The Official Launch of a Toolkit for Promoting the Welsh Language in the Community

On Thursday, the 10th of August at 10 o’clock on Bangor University’s Stand in the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, Bodedern; A Toolkit for Promoting the Welsh Language in the Community was launched in the company of Alun Davies, Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language. The toolkit was created by Dr Rhian Hodges and Dr Cynog Prys, School of Social Sciences, in co-operation with Mentrau Iaith Cymru. The toolkit includes practical examples of ways in which to promote the Welsh Language in the community. These examples were collected across 8 communities in Wales as part of a research project funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.

This project is based on a research study commissioned by Welsh Government in 2015, Welsh Language Use in the Community. As part of the research study, data was collected from 6 communities; Cardigan, Aberystwyth, Bangor, Llanrwst, Porthmadog and Ammanford as part of an evaluation of the Welsh Government’s Welsh Language Strategy, A living language: a language for living Welsh Language Strategy 2012-2017. Two communities were added to the current project, Caerphilly and Wrexham, in order to include communities from East Wales.

The toolkit includes quotations from individuals and institutions that are active in the communities included in the research and provide a wide variety of activities. The cases provided include examples for groups that support parents and young children, exciting activities for young people and a variety of leisure activities for people of all ages. The toolkit will be uploaded to the Mentrau Iaith Cymru website and will be available for the public to download for free.

According to Dr Rhian Hodges: “Thanks to funding from the ESRC, we had an invaluable opportunity to revisit the communities involved in the original research and feedback key results to members of the public and practitioners alike. This was an important opportunity to discuss with individuals from the communities studied about best practice and possible solutions relating to the promotion of the Welsh language in their communities.”

Dr Cynog Prys noted: “The aim of the toolkit was to bring together interesting examples of best practice when using the Welsh language in a community context. We hope other communities will use these examples as an inspiration whilst thinking of innovative ways to increase the use of the Welsh language within their own communities.”  

Publication date: 2 August 2017