Bilingual education as a starting point to preserve Welsh: a comparison with EU policy and other local situations

Introduction Reality provides many examples of countries in which languages are spoken in 
addition to the official one. This situation is due to historical facts, such as the 
annexation of a region into a state whose inhabitants speak another language, 
but also to the socio-political context of the country, if, for example, many 
immigrants decide to settle there bringing their own languages. Despite the 
different reasons that have led to bilingualism, a common feature is that 
minority languages, that is those languages other than the official one, which 
are spoken only by some groups within the country, are endangered by the 
predominance of that of the majority of the population. As a consequence, 
states have to adopt special measures to protect them, although in many cases 
the tendency is to let the official language prevail over the others because it is 
spoken by a larger number of people, it is more useful in business or, more 
simply, because it is a way to highlight the power of the dominant group over 
the minorities of the country. Since a language is not a mere tool of 
communication but it is also the expression of a culture, its valorisation implies 
supporting the cultural heritage behind it and, conversely, its devaluation entails 
belittling its speakers and their traditions. 
The whole issue of bilingualism is discussed here by making reference to Wales 
and Welsh/English bilingualism, since it is an example of how a language was 
eradicated from a people's public life after their land had been annexed by 
another state. Only after centuries of battles is Welsh now gaining increasing 
importance on the linguistic stage of Wales, giving hope that its future will not 
be as troubled as its past. However the whole of society may need to commit 
itself to taking action to protect Welsh, not expecting that the education sector 
alone can ensure the transmission and the spread of the language. The 
protection of Welsh has to be contextualised in a wider European policy 
supporting minority languages as expressions of European plurilingualism and 
multiculturalism, which has taken off in the last decades. In fact the EU has 
been co-financing many projects to monitor the conditions of minority languages 
all over the Union, as well as encouraging its use in all the situations that one 
can encounter in daily life. Wales is not the only example of a country where 
action took this direction, and instances of the same type can be found in Italy 
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as well: Valle d' Aosta and its policy supporting French is, from some points of 
view, similar to the Welsh situation, but they also present many differences, first 
of all as concerns the historical background that has led to the current situation. 
However it is interesting to see how two different contexts also had two different 
types of multilingualism as their outcomes and how the Welsh and the Aostans 
have dealt with them.
The first Chapter gives insights into what bilingualism is in linguistics and socio-
linguistics. At first the different definitions of bilingualism will be taken into 
account, pointing out how it is not possible to give just one because of the many 
criteria that can be used to define it; then the possible reasons leading to 
bilingualism will be analysed, ranging from migration, political factors, 
industrialisation and military colonisations. Secondly attention will focus on the 
policies that a state can adopt to protect or endanger a minority language: while 
the former are unfortunately not so frequent, the latter include not giving any 
help in the organisation of events in which the language will be used, importing 
majority language speakers in the area and forbidding children to use the 
minority one. After insights into the psychological relevance of languages as 
means of expression of a culture, the factors influencing the choice of one 
language rather than another will be considered, such as fluency, setting of the 
conversation and relationship with the interlocutor. The last part of the Chapter 
will deal with code-switching, explaining what it is, its different forms and its 
reputation in society, and with language shift or language maintenance as two 
possible outcomes of bilingualism.
Chapter 2 will introduce Wales and its situation by focussing on the historical 
background of the country and how the use of the language changed according 
to the different socio-political contexts. The outline will begin from the 
annexation of Wales to England, which caused Welsh to be forbidden in any 
situation of public life, and will then analyse more carefully what happened in 
the 20
th century. Particular attention will be paid to the most important laws that 
fostered the use of Welsh, such as the Welsh Language Acts and Iaith Pawb, 
and to the organisations that supported this cause, such as Plaid Cymru or the 
Welsh Language Society. The Chapter will then continue with information about 
the current number and distribution of Welsh speakers within the country and 
the factors that have led to this situation. Finally two cities will be taken into 
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consideration: one is Bangor, which is in the traditional Welsh-speaking 
heartland, and the other is Cardiff, a city of the Anglicised South that 
experienced a significant revival of the language after it was chosen to be the 
capital of Wales.
Chapter 3 will go deeper into the Welsh situation by concentrating on the field of 
education. The Chapter will start with the history of Welsh in schools over the 
last two centuries, showing how its relevance increased from an initial complete 
neglect by authorities, who even considered it as a drawback making the 
learning process of pupils harder. Attention will then shift to the current situation 
of Welsh, pointing out the action taken to support it at every stage of education, 
that is early years, primary and secondary school and higher or adult education. 
