“Croeso i Tafwyl” by Jeremy Segrott, CC BY 2.0
Last week saw the publication of a statement by Anna Brychan MS outlining, in very general terms, Plaid Cymru’s plans for reaching their target of 1 million Welsh speakers.
For many people, learning Welsh is just something they want to do, but the wider Welsh language environment, including the government’s choice of where and how to provide support for learners, is political. And adult learners, who are crucial to the development of the language and for the support of Welsh speaking and learning children, are often ignored.
So it was with Brychan’s statement.
I prepared a press release explaining why adult education is important and sent it out to a variety of Welsh journalists. So far none have picked it up, so here it is in full.
“The Welsh Government must do more for adult learners at the intermediate level if they are to secure a ‘strong future for the Welsh language’, says Suw Charman-Anderson, founder of Ymestyn.Cymru, the only online Welsh education program designed specifically for intermediate learners.
“It is heartening to hear Anna Brychan, the Cabinet Minister for Education and the Welsh Language, commit to a variety of interventions that will strengthen Welsh learning and its use in childcare, education and the community.
“But once again, there’s no mention of adult learners, particularly those who’ve reached the Canolradd level for whom there is currently little to no targeted support or content outside of the limited Dysgu Cymraeg Canolradd courses.”
The National Centre for Learning Welsh’s own statistics show that over the last five years, only 23% to 26% of Mynediad learners progressed to Sylfaen. Worse, the number of Canolradd learners never breaks the 2,000 mark.
If we want a strong and vibrant future for the Welsh language we need to support Canolradd learners through to full fluency.
Additional support for Welsh language childcare and education is essential, but an IWA report from 2014 highlighted the fact that “children who are taught through the medium of Welsh but don’t speak Welsh at home are less likely to overachieve by the time they reach the end of their primary schooling”.
We need confident, Welsh-speaking adults capable of supporting their children’s education and using Welsh in the home, because “the likelihood of a child using Welsh diminish[es] if one adult does not speak the language.”
For the government to achieve its ambition of “a million and more Welsh speakers”, children need the support of fluent speakers at home and in their communities.
Furthermore, the Senedd’s own research has shown that there are not enough bilingual teachers to meet demand. Data shows “39% of teachers reported having intermediate Welsh skills or higher, while only a quarter were currently teaching Welsh or through the medium of Welsh”.
More worryingly, there is “a downward trend in the number of teachers able to teach through the medium of Welsh.”
We need to support teachers to develop their Welsh skills, which means not just providing a wealth of beginner content, but focusing efforts on supporting learners through the difficult ‘intermediate plateau’ – that period in any language learning journey where the student has a solid grasp of grammar but simply does not have enough vocabulary to be able to function in that language and begins to feel demoralised.
None of the available Welsh courses focus on expanding vocabulary or helping learners memorise key grammar points. They introduce concepts and expect learners to fill in the gaps at home, without providing any tools to do so.
Ymestyn.Cymru is unique in focusing on expanding Canolradd learners’ vocabulary whilst ensuring that they know how to use core Welsh grammar. It builds learners’ confidence in their knowledge of the language, using real world examples to help them use what they‘ve learnt in the classroom ‘out in the wild’.
“The Welsh Government should be supporting programs like Ymestyn, which are essential to fixing the leaky learner pipeline,” Charman-Anderson says. “More help for Canolradd learners will translate into more fluent speakers who are using Welsh day-to-day, with their children, communities and at work.”