Save Our Children from Political Interference (socpie.uk)
Compulsory Welsh Medium Education
If implemented, a Plaid Cymru coalition agreement will create anew Bill which will mean that from 2025, children in Wales will not have the legal right to be educated through their native English Language. Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Language Society want all children in Wales to be educated through the medium of Welsh by 2050.
A school in Powys has postponed their compelling all children to learn Welsh to be educated through the medium of Welsh in their village school.
Mark Drakeford promised that children would never be compelled to learn through the medium of Welsh.
The Human Rights Act stipulates that all children in Wales have the legal right to have the opportunity to reach their full learning potential. Cognitive science illustrates that all children will always learn most effectively in their native language. They will learn faster because of working memory. Children in Need advises that children should be educated through their mother tongue.
Children acquire their native language from birth without effort. Children all essentially wake up with their basic oral language fluency around the age of five with around a 10,000-recognition word vocabulary, which they will have developed in the here and now in their everyday lives.
English-speaking children will learn their language naturally and they will be prepared to develop it further. They are not prepared to learn Welsh.
Children do not go to school to learn to walk and talk. Native English speakers' parents invest a vast amount of time in their children's future by developing their language skills.
There are no monolingual Welsh speakers in Wales. Welsh speakers are native Welsh and native English speakers. English is easy for them to learn and maintain because it is all around them.
The proposal would treat native English speakers in Wales as immigrants in their own country. They will be compelled to abandon their native language, English, the majority language in Wales, and learn another. Even in South Africa, children have been allowed to be educated through their native Africans Language since the 1960s.
There is an Oliver Twist attitude in Wales, where the Welsh Language Society is always demanding more. Parents have made informed decisions about wanting their children to be educated through the English Language medium and they have voted with the feet taking their children to school.
The children in Wales have a very uncertain future. No one knows what 2050 will be like. We do know that social media is having an impact on children's learning and mental health. We know that around 33% of the current type of employment opportunities for children will not exist. We know that there is social deprivation in Wales.
The evidence is that they want to impose their policy in an attempt to create the million Welsh speakers. Children's education is too important to directed in a spirit of hope, optimism and guesswork. Wales is more than a language. It is a people. Please speak out about this injustice.
Howard Gunn B.Ed.,M.Ed.
Save Our Children from Political Interference (socpie.uk)
What the Welsh Language Society does not want you to know.
1. The Welsh Language is the native language of Wales. It creates our national identity and its wonderful culture.
2. It takes around 10, 000 hours to learn a new language to native-like fluency from scratch and it is difficult to learn a language that is not all around them. (Professor Sarah Eaton)
3. Dr Margaret Newcombe, Cardiff School Welsh, refers to Welsh Language learners who reach A’Level Welsh standard who struggle to understand the turbo-speed Welsh of native speakers.
4. In a Welsh Institute of Affairs paper (2012), Colin Miles admits he succeeded in learning Welsh but claims it is impossible for an adult to learn proper Welsh. He could not speak it.
5. Languages are passed down from mother to child through the generations. Bilingual parents pass both their languages onto their children.
6. Older children and adults cannot learn a new language naturally and effortlessly from birth. Young children can learn a new language like ‘sponges’ The first eighteen months of life are critically important in their language development.
7. Gunn (2010) contended that when learners learn a language like Welsh, their capability will either improve or degrade when they stop learning it. It will not remain the same. The old adage that unless you use something, you lose it is cognitively sound.
8. The fact that someone learns a new language, including children attending Welsh medium schools, does not mean they will retain it for the rest of their lives.
9. Languages cannot be learnt from websites or formal lessons. Language must be lived through.
10. Bilinguals rarely have equal fluency in each of their languages. They apply each language to specific people and in specific contexts, such as home, shopping, school or work.
11. Bilinguals normally have a dominant language. The dominant language will reflect how much it is used and encountered. Grosjean, an authority on bilingualism, states his dominant language changed three times.
12. It is common knowledge that many children in Welsh medium schools speak English in the schoolyard and at home. English-speaking parents cannot use Welsh in their homes.
13. The Welsh Language Act stipulates that the Welsh Language has equal status to English, but this does not mean that English speakers must devote their lives to learning Welsh so they can become able to speak Welsh. It would be a breach of the Welsh Equality Act.
14. The notion that every product or service can be provided through the medium of Welsh is a disconnect from reality. It will not be possible.
15. The tipping point of language is 66% speakers. Language exists like viruses. They need to be shared between people to keep them fluent. Around 12% of Welsh speakers use Welsh every day. There are insufficient speakers in Wales to allow Welsh to easily learn and retained.
16. Hywel Jones Welsh speaking statistician, who was on the Welsh Language Board, states the million Welsh speakers cannot be created and it will be difficult to maintain the status quo. Most Children in Welsh medium schools speak English in the school yard at home.
Professor McChroist states that will always prefer using their mother tongue.
Howard Gunn B.Ed., M.Ed.
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