Canolfannau Cymraeg and Social Networks of Adult Learners of Welsh: Efforts to Reverse Language Shift in Comparatively Non-Welsh-Speaking Communities
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Canolfannau Cymraeg and Social Networks of Adult Learners of Welsh: Efforts to Reverse Language Shift in comparatively non-Welsh-speaking Communities By Heini Gruffudd and Steve Morris © Copyright Heini Gruffudd, Steve Morris and Academi Hywel Teifi Date of Publication: July 2012 Publisher: South West Wales Welsh for Adults Centre / Academi Hywel Teifi Swansea University Keir Hardie Building Singleton Park, SWANSEA SA2 8PP Telephone: 01792 602070 www.abertawe.ac.uk/academihywelteifi/ymchwil Cover designed by: Waters Creative, Swansea Printed by: Waters Creative, Swansea ISBN: 978-1-900346-11-5 1 CONTENTS II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III FOREWORD BY PROFESSOR COLIN WILLIAMS IV EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 THE BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH 1.1 Starting point of research 1.2 Research remit 1.3 An analysis of the profile of Welsh for Adults learners 2007 - 2009 1.3.1 Level of classes attended 1.3.2 Gender 1.3.3 Age 1.4 Informal learning 1.5 The international context 2 METHODOLOGY 2.1 Background 2.2 Defining the linguistic nature of the areas in question 2.2.1 Flintshire 2.2.2 Swansea 2.2.3 Neath Port Talbot 2.2.4 Bridgend 2.2.5 Merthyr Tydfil 2.2.6 Newport 2.3 Questionnaire 2.3.1 Questionnaire sections 2.3.2 Questionnaire analysis 2.3.3 Selecting classes 2.3.4 Piloting the questionnaire 2.3.5 Distributing the questionnaire 2.4 Focus groups 2.5 History of the Canolfannau Cymraeg 3 QUESTIONNAIRE 3.1 Personal background 3.2 Courses attended 3.3 Opportunities 3.4 Media 3.5 Changing habits 2 4 FOCUS GROUPS 4.1 Opportunities to use Welsh 4.2 Confidence / Attitude of Welsh speakers 4.3 Motivation 4.4 Barriers to socialising 5 MODELS OF INFORMAL PROVISION 5.1 General 5.2 North Wales 5.2.1 Mold 5.2.2 Mold’s Canolfan Gymraeg 5.3 Mid Wales 5.4 South West Wales 5.4.1 Menter Iaith Abertawe and Tŷ Tawe 5.5 Glamorgan 5.5.1 Merthyr Tydfil: Canolfan Gymraeg and Menter Iaith 5.6 Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan 5.7 Gwent 5.8 Guidance from the Welsh Language Board 5.9 Consideration of models of informal provision 6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6.1 Ascertain the opportunities available to maintain social Networks in Welsh 6.1.1 Recommendations 6.2 Ascertain whether those opportunities are greater or equal if learners study in a Canolfan Gymraeg 6.2.1 Recommendations 6.3 Ascertain and recommend strategies that could be implemented in order to extend and expand the Welsh medium social networks of these new Welsh speakers 6.3.1 Recommendations 6.4 Ascertain whether patterns or strategies exist in other language communities that could be adapted to the efforts to integrate adults who have learnt Welsh 6.4.1 Recommendations 6.5 Consideration of models of informal provision 6.5.1 Recommendations 7 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 Copy of the questionnaire APPENDIX 2 Directions for tutors for completing the questionnaire with the class APPENDIX 3 Focus group guidelines APPENDIX 4 History of Language Centres / Canolfannau Cymraeg APPENDIX 5 Questionnaire findings APPENDIX 6 Focus groups APPENDIX 7 Contents: Graphs and Tables 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank the following who have facilitated and helped with this research: The Directors of the 6 Welsh for Adults Centres for sending comments, liaising with tutors and classes, distributing the questionnaires and supporting the research; Everyone mentioned in the footnotes, and others, in the Mentrau Iaith, the Welsh Language Board and other institutions who have supplied information and background material; All the tutors throughout Wales for allowing us to use their scarce teaching time to ask their learners to complete the questionnaires or to be part of the focus groups. We hope that doing this has given rise to useful discussions regarding their use of Welsh outside the classroom! All the learners who have completed questionnaires and/or who took part in the focus groups. We hope that the outcome of this research will facilitate the progress of becoming fluent speakers of Welsh for both you and for the learners of the future. 