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

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

The Welsh language is taught in all schools across Wales and is seen as an important part of the curriculum according to the Welsh Government. Furthermore, Estyn also suggest that Welsh is important development as it is one of the current seven areas of learning in Wales and it should be taught throughout Welsh classrooms.

The value of the Welsh language in Welsh classrooms is continuing to be an important factor to the Welsh Government, as they have set out a vision to see the Welsh language thrive in Wales in a living language: a language for living, and there are strategies which have been implemented in order for all welsh language learners to develop and thrive. Additionally, one strategy is to deliver high quality welsh language teaching and track pupils progression accurately before the age of seven. This will hopefully allow for better quality development of language skills whilst in primary education, furthermore it will also aim to ensure all learners develop their language skills to their full potentials.
It is clear to see that the Welsh language is still highly valued with the welsh classroom, however Estyn stated that, “In a few of schools and settings visited, staff are not devoting enough direct teaching time to deliver Welsh Language Development effectively. Practitioners do not practise and repeat new Welsh words regularly or offer children enough opportunities to practise their Welsh (Estyn, 2013). This has a detrimental effect on the value of the Welsh Language, as this could be suggesting that certain practitioners are not taking the Welsh lessons as serious as the Government think they should and that the teachers are not seeing the importance of the language being spoken in the classroom. 
Furthermore, Estyn highlight that when the teachers own Welsh is fluent, children’s progression in the language is increased. This can suggest that practitioners may need to be re-educated on the area, if the Welsh government believe the language is of importance. Professor Antonella Sorace suggests on Wales Online that speaking Welsh is good for your health, as languages like Welsh should be persevered to benefit the brain. Furthermore, as Wales Online suggest that around 7,000 less people speak Welsh over the last decade it needs to be highlighted that speaking Welsh and other languages can help towards slowing the rates of mental decline in old age.

 Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Rights of the Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011, all children and young people must be provided with an education that develops their personality and talents to the full. This suggests that with the use of Welsh within the classroom it can develop think and communication skills, also develop ICT and even number skills if taught competently, this has close links to the Donaldson report and the revived curriculum in Wales as he suggests that there should be an increase cross curricular approach to teaching therefore Welsh can be integrated with lessons such as PE and even maths. The review has a firm commitment to the Welsh language, culture and bilingualism, furthermore this can also be seen to have links with the four purposes of the new curriculum being healthy, confident individuals and also ambitious capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives (Welsh Government, 2018). Furthermore, Donaldson also highlights that language, literacy and communication has a huge part to play in the new curriculum which links to Welsh, it states in the successful review that there is a firm commitment to the Welsh language and the importance of it in the classroom.
To conclude it is apparent that the Welsh Government and Donaldson believe that the Welsh language is of a high importance in primary education across the county and strategies are funding are being implemented in order to support the growth of the language, however it is also apparent to see that others including certain practitioners think it is not as valued as once was. Therefore, it is important to educate all practitioners and students on the benefits the Welsh language can bring such as health and even job benefits.




































Reference list

Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales. Welsh Assembly Government. Crown

Estyn (2013) Welsh Language development in the foundation phase. Available at: https://www.estyn.gov.wales/sites/default/files/documents/Welsh%20Language%20Development%20in%20the%20Foundation%20Phase%20-%20January%202013.pdf(Accessed:January 2013).

Unicef (2018) How we protect children rights. Available at: https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/(Accessed:March 2018).

Wales Online (2016) Why speaking the Welsh is good for you and the language must be saved. Available at: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/speaking-welsh-good-your-health-10890612(Accessed:15th February 2016).

Welsh Government (2017) Statistics and research. Available at: http://gov.wales/topics/welshlanguage/statistics-and-research/?lang=en (Accessed: 28th June 2017).


Comments

  1. Ellena Barnett24 April 2018 at 06:42

    You have written a good blog post on the Welsh language and how important it is to re-educate practitioners on the language and the benefits this has within the classroom. You have made some valid points but you have not backed them up with academic literature, so they could be perceived as your own personal opinion. Within your post you have mentioned the importance of 're-educate' practitioners and many do not see the importance of it. It has been suggested that having a bilingual education has been a story of growth development and success (Cummings and Corson, 1997, p. 131) for many children, with more than half of the world's population being bilingual (Ffransis and Huws, 2017) and that learning another language is an attribute that aids in cognitive development, but also improves employment opportunities. Do you agree that educators should start to understand the benefits of teaching additional languages? In addition to this, why do you think that educators have stopped putting languages as a priority within the classroom?

    References:

    Cummings, J. and Corson, D. (1997) Encyclopaedia of Language and Education, Bilingual Education, Volume 5

    Ffransis, F. and Huws, E. (2017) Welsh-language teaching helps enrich children’s lives, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/20/welsh-language-teaching-helps-enrich-childrens-lives (Accessed: 24 April 2018)

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