Communities of Practice within Initial teacher Education

This paper defines the background, the rationale and the context for a collaborative journey towards change in initial language teacher education for Irish and modern languages; moreover, it points to the benefits that can be gained from interdisciplinary collaboration. The collaboration between two communities of practice is fruitful because of respective and yet shared concerns and needs for the future of language education in Ireland. These concerns are contextualized both for Irish and modern languages and also take into account language issues experienced by English, the dominant language. While these concerns are real problems, they are also opportunities for change and the development of interdisciplinary mindsets within teacher education and the teaching world at large. New avenues are opened when the potential of placing language along with content as joint curricular objectives is considered and when the relation between language and learning is re-asserted. In this respect, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has much to contribute. Finally, the paper outlines the nature of the collaboration embarked upon between NUI Galway and Irish and, Waterford Institute of Technology and modern languages. It concludes by referring to forthcoming developments within language education in Ireland.