The second part of the Chapter will be about Aberystwyth University and its 
language protection policy supporting bilingualism not only as concerns lessons 
and modules, but also any type of contact between the University and its 
students. Since I spent a semester there as an Erasmus exchange student in 
2010 and had the chance to live in Pantycelyn, the Welsh-speaking residence, 
attention will focus on how a hall of residence of this type is different from the 
others, on the ways it is committed to the language valorisation and how its 
residents feel that such an approach to Welsh has changed their own attitude 
towards it. This task will be carried out through the analysis of a questionnaire 
given to 25 students of the University, 9 of which are currently living in 
Pantycelyn and demonstrate a greater involvement in language issues.
Chapter 4 will deal with minority languages at a European level and the 
measures the EU has taken over the decades to protect them. The various 
recommendations adopted will be considered, pointing out how the concept of 
minority language valorisation changed from an initial mere protection against 
extinction to the current and actual support through a series of initiatives and 
projects. The Chapter will end with a comparison between Wales and another 
case of bilingualism, that is Valle d' Aosta. The different attitudes of people 
towards the minority language will show the importance of this element in 
language preservation policies, as well as the way institutions deal with the 
issue. 
The main concept of this thesis is that bilingualism is a complicated topic and 
addressing it implies the analysis of a number of variables whose nature ranges 
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from psychology and socio-linguistics to history and politics. The only way 
society can deal with it effectively is by adopting a holistic approach that 
requires cooperation with all of its components; this means that an adequate 
bilingual policy involves not only sectors such as education, which are directly 
committed to language transmission, but also every other context of public life, 
because it is fundamental that people have the chance to use the language 
regularly once they finish their studies. If this does not happen, the minority 
language in question is bound to risk disappearing.
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1. Bilingualism: features from a linguistic and sociolinguistic point 
of    view The issue of bilingualism is much more complex than is commonly believed 
since it is not a person's mere ability to speak two languages, but it also 
involves the relationship with the two cultures expressed by the languages and 
the socio-political and economic context in which the bilingual person lives. 
Since the issue is so multifaceted, it is difficult to give a unique definition of what 
it is: in this chapter an overview of the different definitions will be given, as well 
as insights of the factors leading to bilingualism, the situation in bilingual 
countries and the attitudes towards minority languages. As far as 
sociolinguistics is concerned, the relationship of bilingualism with the cultural 
dimension, the principles guiding the choice between the two languages and 
the phenomenon of code switching will be taken into consideration.
1.1  Bilingualism: one word, more definitions Hoffmann explains why there is no unique definition of bilingualism : as it is a 
phenomenon involving language, and as language and its use is part of human 
behaviour, bilingualism is difficult to investigate because it involves a wide 
range of disciplines (such as sociology, anthropology, linguistics and others) 
and each has its own methods of investigation and points of view (Hoffmann, 
1991: 17). Therefore there will be a definition of bilingualism from a linguistic or 
psychological point of view, rather than just one summing up all the different 
aspects. In addition to this, the variability of the factors relating to the human 
nature must be taken into account, so it is not possible to provide just one 
definition because there are as many types of bilingualism as the number of 
bilinguals and each one will be characterised and determined by the particular 
socio-cultural conditions experienced by the single person.
To prove this, Hoffmann also mentions the definitions of bilingualism given by 
some linguists, such as Weinreich, Bloomfield and Mackey, showing their 
vagueness: bilingualism is simply described as “the practice of alternately using 
two languages” (Hoffmann, 1991: 15), or the attention focuses on the absence 
of difference in the proficiency of a native speaker and a bilingual (Hoffmann, 
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1991: 15). In any case, none of these definitions says if the knowledge of the 
languages must be the same in every skill (such as listening and speaking) or if 
they must be used in the same type of situations (Hoffmann, 1991: 16). 
