Over the last quarter century, housing has become increasingly unaffordable for thevast majority of people. This article seeks to address what has caused this situation, and what its effects are on the individual and on the community. It will also consider how unaffordable housing and the lack of housing opportunities for local people affects the Welsh language. The article will then consider the mechanisms that have been adopted both by the National Assembly for Wales and by the Whitehall Government to resolve the inter-related problems of unaffordable housing and local people being unable to afford to buy houses in their local area, and the extent to which these solutions provide answers to this dilemma that are sustainable in the long term. To conclude, suggestions of how to improve the existing frameworks will be proposed, along with more radical approaches to ensure that housing does not become a luxury commodity.
Speaking the language of the home when the home is unaffordable
The Welsh language as a model for breaking the lack of use cycle in the context of minority languages
Using the contemporary status of the Welsh language in post-16 education and the administration of justice as models, the aim of this article is to identify a paradigm of minority language non-use that arises despite the formal provision of bilingual services and resources. Thereafter, weaknesses in this paradigm will be explored in order to evaluate how existing legislation and policies may be employed in a manner that facilitates a change in linguistic behaviour from that which normalises minority language non-use to one that maximises the opportunities for meaningful linguistic choices.
Cau canghennau banc yng Nghymru – Tueddiadau a chymariaethau
Gwaith ymchwil gan Dr Edward Jones o Ysgol Busnes Bangor sy'n dangos nad oes gwahaniaeth arwyddocaol rhwng y gyfran o gau canghennau banc yng Nghymru a Lloegr ar gyfartaledd. Cyllidwyd yr ymchwil drwy Gronfa Grantiau Bach y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlethol. Crëwyd set ddata unigryw ar gyfer y prosiect sydd yn cynnwys lleoliad canghennau pob un o'r pedwar banc mwyaf ym Mhrydain yn 1999 a 2016. Mae'r wybodaeth yn caniatáu i'r prosiect wneud cymariaethau rhwng niferoedd y canghennau banc a gaewyd yng Nghymru â gweddill y DU, rhwng ardaloedd gwledig a threfol, a rhwng ardaloedd cyfoethog a thlawd. Mae'r canlyniadau'n cefnogi'r farn fod cau canghennau wedi digwydd yn bennaf mewn ardaloedd trefol llai cefnog. Mae lleoliadau gwledig mwy cyfoethog ar y cyfan wedi profi cyfraddau cau is na'r cyfartaledd.
Worm Research Project
Nod y prosiect hwn oedd deall gwasgariad y parasit llyngyr y rwmen yng Nghymru. Gweithiodd gwyddonwyr o IBERS, Prifysgol Aberystwyth, gydag aelodau CFfI ar draws Cymru i ddarganfod ym mha ffermydd yr oedd llyngyr y rwmen yn bresennol.
Cefnogi Pob Plentyn (gol. Nanna Ryder)
Nod y gyfrol hon yw cyflwyno rhai pynciau perthnasol mewn cyd-destun Cymraeg a Chymreig i fyfyrwyr sydd yn astudio Graddau Sylfaen yn y maes addysg a gofal. Nid canllaw arfer dda a geir yma ond yn hytrach fraslun o bolisïau, athroniaeth ac ymarfer cyfredol. Caiff pynciau penodol eu trafod ym mhob pennod ac mae’r rhain yn amrywio o ddatblygiad, hawliau, lles a diogelu plant i gynhwysiant, Anghenion Dysgu Ychwanegol, a chwarae a chreadigrwydd.
Sir John Prise: Mediaevalist or Humanist?
Sir John Prise (1501/2‒1555), of Brecon, was among the most influential servants of the Crown in Wales and the Marches at a time of great political and religious change. He was also one of the first among the Welsh to respond positively to some of the new cultural and intellectual emphases connected with the Renaissance. This article discusses the tension between, on the one hand, Prise’s learning and humanist outlook and, on the other hand, his attachment to the popular account of the history of Britain presented by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the twelfth century, an account that was largely rejected by the Italian Polydore Vergil in a work first published in the 1530s.
