This study investigates Irish primary school teachers’ attitudes and practice with regards to heritage languages in bilingual pupils. The study has three aims: to explore teachers’ views on bilingualism and heritage languages, to examine their practice around support for heritage language maintenance, and to investigate potential changes in teachers’ views and practice across the primary school years. The theoretical framework draws on the role attitudes play in classroom practices (Christopoulou Pampaka & Vlassopoulou 2012) and on the relationship between teachers’ knowledge training and approach with bilingual pupils (Flores 2001). Past studies show that teachers have positive attitudes towards bilingualism however they emphasize the acquisition of the majority language and see the heritage language maintenance as the responsibility of the family (Blazar & Kraft 2017; Dillon 2011; Sook Lee & Oxelson 2006). Teachers highlight their lack of resources and limited awareness of strategies (Dillon 2011; Lee & Oxleson 2006; Ribeiro 2011). Previous research points to different developmental trajectories for the majority and the heritage languages in bilingual pupils across the primary school years with a steep acquisition of the majority language and a decline or plateau in the development of the heritage language (Dubiel and Guilfoyle 2017; Jia Kohnert Collado & Aquino-Garcia 2006). The study utilizes a mixed methods approach underpinned by the pragmatism theoretical paradigm. The participants are 90 primary school teachers from six schools in Dublin. 36 of those teachers took part in nine focus groups. Individual questionnaires were distributed and completed by 90 teachers in the participating schools. The qualitative data is being analyzed thematically through NVivo 12 and the questionnaires through SPSS. This is an ongoing project currently at the stage of data analysis. Initial results are that teachers value bilingualism, yet they struggle to support heritage language maintenance in pupils which can be explained by their lack of knowledge limited practice and a curriculum overload in Irish primary schools. It is anticipated that full results will be available in spring 2021. The results of this study will contribute to knowledge and practice in the broad fields of language education pedagogy and policy in terms of our awareness and support for overall language development and heritage language maintenance in bilingual children.

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