What is the value of the Welsh language in primary education?
Hello Education Bloggers! Today I am going to be discussing the value Welsh language has on education but firstly I want to establish that the value of learning welsh in school is varied greatly depending on the individual’s heritage, career prospects and ability and enjoyment they get through learning a language (BBC Wales, 2016). However, many people, during the first half of the 20thcentury considered Welsh to be a dying language or had negative attitudes towards learning the language in school (Nodines, 1999). This could be due to the ‘Welsh knot’ in the 19thcentury where children were given the ‘Welsh Knot’ if caught talking in Welsh (BBC, 2014) The video below further explains all about the ‘Welsh Knot’.
(Treclie, 2011)
This video highlights that the Welsh not would discourage children to speak welsh by punishing them if they were wearing the ‘Knot’ at the end of the day. This video continued to explain that in some areas in Wales Welsh is still banned within some businesses because they deem it unsafe if there is a language barrier between staff (Treclie, 2011). This suggests that people feel at a disadvantage if they are unable to speak the language however, we are in Wales and many argue Welsh should be the primary language and is natural (Rhys and Harries, 2017). This video is from 2011 and since then there has been many changes in legislation and policy’s that promote Welsh across Wales and allow anyone to speak Welsh within their daily lives if they chose too (Welsh Government, 2017). The Welsh Government (2017) and Thomas, Lewis and Apolloni (2012) has recognised the important role that education plays in creating and enhancing Welsh speakers. However, Jones (2016) argues that education alone cannot guarantee that Welsh speakers will become fluent since young people need confidence to use their Welsh skills in their daily lives. Although, within today’s education with the Welsh in Education Strategic plan (2017) means the value of welsh is continuously increasing which will encourage more learners to expand their use of Welsh outside of school (Crown, 2017). This plan aims to increase the number of pupils learning through the medium of Welsh, however in Welsh schools they punish pupils when speaking English which is, you could argue, similar to the ‘Welsh Knot’ since it is limiting their freedom of speech (Crown, 2017; Rojas, 2012). One of the seven goals in Wales is to create a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language and therefore, to achieve this we are going to need more teachers within education that are able to speak welsh to a good level in order to change pupil’s attitudes towards speaking the language, therefore improving the quality of children’s Welsh and the future workforce that could speak the language (Jones and Whitehouse, 2017; Welsh Government, 2017; Welsh Government, 2014). This will then raise the value Welsh will have within education in the future which indicates that if you want to be a teacher in Wales you will need to be open to developing your welsh language skills and have a positive attitude towards teaching welsh to your pupils, especially since by 2031 the welsh government plan to increase the amount of primary school teachers who can speak welsh by 1,000 (Welsh Government, 2017). Although teachers may not like learning a language as an adult since it is easier as an infant since as they are just immersed in it so it is easier to adopt (Deak and Holt, 2014). However, Lange (2011) argues that age is no excuse for failing to learn a new language. Another barrier to achieving this goal is the views of parents since many English-Speaking parents fear their children being taught Welsh (Cosslett, 2017). This could be down to language barriers at home since siblings will be able to communicate and their parents may not be able to understand. However, Cosslett (2017) further argues this should not stop parents allowing their child to learn Welsh because many children are able to switch between the two languages, English and Welsh, with ease.