4 III FOREWORD BY PROFESSOR COLIN WILLIAMS At the start of the eighties, I suggested that it would be a good thing if those who had attended Welsh Secondary Schools were to have the opportunity to speak their language informally once they had left school. The aelwydydd in the Urdd offered one kind of experience, but of course, young people there were very likely to have to mix with their ex-teachers (not always an unpleasant experience!) and not everybody wanted to prepare for the next eisteddfod or be forced into performing at a concert in some local chapel vestry. At the start of the nineties, it was amazing and inspiring to see the growth of the Mentrau Iaith. Their record in maintaining and spreading the Welsh language by creating new networks is very significant as regards the viability of the language. Nevertheless it was often heard that second language or even some of the keenest speakers didn’t think that the Mentrau planned specific events for them and as a result many felt that they weren’t likely to integrate with the community in the long term. I had an opportunity, between 2009 – 2011, to bring a number of similar ideas to those in this report to the attention of the Irish Government when I was part of the FIONTAR team commissioned to prepare Ireland’s language strategy for the next twenty years. It will come as no surprise, therefore, that I welcome this report. The authors’ thorough work convinces me that there is tremendous potential to develop the model of the Canolfan Gymraeg, especially as it links to some of the main success stories of other countries who are concerned about the best way to integrate ‘new speakers’ e.g. good practice in Catalonia with the Voluntaris per a la llengua. The recommendations are reasonable, timely and likely to succeed. To those who will argue that trying to set up centres in areas where there is no ‘natural’ community of Welsh speakers is futile, remember your history, remember the astonishing growth in Welsh medium education, especially the Welsh medium Schools of the south-east and north-east of our country. Indeed, a number of the families sampled in this study claim that one of the main factors which has motivated them to improve their command of Welsh and then to attempt to use it is because of the presence of Welsh in their homes, on the lips of young people who have attended Welsh medium Schools. What kind of community is under discussion? What is the relationship between a face to face community and a virtual community? Whose responsibility is it to lead in this field? Who should pay for the new Canolfannau Cymraeg? Are these only to be an extension of the Welsh for Adults Centres? What is their relationship to the community, to Local Government, the Assembly? Some of the obvious answers are already mentioned in this document and others will be offered after the discussion has started in earnest in the wake of publishing this report. But the same kinds of questions arise each time a timely idea comes to light, and sometimes the same kind of negative responses, which must be opposed. If we wish to see progression in the excellent work of the Welsh for Adults Centres, then of course we need to create stable, venturesome, worthwhile opportunities where aspiration and not duty is the greatest influence on our motives. Gaining confidence when using it is the old lesson when learning and mastering any language, but the additional advantage of many of the suggestions given here is that 5 they are proactive and allow many activities to take place in the same venue. Planning has a clear role to play in the process of ensuring finance, leaders, supporters, people to attend etc., but chance also plays a key role in our lives. If Canolfannau Cymraeg like those suggested here were to be set up, I am confident that the quality of life for many of us would improve as there would be obvious locations where Welsh would be the natural language of events and the environment – something rare outside the walls of school classes in our post-industrial, multicultural, neglectful communities. The Canolfannau Cymraeg offer extra hope, energy and commitment to the success of the Welsh language where the unexpected and the unfamiliar await us. Neither an extension of school nor the rigid, measurable structure of a plan or a project from the authorities but a fresh space to relax, to learn in many new ways and more than anything, to delight in considering that we are part of the creating, the buzz, the desire to be what we can be, which is normal speakers of a normal language in normal locations, i.e. enjoyment! Professor Colin Williams – Cardiff 6 IV An Executive Summary of the Report’s main findings and recommendations 1 The Remit of the Research I. To ascertain the opportunities that are available to maintain social networks in Welsh; II. To ascertain whether those opportunities are greater or equal if learners study in a Canolfan Gymraeg; III. To ascertain and to recommend strategies that could be implemented in order to extend and expand the Welsh medium social networks of these new Welsh speakers; IV. To ascertain whether patterns or strategies exist in other language communities that could be adapted to the efforts to integrate adults who have learnt Welsh. 2 The Main Findings Over half the sample were 61 years old or older; 54% of the sample’s families have some ability in Welsh (although 45% use the language with learners); The level of qualifications in Welsh varies widely: 17% of the sample had no qualifications and 31% had passed the Defnyddio’r Gymraeg: Canolradd (Intermediate Level) exam; 62% of the learners had started in a class held once a week and 73% had been learning for five years or more; 78% attend classes in community centres or colleges and 22% in Canolfannau Cymraeg; The main motivation is ‘Learning Welsh because I live in Wales’.