Primary and second-level teachers with queries on modern European languages can now get information, support and advice at a website just launched by Institiuid Teangeolaiochta Eireann (ITE), the Linguistics Institute of Ireland.
"All questions are welcome," says Dr David Barnwell, head of modern languages at the ITE. "They can vary from a grammatical one to a methodological one - or a resource question. There are no limits to the type of question we can field."
Teachers can call in or phone. Meetings can be arranged with individual groups. ITE always has staff to deal with queries from teachers of French, German, Irish, Italian and Spanish. The institute has a large collection of textbooks, syllabi, tests, journals and learning materials available as reference points to teachers.
As ITE gears up for the millennium, it launched its new website last month. It's now on-line at www.ite.ie and offers teachers an instant source of information which they can access from school or home. Queries can also be sent to the institute's email address - nua@ite.ie
"We're not bound to any one language," says Barnwell. "We have no particular language that we are trying to push and we're not linked to any one sector. We have this very wide brief."
Last month, ITE launched a five-year development plan setting out proposed developments to the year 2002. This is the ITE's third such plan. It published 150 publications in the five years from 1993 to 1997.
