http://www.gaelport.com/index.php?page=clippings&id=3193&viewby=date quote:'But when broken down within the Gaelscoileanna themselves, those doing at least one year of early total immersion outperform those where English was introduced in the first year. Pupils take advantage of language acquisition skills they pick up from being immersed in Irish at an early age. That kicks in when they start learning to read and they transfer their reading skills from Irish to English,' he said.