Within university we were lucky enough to participate within a Welsh lesson which gave us insight into how to effectively plan and deliver an engaging Welsh lesson. This was great because I will be able to use these techniques in the future and Rose and Shevlin, (2010) states that engaging students when introducing the subject will motivate them to learn. However, you could argue that this lesson would have been more beneficial and engaging for pupils who are from England and have never experienced a welsh lesson before, although they may want to move back to England to teach therefore making the lesson less relevant since they might still value welsh in English education negatively. Although in the future this might change since welsh will begin to grow outside of wales especially since O’Hagan (2014) states welsh should be taught in British schools because English is dominate in Britain and therefore England should adopt our culture in order to give Wales an equal place in Britain. However, the Welsh language is what makes Wales unique and the Welsh government (2017) aims to transform how we teach Welsh to all learners so that by 2050, 70% of learners report that they can speak welsh by the time they leave school. This indicates that teachers in all types of schools in Wales should be able to teach Welsh to a high standard. In both primary school and secondary school Welsh teachers will be in high demand since pupils’ timetables are likely to include a lot of Welsh lessons. Therefore, the value of Welsh within education will improve greatly by both educators and pupils and it is going to be a language of the future (Cardiff University, 2018). Although this might be a challenge since Thomas, Lewis and Apolloni (2012) found that within primary school there are lots of opportunities for children to speak welsh but when there is an English speaking dominant community children rarely took them. However, with the implementation of the Donaldson review, one of the main principles of the curriculum design is to promote welsh culture and values and a full commitment to the Welsh Language (Donaldson, 2015). This is likely to positively promote and change pupils’ attitudes towards learning Welsh although will it be effective?
References
BBC (2014) Welsh and 19thcentury education. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/language_education.shtml (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
BBC Wales (2016) How Wales Works: Welsh or English? Lucy Owen’s Big School Dilemma. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35352364 (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Cardiff University (2018) Why Learn Welsh?Available at: https://welshforadults.cardiff.ac.uk/learning-welsh/why-learn-welsh (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Cosslett, R. (2017) ‘How sad that English-speaking parents fear their children being taught in Welsh’, The guardian, 22 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/22/sad-english-parents-afraid-children-taught-welsh(Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Crown (2017) Rapid review of the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans-2017-20. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/170804-rapid-review-of-wesp-en.pdf (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Deak, G. & Holt, A. (2014) Language Learning. Editied by Roediger, H.L. Oxford: Elsevier.
Donaldson (2015)Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-Futures-en.pdf (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Jones, M. (2016) Researching Briefing Welsh-medium education and Welsh as a subject. Available at: http://www.assembly.wales/research%20documents/rs16-048/16-048-english-web.pdf (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Jones, M. & Whitehouse, S. (2017) ‘Primary humanities: a perspective from Wales’, Education 3-13,45(3), pp.332-342.
Lange, C. (2011) ‘Age no excuse for failing to learn a new language’, New Scientist, 211(2822), p.10.
Nodine, M. (1999) History and Status of the Welsh Language. Available at: http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/geraint.jones/rhydychen.org/about.welsh/ (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
O’Hagan, E. (2014) ‘Why Welsh should be taught in British schools’, The Guardian, 22 July. Available at:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/22/welsh-taught-in-british-schools-scottish-independence-referendum-english-wales-scotland(Accessed: 3rd April 2018)
Rhys, S. & Harries, R. (2017) The Welsh Language is a living, breathing, beautiful thing- not fodder for an ugly and tedious debate. Available at: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-language-living-breathing-beautiful-13574718(Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Rojas, J. (2012)Primary school children 'punished for not speaking Welsh, The Telegraph, 14 November. available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/9677976/Primary-school-children-punished-for-not-speaking-Welsh.html(Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Rose, R. & Shevlin, M. (2010) Count Me In!.London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Thomas, E., Lewis, Gwyn. & Apolloni, D. (2012) ‘Variation in language choice in extended speech in primary schools in Wales: implications for teacher education’, Language and Education, 26(3), pp.245-261,
Treclie (2011) Welsh NOT 2011. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhIuHkNrpOI (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Welsh Government (2017) Plan to put education at heart of ambition to achieve a million Welsh speakers by 2050.Available at: http://gov.wales/newsroom/educationandskills/2017/plan-to-put-education-at-heart-of-ambition-to-achieve-a-million-welsh-speakers-by-2050/?lang=en(Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Welsh Government (2017) Welsh in Education. Available at: http://gov.wales/topics/educationandskills/allsectorpolicies/welshmededuca/rapid-review-of-the-welsh-in-education-strategic-plans/?lang=en (Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
Welsh Government. (2014) Qualified for Life. Available at: http://www.erw.wales/media/1769/141001-qualified-for-life-en.pdf(Accessed: 3rdApril 2018).
