An investigation into the effectiveness of using CALL to teach Irish to 1st year students in a post primary school: a case study approach.

It is imperative that the teacher is centre-stage in computer aided pedagogical settings to ensure maximum potential is attained. Constructivist theories challenge teachers to create learning environments that suit their students‘ diverse needs and abilities. The teacher ought to facilitate the student to increase knowledge retention, user satisfaction and motivate them to enjoy the learning experience. Pedagogical content is vital to effectively integrate computer aided learning in schools. Teacher instruction and facilitation is important to ensure technology is adopted and adhered to. This study utilizes an age and content appropriate software to assist twelve year old students in a post-primary school with language teaching. This is a mixed ability class; therefore participants portray a broad range of learning styles and learning abilities. Participants are divided into two groups, the control group and the treatment group. Each participant in the control group interacts with the multimedia software which is demonstrated to them in a group setting by the teacher to ensure the navigational structure of the Software is understood. This study is an attempt to ascertain if a computer aided interactive language resource enhances the pedagogical context and influences learning outcomes. This study uses a case study, experiment and survey. Questionnaire, interviews and observation are all deployed in the collection of quantitative and qualitative data, which is vital to test the Project assumption and ensure validity of data.