medium education.
Phonological awareness task
Participant listens to a word and deletes
one sound e.g. say bus without the “b”.
Working memory task
Child listens to a string of numbers and
repeats them.
Rapid naming task
Child names pictures of familiar objects
as fast as possible.
Literacy task
Participant (a) reads a list of words and
(b) spells dictated words.
will be asked to complete the tasks
• on one occasion between
January and June 2019.
• on one occasion between
January and June 2020.
Each session will take approximately 30
minutes and will be carried out during
the normal schoolday.
Principals and teachers can choose a
week which would suit themselves and
their pupils best.

This project is driven by the conviction

that children in Gaeltacht schools and Parents/guardians will also be asked to
in Gaelscoileanna deserve the same fill out a short questionnaire (which
access to research-based literacy takes 5 – 10 minutes) on their child’s
screening as is available in English. experience with Irish.