What is the value of the Welsh language in primary education? Beth Gibbs

What is the value of the Welsh language in primary education?

I have very little experience observing whether not the Welsh language is valued within schools, as I did not attend school in Wales. However, the school I volunteer at does very little Welsh with key stage 2 pupils however it is encouraged more in the nursery and reception class with multiple Welsh reading materials and repeating Welsh words from the teachers. However this was surprising to witness as the Welsh language has been compulsory in Wales following the 1998 Education Reform Act where all pupils aged 3-16 years had compulsory Welsh language.  From speaking to peers that have been to Welsh schools, secondary school really promotes the language in preparation for a GCSE. They said that the lessons were really enjoyable as everyone had a foundation already so it was fairly easy to get the hang of it. Although, a few weeks ago we had a Welsh language lesson which I thought I would be terrible at as I have always struggled to pick up languages, but I retained a lot more than I thought I would. Perhaps it was because I was taught in a really engaging way and by the end of the session I had manged a short conversation in Welsh.

The lack of emphasis on Welsh speaking within my placement may also be because there are so many different cultures and languages it is important to be inclusive and oftentimes they learn to communicate in English not welsh. Donaldson’s emphasis on the Welsh language and culture within the review of the Welsh curriculum suggests that teachers may have to learn welsh as well so they are better able to guide and support children’s welsh language development. A way to prepare for this is for teachers and parents to work together to learn from fluent Welsh speakers so they can better support the children.

Donaldson (2015), suggests that there is research that indicates there are cognitive benefits of learning languages from an early age, that it can affect the way you think and are able to successfully pick up other languages, more easily in the future. This is one of the reasons why there is an increased importance being placed on learning the Welsh language from an early age within Donaldson’s curriculum review. Some studies suggest there is a difference in intelligence between bilinguals and monolinguals (Barac and Bialystok, 2011), however other studies suggest there is no difference in cognitive intelligence and that it is a myth with no actual evidence to support it (Kempe, 2014).

Jones (2016), highlights the fact that pupils are not engaged with learning Welsh and there is not enough time to teach it. Nor do enough teachers have a good grasp of the language and have the confidence to teach it through other aspects of learning. As Donaldson’s recommendations come in to effect, children should be learning holistically so they will not have a set slots for separate subjects. This will enable children to practice their Welsh in other areas of their learning and hopefully everyday rather than once every two weeks as it transitions into a core area of learning and given the same importance as literacy and numeracy.

When Donaldson asked school leaders on what they though was the three best things about education in Wales, one of which was the Welsh language and culture and the Welsh Government is dedicated to Wales prospers and keeps its language alive through the Welsh Language Strategy (Welsh Government, 2012).  It is important to promote Welsh culture and language in school, to be prideful of your roots and whilst being able to communicate in two different languages, without it, the language will eventually fade to even fewer people speaking it and the Welsh culture will be lesser for it (Welsh Government, 2013).

The Welsh Language Strategy encourages a wider range of people to speak and learn Welsh to increase the number of people that speak it. However this is difficult if the fate of the Welsh language lies in the hands of disengaged children. Educators need to make these lessons fun and get families involved so children can practice language skills at home, at work, with their friends and within school. The strategy aims to build a stronger foundation to support welsh language as it becomes core subject within school. The tools that children use to help learn two languages may come in handy if they can be applied to learning other languages such as French or German, to be able to look for patterns in different language structures.

Donaldson (2015) makes it very clear that learning the welsh language cannot be segregated into a separate subject that it needs to be incorporated in other learning opportunities, an example of this could be practicing their welsh spelling and speech during a maths lessons or exploring the outdoors and talking in welsh instead of English for jump or run. Whilst conduction my research into the value of the Welsh language I discovered that there is also a province within Argentina that speaks only Welsh. This could be used as a tool to promote an interest in the Welsh language as they could try to get in touch with the people that live there and converse in Welsh. Below is the provinces flag.

Reference List:

• ·     Barac, R. and Bialystok, E. (2011). ‘Cognitive Development of Bilingual Children’, Research Timeline. 44.1, 36-54
• ·    Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government.
• ·   Education Reform Act 1988, c. 40. Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/40/pdfs/ukpga_19880040_en.pdf  Accessed: 15.04.18
• ·   Kempe, V. (2014). Being Bilingual does not make you smarter. Abertay University. Available online: https://www.abertay.ac.uk/news/2014/being-bilingual-does-not-make-you-smarter Accessed: 16.04.18
• ·   Jones, M. (2016). Research Briefing: Welsh-medium Education and Welsh as a Subject. National Assembly for Wales. Available online: http://www.assembly.wales/research%20documents/rs16-048/16-048-english-web.pdf Accessed: 16.04.18
• ·   Welsh Government (2012) A living language: a language for living – Welsh Language Strategy 2012–17 Welsh Government
• ·   Welsh Government (2013) One language for all: Review of Welsh second language at Key Stages 3 and 4 – Report and recommendations Welsh Government