| Summary: | This study investigated whether phonological awareness of pupils in the immersion stage of Gaelic-medium education in Scotland could be measured using an assessment tool, which does not replace subjective teacher observation, but provides objective evidence. The research data was collected in four phases. Initially an audit was made of English tests of phonological awareness that are currently available and used widely in the UK, in order to find suitable subtests. Many Gaelic-medium units are small, often with composite classes and few Support for Learning Teachers. Therefore, to explore the issues around measuring phonological awareness in Gaelic, it was necessary to create an assessment tool to be used by Classroom Teachers. In the second phase, the test was administered to 368 pupils in Primary 2 and 3 of these units/schools by Gaelic-medium teachers. The results were analysed to see what aspects of phonological awareness could be measured in Gaelic and if there was sufficien t information to create a diagnostic tool for identifying pupils' phonological weaknesses. The third phase involved analysing the results of the questionnaires that were completed by the teachers who had administered the test. Finally, a third of the respondents volunteered to complete semi-structured interviews by telephone, to gather fuller views and experiences of the Gaelic-medium teachers. Evidence of the development of Gaelic-medium learners' phonological awareness was obtained. Findings point to similarities in English in most aspects of phonological awareness; however, rhyming in Gaelic appears to be a poor indicator of phonological ability. The study suggests that phonological awareness in Gaelic develops with age. Following stringent analysis of the data, the instrument that was devised can provide a diagnostic profile of a pupil's phonological awareness in Gaelic. This research took a pioneering approach to the study of prevention of reading failure and has implications for assessment identifying pupils' progress and planning intervention for teachers in Gaelic-medium education, and has implications for teachers in other similar languages, such as Irish, or for teachers teaching bilingual pupils.
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