Welsh Journals

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Language Teaching in the Schools of Wales. By E. D. Rowlands. THE most vital question in connection with education in Wales to-day is that of language teaching. This is only natural, as the position of Wales is unique with regard to this matter. There are large areas in Wales-would it were all so-where Welsh is the vernacular and where the children are monoglot. Here, of course, English must be taught as a foreign language. At present there is a commendable effort throughout the land to keep the Welsh language alive, and we hope the use of Welsh as the vernacular will not diminish as time progresses, but that it will become more general. Hence there are, and necessarily will be, areas where English must be taught as a foreign language. This fact is either forgotten or ignored by those persons who complain that the attainments of Welsh children in the English language are not what they should be. We do not deny that there is much room for improvement, but to accomplish the necessary reform we must face our difficulties and find out the best way to over- come them. The fundamental principle underlying language training is that the child must first be taught his mother tongue, and that his native language must be the medium of instruction in the earliest stages of his education. This is testified to by common- sense, verified by experience, and endorsed by experts in language teaching. It is now, per- haps, established as a self-evident educational truth. In the earliest stages of a child's educa- tion we concentrate on mental development, and it would be absurd to expect to develop a young child's mind by using a foreign language. There is a growing demand in Wales that the Welsh language should be properly taught in the schools; the demand is just, and the teaching of the Welsh language is a truly necessary function of Welsh education. Some teachers protest that it is impossible to teach Welsh efficiently in districts where English is predominant; but it should not be more difficult than to teach English in monoglot Welsh areas. We would emphasise the point that the importance of teaching English efficiently should not cause this subject to encroach on the time given to the teaching of Welsh, nor deprive Welsh of its proper place in the curriculum. We cull the following from the Report on the Teaching of English in England We state what appears to us to be an incontrovertible primary fact, that for English children no form of knowledge can take pre- cedence of a knowledge of English, no form of literature can take precedence of English literature: and that the two are so inextric- ably connected as to form the only basis possible for a national education." Is not the above equally true of Welsh children and a knowledge of their language and literature? It is a complaint often heard that children from purely Welsh areas have not acquired the ability to express themselves in English as well as children from areas where English is pre- dominant, and that their inefficiency in this respect when they leave school is a serious defect in their education. Without committing ourselves as to the justi- fication for this complaint, there are some important questions that suggest themselves to the mind:- (a) What is the cause of the complaint? Is the bi-lingual problem at the root of it? (b) Can Welsh children be expected to acquire the same facility and ease of expression in English as children who use English as their ordinary speech? (c) Would English children similarly placed acquire more proficiency in a foreign language, say French, under similar circumstances ? With regard to the first question, it is almost certain that the bi-lingual difficulty is not suffi- ciently appreciated in estimating the Welsh child's mastery of English. Is it not a wonder that the child does so well in face of all the difficulties? His native speech is Welsh; his whole world and environment are Welsh,- there is a kind of Welsh atmosphere in his mind, and when we consider the part played by auditory impressions and motor activities in the acquisi- tion of language, we understand why the child insists on thinking in Welsh, when we try to train him to think in English. We have seen a child when reproducing a story read in English, come up to ask for the English equi- valent for a Welsh word. He must have formed a Welsh image in his mind as he was reading the story. This constant intrusion of the native speech-centre is what the child has to combat in his acquisition of English. We quote again from the Report on the Teaching of English English is not only the medium of our thought, it is the very stuff and process of it. It is itself the English mind, the element in which we live and work." So is Welsh to the Welsh child. And by teaching Welsh we make it more and more the very stuff and process of his thought. It seems then that the child cannot be expected to express himself as freely in English as the child who has not to contend with these difficulties, and who can concentrate on one language,-and whose one language becomes the very stuff and process of his thought."