Our Postgraduate Diploma in English as an Additional Language (EAL) is a unique blended learning course (50% online, 50% face-to-face) that offers flexibility to teaching professionals and support staff across the educational spectrum who wish to upskill in EAL and linguistically and culturally responsive practice.

 

The population on the island of Ireland is increasingly diverse and this qualification will support the professional growth of primary and post-primary teachers and leaders, student support staff (i.e SNAs), and those from the further education sector to deliver effective provision for EAL students in their own professional settings and the wider professional community.

 

This unique, interdisciplinary course not only focuses on the pedagogies and approaches akin to EAL and multilingual education but as a participant you will also develop a broad understanding of many themes including:

• Language planning and policy at the national, school, and home level
• Cultural and linguistic peripheries and centres
• Power and cultural and linguistic identities
• Heritage language education
• Linguistic landscapes
• Practice-based theories of second language acquisition
• Linguistic scaffolding, multilingual disciplinary literacies
• Journey from emergent to advanced bi-/plurilingualism
• Disruptive pedagogies, decolonising approaches, culturally sensitive pedagogies
• Long-term assessment of language acquisition

 

 

Unlike any other professional development offering for educational professionals, we equip participants with a unique research-informed skill set which means that you will have an immediate impact on the immediate contexts in the creation of plurilingual/cultural classrooms - that are linguistically and culturally equitable, diverse, and accepting.