26TRA318 Forbairt na Fónaice: Focus on English-medium Schools
Date: Tuesday April 21st 2026
Time: 7.00 - 8.00 pm
Venue: Online via Zoom
Target Audience: Primary Teachers
Phonics is recognised as a foundational skill for reading and writing. In the Irish orthography, phonemic knowledge has the potential to broaden children’s experience with reading and writing in Irish, major contributors to oral language development. Many literacy skills transfer across Irish and English and in the learning of phonics methodologies and approaches can be adapted across the two languages. However, phonemic knowledge in Irish is specific to the orthography of Irish. This workshop aims to heighten awareness of the progression of phonics learning in the English-medium primary context, outlining the steps required to enable children to decode words in Irish text and to spell and write in Irish.
Bio of Presenter: Dr Jacqueline de Brún

Jacqueline de Brún is a lecturer in Teagasc na Gaeilge in DCU in the School of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education. In her former role as a teacher/education adviser she developed the phonics programmes Fónaic na Gaeilge and Cód na Gaeilge for immersion schools. As a lecturer in DCU she has adapted her phonics teaching to prepare initial teachers to teach phonics in English-medium schools. She developed the NCCA guidelines for teaching phonics in L2 settings (2025).
Course Details
| Course Start Date / Time | 21-04-2026 7:00 pm |
| Course End Date / Time | 21-04-2026 8:00 pm |
| Cut off date | 21-04-2026 7:15 pm |
| Available place | 1000 |
| Fee | Free |
| Number Hours | 1 |
| Speaker | Dr Jacqueline de Brún |
| Location | Online |