In order to have a more precise and detailed definition of the type of 
bilingualism we are referring to, Grosjean points out that modifiers are used 
together with the term (Grosjean, 1982: 2);  Hoffmann gives some examples of 
these “descriptive labels...(providing) a frame of reference” (Hoffmann, 1991: 
18): according to the age of the bilingual at the moment of the acquisition of the 
languages, there will be child or adult bilingualism ; if the languages have been 
acquired from the speakers around them, they will be a natural bilingual, 
whereas if the languages have been learnt at school or with a training, there will 
be school and secondary bilingualism (Hoffmann, 1991: 18-19). As far as 
competence is concerned, bilingualism can be perfect if the person knows the 
two languages perfectly, without any interference between them; obviously 
these cases are quite rare. Equilingualism represents a more balanced, 
although unusual, case, since the bilingual speaker has almost the same 
competence in both languages, but this competence is not necessarily equal to 
a monolingual's. Indeed it is necessary to use different standards in measuring 
bilinguals' competence, since some of their abilities, like code switching or using 
the expressions and lexical structures of a language into the other, are specific 
and not shared with monolinguals (Hoffmann, 1991: 21-23). Another distinction 
concerns whether one of the two languages is just understood and read, but not 
spoken or written ( receptive bilingualism ), or if it is also written and spoken 
(productive bilingualism ) (Hoffmann, 1991: 24-25).
The following figure shows some of the criteria used to define bilingualism 1
:
1 The figure is taken and adapted from Hoffmann, 1991, p.27
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Criterion Speakers are bilinguals when...
Origin They have learnt two languages in the family from 
native speakers from the beginning, or if they 
have used two languages in parallel as means of 
communication.
Level of proficency They have complete, equal mastery and native-
like control of two languages.
Use They use (or can use) two languages in most 
situations in accordance with their own wishes 
and the demands of the community.
Identity and identification They identify themselves, or are identified by the 
others, as having two languages and two cultures.
Figure 1: different criteria in the definition of bilingualism 1.2  Origins of bilingualism The presence of bilingualism implies the contact of two groups speaking two 
different languages. If the two groups live in the same place, it is necessary to 
find a way for them to communicate and this way is that one group (or both) 
learns the language of the other. Another possibility is to use a lingua franca 
that does not belong to any of the groups, but still enables them to 
communicate. In any case, the result is that people will become bilingual.
Grosjean analyses some situations have resulted in bilingualism over the 
centuries (Grosjean, 1982: 30-36). The first one is military colonisation: history 
gives many examples of how the conquest of a territory has led to the 
acquisition of the conquerors language by the native people, as happened with 
Latin in Great Britain at the time of the Roman Empire, or, in more recent times, 
with the colonisation of Africa by France and Great Britain in the 19th century. 
However it is necessary that some conditions are present to reach this stage: a 
period of stability must follow the conquest, so that there is enough time for the 
language of the settlers to permanently penetrate the socio-political life of the 
subdued people; the territory should be multilingual, so that the invaders' 
language could be used as a lingua franca; speaking the new language should 
result in more prestige and lead to more oppurtunities in the educational, social 
and economic fields.
People may decide to move to another country to look for better living 
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conditions. Migrations on these bases are the movements of people that lead to 
bilingualism in the quickest way, since the migrants will keep using their native 
language at home and the new one at work and when interacting with the 
monolingual society they are now living in. Migrations can also be for political or 
religious reasons, but in all cases they also lead to intermarriage, which is 
another condition enhancing bilingualism.
Political factors also come into play when talking about bilingualism. From the 
19th century onwards, linguistic and national identity have merged, so that the 
spread of languages also acquired a nationalistic meaning, with national 
languages imposed over the regional in order to reassert the power of the 
dominating group. In such a context, the attitude of the government is 
fundamental to determine whether bilingualism or monolingualism will take 
over: if it forbids regional languages in public life, people will soon become 
monolingual in the national language, while if it is not so strict, people will be 
more likely to become bilingual (Hoffmann, 1991: 189).
Education plays an important role in the spread of bilingualism: over the 
centuries there has always been a culture dominating the fields of arts and 
literature, or technology and science. Many cultured people have therefore 
acquired a high degree of competence in the language associated with that 
culture in order to obtain a better education. In the past French and Italian have 
played this role, while today English is the most widely used language in the 
educational field. Moreover, Hoffmann points out that, in the places where two 
languages are spoken, schools and their attitude towards the minority language 
determine its destiny: in the case they offer the students the chance of learning 
their ancestors' language, the language may survive, otherwise the dominant 
one will take over (Hoffmann, 1991: 191). An example of such situation will be 
provided in Chapter 3, when talking about the role of education in the survival of 
Welsh.
Other conditions fostering bilingualism are industrialisation and living close to 
the border with another country. In the first case, the industrialisation process is 
linked with urbanisation, since many workers coming from the countryside will 
move to the city to work in the factories. These workers often talk different 
languages, as happened in the Soviet Union in the past decades, so it is 
necessary that they become bilingual by learning a lingua franca that permits 
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communication between them. Bilinguals play a fundamental role in the second 
case, that is when two groups speaking two different languages are living close 
to the border of their countries. Indeed, if these groups are monolingual, 
bilingual speakers are those who make communication and trade possible 
between them.
