Wales itself is a project grounded in the Welsh language.
Wales’s present political manifestation has no prior modern antecedence. Wales was a part of England effectively until the Assembly only being recognised at all since absorption in Tudor times first by the translation of the Bible into Welsh, to help ensure the Reformation in Wales and help keep the back door into England firmly closed and then as a special entity again at the end of the nineteenth century in the act establishing Welsh grammar schools.
Apart from religious and sporting affiliations all parts of Wales connect West to East and never North to South. The idea there is in reality an entity called the Welsh economy is an absurd fiction as South East Wales connects commercially and even socially with the West of England and North Wales with Manchester and Liverpool. Ideally transport links North and South might help create a real connexion between North and South and the growth of social media may also achieve this. This disconnect geographical, economic, social and linguistic together with the porousness of the border with England together with disinterest and apathy are the enemies of the project 2050.
Attempts to bring languages back from the brink of extinction have almost always failed as projects. Only Hebrew for very special reasons has been wholly successful but Welsh has been hailed as a language in recovery. This recovery is fragile and setting a target is a useful way of focussing minds. It has two elements firstly language acquisition but as important is keeping and making Welsh a language of everyday life.
The halt in the decline of the language is a substantial achievement and the target of a million speakers by 2050 is admirable but needs detailed specification and support. Broadly speaking it seems Welsh is being successful outside Wales, in parts of Wales where it was previously in steep decline or hardly existed ,but is having problems in several of the older heartlands where in migration as a result of differential house prices in attractive rural and coastal areas has a most worrying negative effect and if not dealt with will destroy the places where Welsh has traditionally been the language of everyday life.
As the planning system has been used to protect the natural and physical environment so consideration of its use to protect the linguistic environment before it is too late and the heartlands are lost with inevitable consequences for Welsh in traditional areas. There are obviously substantial objections to such a policy in a Liberal democracy and changes need to be very fine tuned and properly argued for and executed. In Wales there is this special important lingusitic twist to the distortion of the housing market by incomers with deep pockets mainly from the South East of England. .
On the other hand Welsh is already a world language. At the moment the number of speakers beyond Wales is unknown but substantial. Over 50,000 first language speakers perhaps 100,000 Also Welsh is the oldest language in Great Britain and after Basque one of the oldest in Europe.It is part of a heritage of other Britons. Welsh people are and will probably be geographically mobile globally and support for the language, by whatever means, really needs to look beyond Wales itself. Within the time frame suggested Education could successively migrate to the internet and consideration should be given to a complete Welsh learning packages adaptable for children and adults to learn and improve their knowledge of Welsh and available worldwide.
Need and opportunity are the factors facilitating language acquisition. Perception of need is influenced by many factors. In countries like Wales and Sweden where everyone will inevitably become fluent in English certain elements of perception and self worth are crucial.
Perception of the importance and status of the language can be overtly and subliminally reinforced by minor changes to the physical environment. Public sector signage has already made a difference but serious consideration should be given to a policy of enforcing bi lingual signage in the private sector too in stages completed by 2050.
Whilst Welsh language education has produced cohort of speakers it is often the case that children revert to English outside the school gates and after school. Consideration to how Welsh can improve its image amongst young people as something ‘cool’. As youth culture is generally counter culture by nature it maybe beyond the scope of policy to encourage it or is it? Making it possible to use Welsh in all sitiations should be aimed at.
Welsh is not an easy language for less able children coming from English speaking homes especially in predominently English areas. Care must be taken that they are sufficiently supported to ensure they are not suffering as a result of their parent’s choice. The choice of sending children to Welsh schools is a status as well as a patriotic choice.
Further are there any way Welsh ex pats and people in remote areas can have their children educated in boarding schools in Wales?
The majority of Citizens in Wales will still be predominantly English speakers and it is crucial to maintain and enhance the support of this group for the Welsh language and ensure that their education is of the highest standard and also gives Welsh and the history and culture of Wales its due.
There are still a group of articulate people who oppose the revival of the Welsh language on the grounds that it imposes unnecessary costs and is socially divisive. It is important to show that supporting the Welsh language needn’t involve a gravy train of self appointed Taffia or be socially divisive.
So it is also vitally important to provide appropriate top quality Welsh language education in Schools where English is the principle medium of instruction. Reasonable competence in Welsh must be the right of all in Wales.THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING OF ALL . Welsh cannot be seen and taught as if it were a foreign language and it should be clearly connected with Welsh history and culture including, of course, the Anglo Welsh tradition. . The model for changes in Education in Wales might be Finland which has both Swedish and Finnish speaking areas and where all teachers are at least educated to master’s level. Finland is reputed to produce the best educated population in Europe.Wales should aspire for master level entry to the teaching profession asap.
Communicative competence in spoken Welsh rather than mastering grammar rules should be the thrust of learning Welsh in English medium schools. Also all teachers in Wales of all subjects with rare exception should be expected to be confident and to always use Welsh as a natural and normal part of classroom management in all subjects and Welsh should normally be the meta language in Welsh lessons.
A test of the success of Welsh learning in non Welsh language schools would be that pupils could fairly comfortably transfer to Welsh language schools at early stages of their education with little or no futher induction.
Whilst Non Welsh speaking parents may wish to support and monitor their children in a Welsh language school by learning the language and others may wish to claim their cultural inheritance the pyramid of adult learners where few starters get to level Uwch is concerning and the approach needs rethinking. Connecting face to face learning with a fully on line system and encouraging fluent Welsh speakers to learn how to usefully support new speakers is necessary. Some slogan such as ‘There is no such thing as bad Welsh’ needs to be inculcated to adult learners and native speakers alike.
Finally a short sample module on Wales and the Welsh language should be made for inclusion in the syllabus of all schools in the UK outside Wales to give people outsideWales a better picture of the language and to enhance its status in the rest of the UK…
