The Welsh Language in Contemporary Wales
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The Welsh Language in Contemporary Wales Language in Contemporary Welsh The The Welsh Language in Contemporary Wales 1 2 The Welsh Language in Contemporary Wales Language in Contemporary Welsh The 3 1 - Introduction 2 - Teacher’s Notes 4 3 - PowerPoint Slides 4 - Worksheets 5 - Further Activities 5 6 - Additional Resources 7 - Glossary 6 7 - Key Skills - Note - Aim/Aims - Time - Resources - Directions The Welsh Language in Contemporary Wales 1 Introduction Overview Learning objectives The aim of this section is to examine the changes in • Examine changes in Welsh language use over time, 2 Welsh language use throughout the twentieth century and the reasons for these changes; and at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The • Consider future challenges for the Welsh language. prepared lesson provides an overview of these changes, and examines the reasons for them. The Content 3 lesson concludes with a consideration of the challenges • Lesson (50 minutes): ‘The Welsh Language in facing the Welsh language in the future. Contemporary Wales’ - Teacher’s notes The examples utilised in the lesson are drawn mainly - PowerPoint slides 4 from the counties of Ceredigion and Powys, but these - Worksheet (teacher’s copy) can be adapted to make the lesson more relevant to - Worksheet (student’s copy) students. There is guidance on where to find relevant data • Further Activities in the Teacher’s Notes and on the Additional Resources • Additional Resources sheet. A worksheet is also provided to complement the • Glossary 5 lesson; this includes activities designed to develop student understanding of changing patterns of Welsh language use over time. The Further Activities sheet suggests additional activities aimed at developing student engagement with 6 the themes discussed during the lesson. Key Skills 1. Communication • All activities provide an opportunity to develop this skill; the method 7 of communication can be adapted as required (e.g. group/individual research and/or oral presentation. 2. Application of number • Students are asked to interpret data on the number of people able to speak Welsh (through an examination of census figures, the analysis of graphs and by calculating the percentage of Welsh speakers in different counties in Wales). 3. Information technology • The additional activities require students to obtain information on the number of Welsh speakers, and present this information in the form of tables and graphs. • There is also an opportunity to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on changes in Welsh language use over time. 4. Problem solving • Most of the activities can either be completed individually or in groups. 5. Working with others • Students are asked to assess the challenges facing the Welsh language in the future, and consider possible ways of overcoming these. 6. Improving own learning • Students are encouraged to develop their own views on the role and and performance status of the Welsh language in contemporary Wales. • Some activities require students to formulate a research strategy in order to collect information on different aspects of the topic. The Welsh Language in Contemporary Wales 1 Teacher’s Notes Directions: Below you will find comprehensive A brief history of the Welsh language notes for a 50 minute lesson. These should be used Slide 3 2 in conjunction with the PowerPoint slides. During the Welsh is a Celtic language, and is one of the oldest lesson, various activities are suggested for students; languages in the United Kingdom. It’s interesting to these are included in a Worksheet to be distributed in note the similarities between words that derive from class. Alternatively, students can be asked to complete the Brythonic and Gaelic languages. For example, the 3 these activities independently before the lesson, as latter has harsher sounding consonants, e.g. crann = a preparatory exercise. The Further Activities sheet pren (wood) and capall = ebol (foal). suggests additional activities that enable the themes introduced in the lesson to be explored further. The Slide 4 4 focus is on encouraging students to undertake further Welsh was spoken between 500-800AD in the ‘Old research into aspects of the role and status of the North’, an area known today as northern England and Welsh language in contemporary Wales. southern Scotland. The Lesson The works of Aneirin and Taliesin, both bards serving 5 the royal courts in the Old North, chronicle the battles Introduction in this Brythonic kingdom. In Taliesin’s work, there Slide 2 is even a reference to a character found in English literature - Old King Cole - in the sentence “a chenau 6 coel byddai gymwyawg” (which, when translated into Note: In order to introduce the lesson’s English, means “and the descendant of Cole would a subject matter, you could start by asking students a frightened soldier be”). simple question such as “How many of you speak Welsh?”