The Welsh Government's Welsh language strategy, Cymraeg: A million Welsh speakers [Welsh Government. 2017a. "Cymraeg 2050: A Million Welsh Speakers." Cardiff: Welsh Government], aims to increase the numbers of Welsh speakers to one million by 2050. The creation of new Welsh speakers and immersion education form an integral part of the…

Increasingly, it is recognised that the opportunity to engage with one's own culture and language is beneficial for an individual's well-being. Research among indigenous communities in North America, Australia, Scandinavia, and New Zealand, have illustrated the importance of culturo-linguistic congruity. In Wales, the Well-being of Future…

The term translanguaging goes back more than a quarter-century, originating in the domain of the teaching of Welsh, but it has over the years developed a wide variety of usages. While translanguaging is claimed to have advantages over other language education models, many of its new interpretations, which take it some distance from its original…

This article compares the immersion-education systems in Brittany and Wales. The number of Welsh speakers is growing thanks to its well-developed immersion-education system. Brittany has a much less well-developed system and the number of Breton speakers is falling dramatically. Urgent action is needed if Breton is to survive. Using an approach…

Attempts at the definition of multilingualism range from the structuralist interpretation as the coexistence of multiple codes to the critical sociolinguistic efforts to go beyond the idea of languages as fixed entities. The author's purpose is to explore the suitability of Pierre Bourdieu's model of linguistic production and circulation to…

This article reports on an ethnographic study carried out in three interrelated sites: two contrasting secondary schools and a Youth-Club (the principal focus of this article), in an area of southwest Wales. This article highlights the incongruence between the language at home and the language of the school and posits that the relationship between…

The emergence of new domains, such as the Internet, can prove challenging for minority languages. Welsh is a minority, regional language and is considered "vulnerable" by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Welsh-speaking community appears to have responded positively to the Internet and the…

The Welsh language, which is indigenous to Wales, is one of six Celtic languages. It is spoken by 562,000 speakers, 19% of the population of Wales, according to the 2011 U.K. Census, and it is estimated that it is spoken by a further 200,000 residents elsewhere in the United Kingdom. No exact figures exist for the undoubted thousands of other…

Children's exposure to a minority language is often limited to the education domain. Consequently, educational establishments have an important role to play in maintaining and enhancing the linguistic achievements of minority first language (L1) speakers whilst at the same time developing the competence of those learning it as a second language…

This paper provides a review of the statistical evidence base pertaining to the future demographic prospects for the Welsh language. Census statistics show some encouraging features from the point of view of those concerned with reversing language shift but these are not entirely supported by statistics from other sources, education statistics in…

Describes the use of a small set of linguistic variables in different types of radio programs from Radio Cymru (the Welsh language radio network), to see whether variation does correlate with style as it does in the community. Results show that broadcasters followed community norms for these variables. (SED)

Census data from 1901-1971 on the status of Welsh in Wales are used to illustrate the problems of making language planning recommendations on the basis of limited and scale-specific analyses. Using maps and charts, the data are analysed at national, regional, local, and individual levels. Different patterns of language maintenance and usage emerge…

This paper describes the impact of the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in the United Kingdom, examining the history and current demographic and social position of the various languages to which the Charter applies. The first section, "Linguistic Minorities in the United Kingdom: Historical Development…

Examines the effect in the primary and secondary school levels of teaching through the medium of Welsh and the response of the University of Wales. The media and the educational system are two formal social organizations which help the threatened Welsh language to survive. Another would be the establishment of a Welsh-medium university. (SED)

The consequences of economic integration for Europe's lesser-used languages are examined. Applying theoretical predictions to a set of 12 minority languages, this paper shows that 5 will likely be in a more favorable position, 4 may lose as a result of economic integration, and no clear effect can be predicted for the remaining 3. (18 references)…