1.3 Bilingual nations: not as rare as thought The boundaries of a country do not necessarily coincide with a territory in which 
just one language is used. Indeed there are many countries, especially former 
European colonies in Africa and Asia, where the choice of the official language 
is a very important issue, since their inhabitants speak different languages 
(Grosjean, 1982: 7). Grosjean (1982: 7-8) explains that this choice was also 
difficult because of its political implications: the language chosen was not to 
favour one group over the others in order to avoid tensions within the new 
country, and because it would become a symbol of nationhood inside and 
outside the country. Moreover, the vocabulary of the official language had to be 
wide enough to enable communication at all levels in public life and the 
language had to have a written form. The solutions chosen by the governments 
were of two different types: endoglossic states have chosen as official language 
one which was already spoken in the country , while the exoglossic nations took 
a foreign one, in many cases the language of the European settlers that had 
colonised the country. So the inhabitants use the official language in 
administration and other aspects of public life, but in their homes they keep 
speaking the local languages, leading to a situation of bilingualism, even though 
the state is officially monolingual.
There are other cases, like Belgium, where the state is officially bilingual, that 
is, the two languages are fully equal and both are used by the government and 
in administration (Grosjean, 1982: 11). Two principles guide the choice of an 
official bilingual policy: a personality principle and a territorial one. With the 
former, a person can decide to use one language or the other in all situations of 
public life, from education to administration; with the latter the country is rather 
divided into areas in which just one of the languages is official, so that each 
group can protect its own language and the culture it expresses. An example of 
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the first type of country is South Africa, where people can decide whether they 
want to use English or Afrikaans, whereas Switzerland is an example of how a 
state can be divided into several monolingual areas (Grosjean, 1982: 12-13). 
However there is a wide range of attitudes that governments can adopt towards 
the languages spoken in its territory and in the following sections I will analyse 
them.
1.3.1 Language policies supporting linguistic minorities When a state officially recognises a linguistic minority on its territory, it also 
supports it in different ways: by giving the language official status in the areas 
where it is spoken, by allowing it to be used in education or by promoting the 
culture related to it (Grosjean, 1982: 25). Another way of helping it concerns its 
linguistic structure: in some cases, minority languages are widely spoken, but 
they do not have a clear grammatical and lexical structure, or their vocabulary is 
not wide enough to include all the words a person needs to use the language in 
every context. Depending on the importance and the status of the language in 
question, the available resources and the political consequences of such 
support, the government may decide to standardise the language, give a 
rational organisation to its grammar and widen its vocabulary through 
borrowings and neologisms (Grosjean, 1982: 25). Despite the positive effect of 
this policy on minorities, sometimes its true aim is their assimilation by the 
dominant group, who uses the minority's language to impose its own politics 
and ideals (Grosjean, 1982: 25)
1.3.2 Language policies neglecting linguistic minorities As already mentioned, a language is a means of expression of a culture and its 
values; it is therefore easy to understand why the defense of a language is also 
a nationalistic issue. As far as linguistic minorities are concerned, this is often a 
cause of contrast with the dominant group, since the latter fears that its 
authority, of which monolingualism is considered a symbol, is endangered. The 
outcome is a series of policies neglecting and repressing linguistic minorities, 
who are considered to be more loyal to their own culture than to the nation, and 
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therefore more likely to ask (or even fight) for independence (Grosjean, 1982: 
26). Unfortunately for bilingualism, these policies are more frequent than those 
preserving minority languages and, therefore, supporting bilingualism.
One way to hamper minorities is by not giving any help for the activities they 
intend to do to preserve their language and culture. The minority language has 
not official status, which means it is not spoken or taught  in schools and it is 
not used in any transaction, but the state does not forbid people to organise 
events and activities promoting it: the only condition is that no help will be given 
by the government (Grosjean, 1982: 27). In addition to this, people are also 
persuaded not to talk the minority language, especially in schools. As Grosjean 
points out (1982: 29), children are actually "the focus of replacement": by 
teaching them in the dominant language and admonishing them when they 
speak the minority one, the government makes sure that the minority language 
will not spread in the future and that it will die together with the older 
generations. This subject will be analysed more carefully in Chapter 3, when 
talking about the education system in Wales.
