What is the value of the Welsh language in the primary education?- Hannah Burton

Throughout this blog post, I will be focusing on how important the Welsh language is within primary education.

From my own experience of learning Welsh within primary school, it wasn’t very good until I reached secondary school. There was very little importance placed on Welsh as it was an English medium school so only the basics of Welsh would be taught by teachers and there wasn’t enough Welsh spoken by teachers throughout the school, as a result Welsh wasn’t encouraged to us as pupils. It was only taught when it was the time slot for our Welsh lessons. Although, Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig was introduced within schools by The Welsh Assembly Government in 2003 to help children learn and appreciate the Welsh language and culture within the 21^st century; as The Welsh Assembly Government (2003, p.3) state “Pupils should be given opportunities, where appropriate, to develop and apply knowledge and understanding of the cultural, economic, environmental, historical and linguistic characteristics of Wales.” But according to an Estyn report (2005) there were teachers who had little or very limited understanding of it so as a result they didn’t have knowledge on effective ways to teach the language. It wasn’t until I started secondary school I started to enjoy Welsh as it was used a lot more which sparked my interest to take it to study as a GCSE subject.

Although now the Welsh language is very important within primary education as it is one of the seven areas of learning within the Foundation Phase and schools are encouraged to place an educational plan in order to develop the language and skills that should be improved throughout their learning (Welsh Government, 2015). The Welsh language has also been seen to be fundamental within day to day life (Welsh Government, 2017).

There are a number of benefits of having Welsh as a language; the Welsh Government (2015) notes a few of these as an increase of job opportunities as workplaces are becoming more bilingual, pupils will be able to interact with others who are bilingual; communication skills improve not only in the Welsh language but in other languages that are learnt and they learn to respect others of different languages and cultures. Devine (2016) proclaims that being bilingual can have a positive effect on people understanding one another and have better attention spans. According to Donaldson (2015) there are practical as well as intellectual benefits of having Welsh as a language.

At this present time, the Welsh language is valued a lot more than it was before. Although, Wales still isn’t where it wants to be with the language as Deans (2015) has claimed a survey has shown that people who speak fluent welsh has dropped by 7,000 in the last 10 years. This has been supported by an Estyn report from The Welsh Government (2013) which has shown that levels of the Welsh language have decreased. Also, it has been highlighted within Donaldson’s Successful Futures (2015) recommendations by the Welsh Language Commissioner that there’s a serious lack of people who can speak both Welsh and English and the levels of attainment of the Welsh language have been dropping recently. Although, there are reasons as to why this is happening as Donaldson (2015) says that professionals within schools don’t have enough knowledge or have an understanding of different methods that can be used to teach Welsh to children. Therefore, more training should be provided to these professionals as it has been mentioned by the BBC (2014) that primary schools are the place for support to teach different languages.

The Welsh Language Strategy 2012-17 was introduced in 2013 and its' aim was to see the language flourish especially amongst young people by promoting Welsh within different communities and including it within technology and the media as technology is becoming popular amongst young people. It has been shown in an annual report from the Welsh Assembly Government (2016) that there has been an increase in pupils having the opportunity to learn Welsh, but improvement is needed on the planning side of it.         

Donaldson (2015, p.48) wishes to continue improving attitudes to the language as he thinks “Language is the essence of thinking and is integral, not just to effective communication, but to learning, reflection and creativity.” This will be done by including the Welsh language within the language, literacy and communication area of learning within the new curriculum Successful Futures and putting more importance on it to help boost children’s confidence with using the language inside as well as outside the classroom; as it has been mentioned by numerous people within the Successful Futures (2015) document that the Welsh language and being bilingual are two of the main qualities about education in Wales. He wants to continue with Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig as he thinks there is potential if it used properly as stated by Davies (2013, p.2) “The future of Welsh and Welsh culture is wholly dependent on transmitting the language to our young people.”

However, this may be challenging as The Welsh Assembly Government (2012) found that one of the main problems with teaching the Welsh language is the staff not having enough confidence with using the language itself.

What are your thoughts on the Welsh language and should more be done in schools to promote it?

 Reference list

BBC News. (2014). Primary schools in Wales 'should teach foreign languages'. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25856155 [Accessed: 28/03/18]

Davies, S. (2013). One language for all: Review of Welsh second language at Key Stages 3 and 4 report and recommendations. Welsh Assembly Government. P.2. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/130926-review-of-welsh-second-lan-en.pdf [Accessed: 09/04/18]

 

Deans, D. (2015). The state of the Welsh language: Number of people speaking Welsh fluently falls by 7,000 over the last decade. Available at: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/state-welsh-language-number-people-8538272 [Accessed: 28/03/18]

Devine, D. (2016). Why speaking Welsh is good for your health and the language must be saved. Available at: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/speaking-welsh-good-your-health-10890612 [Accessed: 28/03/18]

Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government. P.48

Estyn. (2005). Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig, Progress made by schools in implementation of ACCAC guidance issued in 2003. Available at: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5753/1/Remit_6_April_05.pdf [Accessed: 02/04/18]

The Welsh Assembly Government. (2003). Developing the Curriculum Cymreig. Available at: http://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/130424-developing-the-curriculum-cymreig-en.pdf [Accessed: 02/04/18]

Welsh Government. (2012). A living language: a language for living- Welsh Language Strategy 2012-17. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/122902wls201217en.pdf

Welsh Government. (2013). One language for all: Review of Welsh second language at key stage 3 and 4. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/130926-review-of-welsh-second-lan-en.pdf [Accessed: 28/03/18]

Welsh Government. (2015) Welsh second language in the National Curriculum for Wales. Available at: http://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/150707-welsh-second-language-cy.pdf [Accessed: 28/03/18]

Welsh Government. (2015). Curriculum for Wales: Foundation Phase Framework. Available at: http://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/150803-fp-framework-en.pdf [Accessed: 28/03/18]

Welsh Government. (2016). A living language: a language for living- Welsh Language Strategy 2012-17, Annual Report 2015-16. Available at: http://www.assembly.wales/laid%20documents/gen-ld10769/gen-ld10769-e.pdf [Accessed: 09/04/18]

Welsh Government. (2017). Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/170711-welsh-language-strategy-eng.pdf [Accessed: 28/03/18]