Exploring bilinguals’ social use of language inside and out of the minority language classroom

Abstract

This paper examines bilingual children's use of language inside and out of the minority language classroom. A total of 145 children between 8 and 11 years of age, attending 16 bilingual Welsh-English primary schools in North Wales, responded to questionnaires (supplemented by classroom observations) requesting information about their language backgrounds, their use of language at school (inside and out of the classroom) and in the wider community, their self-ratings about their linguistic competence in Welsh and in English and their attitudes towards Welsh and English and towards bilingualism per se. Whilst the results, in general, demonstrated a positive attitude towards bilingualism, there was a clear trend towards favouring the use of English outside the classroom. This pattern was mediated by language experiences and perceived language abilities within the individual. The implications of the findings for language policy and planning in education and in minority situations are discussed.

Keywords:

• minority language
• minority language education
• bilingual education
• Welsh
• language use
• language planning

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the schools and children who participated in the study, and colleagues for useful comments on earlier versions of the paper. This work was commissioned by Hunaniaith and funded through the Welsh Language Board.

Notes

1. Seventy percent was used in line with the Welsh Assembly Government's target in Iaith Pawb: A National Action Plan for a Bilingual Wales (2003).

2. Figures were based on Estyn reports (an independent inspection service for education teaching and training in Wales) for each individual school.

3. Data were based on the 2001 Census figures.