Other policies of this kind include importing many majority language speakers 
into the areas where the linguistic minority lives, so that the former outnumber 
the latter, as happened with the Italianisation of the Austrian Tyrol after World 
War I (Grosjean, 1982: 29). Minority languages are also belittled by convincing 
people that these are a dialect of the dominant language; this is possible when 
the two languages are similar, so many borrowings from the dominant language 
are brought into the minority one, as well as changes in grammar and 
pronunciation. If the two languages are too different to follow such pattern, the 
dominant group will directly try to replace the minority language, starting, as 
already mentioned above, from the education sector.
1.4 Bilingualism: psychological and sociolinguistic aspects The relationship between languages and nationalism, culture and political life 
mentioned in the previous sections shows how a language is much more than a 
mere tool in communication: it is the link between the single and the group and 
it conveys a series of pieces of information about the identity, the common 
values and the world view shared by a community. Language is shaped by 
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culture, and speaking  the language of a group means being one of its 
members also at a cultural level (Abdelilah Bauer, 2008: 32-33). The 
implications of this when talking about bilingualism are clear: a bilingual is 
potentially bicultural as well, even though the degree of biculturalism depends 
on the way a person has learnt the two languages and on the exposure to the 
two cultures experienced in the environment they live in (Hoffmann, 1991: 29). 
Therefore a bilingual has a kind of “double identity” and the decision as to which 
one they want to show in public depends on the opinion that the community has 
about the culture expressed by each of the two languages: to cite Grosjean, 
“language is accompanied by attitudes and values (…). Attitudes toward a 
language -whether it is beautiful , efficient, rich and so on- are often confounded 
with attitudes towards the users of that language” (1982: 117).
1.4.1 Attitudes towards languages and their speakers When two languages are spoken in the same country, one is considered the 
dominant one, since it is spoken by the most powerful group in economics, 
politics and culture, while the minority language is spoken by the group having 
less power and prestige (Grosjean, 1982: 120). The attitude towards the 
dominant one is positive, as it is considered beautiful and suitable to express 
complex concepts, while the minority one is perceived as not fully developped 
and rough. As a consequence, a bilingual person will be encouraged to speak 
the dominant language by the series of policies explained in 1.3.2 and the 
speakers of the minority language will end up thinking themselves that they are 
speaking a less important and worthy language: it will be considered the 
language of the past, it will not be taught either in schools or in families, its 
speakers will refuse to speak it in public and even feel unsure about their 
knowledge of it. However, the stigmatisation of the minority languages may also 
lead to a strengthening of the bounds within the group of its speakers, who may 
feel the need to do something in order to protect their endangered cultural and 
linguistic identity. 
There are other cases in which both languages are considered  positively since 
they both have international prestige or an important tradition and others in 
which the negative attitude towards a minority language turns positive after it 
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has been officially recognised by the government or after the region where it is 
spoken has gained independence or more autonomy (Grosjean, 1982: 120-
127). In Chapter 2 an analysis of the political context in Wales in the last 
decades will show how the acquisition of a wider autonomy from the central 
government was followed by action aimed at the revival of the Welsh language, 
which had been stigmatised and hampered for centuries.
1.5 Factors influencing language choice In a bilingual environment the choice of which language to speak is influenced 
by a series of elements. This obviously applies only to two bilinguals 
communicating to each other and deciding which language they should use, 
because if the second person is monolingual, the bilingual will choose their 
interlocutor's language. Before analysing the principles guiding this choice, it is 
important to say that it is based on the concept of diglossia, that is a situation 
where “all speakers need to know at least two varieties because each language 
form is associated with a specific set of social functions” (Hoffmann, 1991: 166). 
In the definition given by Hoffmann, diglossia concerns two varieties of the 
same language, but a broader interpretation may include different languages as 
well, as Grosjean explains (Grosjean, 1982: 132). In any case, in a diglossic 
society people know very well which language they should use in every 
situation (Hoffmann, 1991: 167) and they choose it according to four main 
groups of factors that Grosjean carefully analyses (Grosjean, 1982: 128-145): 
the setting of the situation, its participants and the topic and the function of the 
interaction. 
As far as the interlocutors are concerned, their degree of fluency and 
competence in the languages in question must be taken into account, so that 
the communication can be straightforward. However, there are cases in which 
two people have always been speaking to each other in a certain language and 
will keep using it although they may have become more fluent in the other 
language, since it is a kind of tacit agreement between them. Then there may 
be   a change in the language used according to the age of the speaker: old 
people usually speak the local language, which is linked to the past and its 
traditions, while the young will speak the language they have learnt in school, 
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