Comasan Labhairt ann an Gàidhlig

Comasan Labhairt ann an Gàidhlig/Gaelic Adult Proficiency is a three year research project funded by Bòrd na Gàidhlig and the Scottish Funding Council, which began in November 2014. The project is based in Celtic and Gaelic, and is run in collaboration with Gaelic Studies at the University of Aberdeen. 

CLAG will develop a series of proficiency scales to serve as the basis of a framework for the teaching and learning of Scottish Gaelic by adults. This will be linked to the Common European Framework of Reference, and will be aligned with existing Scottish Qualifications Authority frameworks.

The framework will provide adult learners of Gaelic and their teachers with a crucial resource on par with those already existing for languages including Irish, English, Dutch, and Spanish. It will provide learners and teachers with clear learning targets, thereby helping to guide the Gaelic language learning process.

The project is led by Professor Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh (Celtic and Gaelic), Dr. Esther Daborn (School of Education), and Dr. Michelle MacLeod (Gaelic Studies, University of Aberdeen), and draws on the strength of expertise at the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen in Gaelic corpus linguistics, Gaelic language acquisition, and language acquisition and teaching more generally.

Dr. Nicola Carty is the Research Assistant on the project. Dr. Carty will create a corpus of over 100 adult Gaelic learners’ speech, as they perform a range of different activities demonstrating their Gaelic language skills. The corpus will be used to assess the language knowledge and skills of these adult learners, using established techniques in second language acquisition research. This corpus and its analysis will build on the work carried out by Dr. Carty for her PhD research. Her thesis is available to read online.

Project team

  • Professor Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh (Celtic & Gaelic), Principal Investigator – roibeard.omaolalaigh@glasgow.ac.uk
  • Dr. Esther Daborn (School of Education), Co-Investigator – esther.daborn@glasgow.ac.uk
  • Dr. Michelle MacLeod (Gaelic Studies, University of Aberdeen), Co-Investigator – m.macleod@abdn.ac.uk
  • Dr. Nicola Carty (Celtic & Gaelic), Research Assistant – nicola.carty@glasgow.ac.uk
  • Dr. Stuart Dunmore (Celtic & Gaelic), Project Assistant – stuart.dunmore@glasgow.ac.uk
  • Dr. Marsaili MacLeod (Gaelic Studies, University of Aberdeen), Researcher – marsaili.macleod@abdn.ac.uk