. The response can be compared to the Slide 5 7 figures provided later in the lesson on the number of During the reign of the Tudors, the Acts of Union Welsh speakers in Wales at different points in time. incorporated Wales into the political and legal systems of England. With the Act of Union passed in 1536, The lesson aims to do the following: Henry VIII’s intention was to create a uniform England • Introduce the history of the Welsh language; and Wales by eliminating any customs unique to the • Examine the changes in the number of people able latter. to speak Welsh throughout the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first century; In spite of this, the Welsh language remained strong. • Explore the factors that have contributed to these changes; Slide 6 • Consider the challenges facing the Welsh language For example, Welsh continued to be a language of in the future. poetry during the 14-16th centuries. A good example of this was the poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym, who was born near Penrhyn-coch, Aberystwyth. His work was recognised across Europe. The Welsh Language in Contemporary Wales 1 Teacher’s Notes However, the event that had the most impact on the Slide 8 Welsh language during this period was the translation In 1891, the position of the Welsh language was 2 of the Bible into Welsh. As a result of the Protestant relatively healthy: of the 1,776,405 people living in Reformation, Welsh was losing its status and existed the country, 508,000 spoke only Welsh. In other words, predominantly in the form of local dialects. In her 55% of people living in Wales were able to speak the efforts to create a uniform England and Wales and language. Welsh was thus the language of the majority. 3 to ensure that the Welsh people would not return to Catholicism, Elizabeth I passed an act in 1563 As regards the geographical distribution of Welsh stating that each parish in Wales should have a Welsh speakers across Wales, Welsh was weakest in south translation of the Bible. William Morgan undertook Wales. During the Industrial Revolution, people were 4 to produce such a translation (specifically of the Old attracted to the valleys in search of work, not only Testament, as the New Testament had already been from other parts of Wales but also from across the translated by William Salesbury in 1567). The first United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. English Welsh Bible was published in 1588. This meant that thus became the dominant language in these areas. the people of Wales could read the Bible in their The one exception to this was Merthyr Tydfil, where 5 mother tongue relatively soon after the Bible had Welsh was spoken by a majority of people. been translated from Latin to English. It also, however, facilitated the unification of the northern and southern English was also prevalent in Pembrokeshire, an area halves of Wales by creating one standard language still known today as “Little England beyond Wales.” The 6 across the country. Welsh language had long lost its prominence in this area. Historically, the Vikings had often landed here, leaving Scandinavian placenames, such as Skokholm The Welsh language: The 1891 Census Island. There is also evidence in ‘The Chronicles of the Slide 7 Princes’ (Brut y Tywysogion) – a chronicle of the history 7 A CENSUS is a count of all the people and households of Wales up to the 13th century - and in reports by in the country. The first census was held in 1801. From Gerald of Wales, that Flemings had lived in the area 1841 onwards, a census was held every ten years to the west of Narberth since Norman times. (apart from 1941, due to the Second World War). The 1841 census was the first to gather personal details Even though the position of the Welsh language was from respondents, such as name and age. relatively strong in Wales in 1891, many householders who took part in the census were nevertheless keen The 1891 census was the first to ask about the to boost the number of Welsh speakers. They did this language spoken in each household. As this question by identifying not only themselves as speaking Welsh, has been asked in every census since then, it is possible but also their small children, who were only a few to examine the numbers of Welsh speakers in Wales months, and even a few days, old! from one decade to the next. The next census will be held in 2011. Note: At this point, you can ask students to complete Activity 1 on the Worksheet. The Welsh Language in Contemporary Wales 1 Teacher’s Notes Slide 9 Slide 10 One reason for the relative strength of the Welsh In contrast to the prominence of the Welsh language 2 language at the end of the nineteenth century in the chapels, Welsh was not considered suitable as was the boom in religion.