It is interesting to see the evolvement of the Welsh language, and I feel like your blog portrays this! Donaldson (2015) explores this further by stating that "the Welsh Government recognised how important it is that each child and young person in Wales should be able to benefit from curriculum and assessment", so I feel that this promotes a positive change in children's attitude to learning Welsh. In my opinion, Welsh is an additional language for children, and so giving them an extra skill set; Thompson, Royles & Chaney (2011) believe that "the main reason for me is that my children will have further and extended opportunities when they're older if they speak two languages", which supports my point on children having an additional skill. Providing children with that opportunity will encourage them to venture out further, because they have the ability to get a job that is either Welsh or English speaking; this puts children in a better position if they have more to offer. This is supported by Hill & Robertson's (2009) point of "'Welsh is valued among employers'", and so implying that the Welsh language would be beneficial to children if they speak it. Relating this back to Donaldson, this could be the reason for him including this within the curriculum, to encourage schools to engage children with the Welsh language.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do understand the contrasting view of the Welsh language being beneficial to children, because it can be difficult for “Wales to back up the opportunities for Welsh speakers for employment which obviously they will do” (Morris, 2010), but if the language has been implemented in the curriculum, Wales should prepare for this change; to provide more opportunities for children that involve the Welsh language. What are your thoughts? Do you think the Welsh language should be excluded from the curriculum?
References:
Donaldson. G (2015) ‘Successful Futures’, Wales, p.5
Thompson. A, Royles. E & Chaney. P (2011) ‘Contemporary Wales: An Annual Review of Economic, Political and Social Research’, Wales
Hill. D & Robertson. L H (2009) ‘Equality in the Primary School: Promoting Good Practice Across the Curriculum’, London
Morris. D (2010) ‘Welsh in the Twenty-First Century’, Wales
I do agree with the point you made about learning Welsh provides you with an extra skill that widens your career opportunities in the future since a lot of research highlights this as a significant reason to why you would learn Welsh (Lyon and Ellis, 2010; Welsh Government, 2018). Despite this, the Welsh language, according to Lyon and Ellis (2010) is still declining, although this study was conducted in 2010 and therefore with the recent promotion of Welsh from the Welsh government within the Welsh in Education Strategic plan this could have changed (Welsh Government, 2017). However, I do not think that the Welsh language should be excluded from the curriculum, although I do believe that if children are struggling with other subject areas and they have no interest in learning the language then it should be an option to drop at secondary school level. Especially since Morris (2013) found that many parents do not encourage their child to speak Welsh outside of school because there are too many barriers to learning welsh, for example, exposure to welsh on a daily basis. However, this study contained a small sample of 5 parents which is not a large enough sample to gain a general understanding of parent views. Although, to encourage this to change I believe within primary school there should be a decreased amount of Welsh lessons compared to the core subject's, but I feel Welsh should constantly be used throughout the school day and integrated into learning to encourage a cross-curricula approach (Donaldson, 2015).
ReplyDeleteReferences
Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-Futures-en.pdf(Accessed: 24th April 2018).
Lyon, J. & Ellis, N. (2010) 'Parental attitudes towards the welsh language', Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 12(4), pp.239-251.
Morris, K. (2013) Exploration into parental attitudes towards English/Welsh bilingualism. Speech and Language Therapy. Cardiff Metropolitan University.
Welsh Government (2017) Rapid review of the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans 2017-2020. Available at: http://gov.wales/topics/educationandskills/allsectorpolicies/welshmededuca/rapid-review-of-the-welsh-in-education-strategic-plans/?lang=en (Accessed: 24th April 2018).
Welsh Government (2018) Reasons for learning Welsh. Available at: https://learnwelsh.cymru (Accessed: 24th April 2018).
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