Teachers as learners – perspectives on second language practitioners’ confidence in supporting Welsh Language ...
Welsh Language Development in the Foundation Phase in Wales is an area of some significance and thus this article focuses on the perspectives of practitioners who speak Welsh as a second language and who teach Welsh as a second language in the Foundation Phase. The depth of challenge of teaching a language in which they are not entirely confident is evaluated, considering some of the implications of their perspectives. The confidence of the practitioners is considered in the context of Welsh policy and curriculum, which suggests that this phase and area of education may be rather invisible in terms of the development of Welsh, but that it impacts a significant number of Foundation Phase pupils in Wales. It is suggested that this element of the Foundation Phase requires consideration and attention in the very near future.
Historical climate: The potential of Wales’s documentary sources
With the uncertainty of climate change, reconstructions from parameteorological and phenological records provide a strong basis for the analysis of past and present climate. However, very little research has been completed on the historical climate of Wales, which is variable throughout the country due to factors such as topography and atmospheric circulation. This is particularly so for west Wales, which has a diverse range of environments from the upland ‘green desert’ to the fertile coastal plains, where an extensive history may potentially be reconstructed from un-tapped documentary resources. The potential is immense as possible sources of meteorological information include all religious, official and personal documentation, which may provide an insight into the relationship between the Welsh and the weather.
Bilingual Juries: A Celtic Dilemma?
Although the criminal justice system is not a devolved matter, elements of criminal law administration, which is the process of implementing the law, have developed distinctive Welsh structures and aspects. This can be seen in the context of Assembly Government crime prevention policies, and in particular the issue of youth crime, for example. In a sense, the identity of Wales within the constitution has led to the creation of certain distinctively Welsh processes and policies in terms of criminal justice administration. This paper gives consideration to a specific issue relating to criminal justice and its relationship to identity, within two jurisdictions. The question under discussion is, should there be a right to bilingual juries in certain criminal cases in Wales and Ireland. I shall analyse the relationship between jury service as an obligation and privilege of citizenship, and the competence of Irish and Welsh speakers as a linguistic group for jury service. The analysis will consider also the relationship between the concept of jury service as a privilege of citizenship and the rights and interests of individual speakers within the criminal justice system. It can be seen that this is a matter that demands a multifaceted evaluation from a variety of perspectives. This paper deals also with the objection to bilingual juries, and considers how granting bilingual juries can be consistent with the principle of random jury selection (the basis of the main objection to bilingual juries in Wales and Ireland), thus securing a representative, competent, fair and impartial tribunal.
RAS200 in Wales
RAS200 project resources (communicating science through the medium of art) RAS200 Sky and Earth is an ambitious plan to celebrate the bicentenary of the Royal Astronomical Society. They aim to embed and provide a legacy of astronomy and geophysics in the wider society. RAS200 in Wales aims to raise awareness of astronomy and geophysics through the arts activities of the Urdd and National Eisteddfod. This collection provides resources developed as part of the activity. There are presentations of astronomy and geophysics through culture, which provide an insight into the science through creative works. To learn more about the project, read Professor Eleri Pryse's introduction to RAS200 in Wales.
Clwb Codio - Scratch 2.0
Cyfres o chwe gweithgaredd codio ar gyfer plant 9–11 oed. Mae’r gweithgareddau hyn yn dysgu plant sut i greu animeiddiadau a gemau cyfrifiadurol yn defnyddio’r rhaglen Scratch 2.0 ac yn cyflwyno plant i’r byd rhaglennu. Cynhyrchwyd gan Goleg Meirion Dwyfor a Chanolfan Ehangu Mynediad Prifysgol Bangor gyda chymorth grant bach gan y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.
'Towards the light': Parents’ reasons for choosing Welsh education for their children in Cwm Rhymni
Welsh-medium education has long been seen as an effective language planning tool in order to transmit the Welsh language in Wales. According to the 2001 Census, there has been a substantial increase in the numbers of Welsh speakers 3–15 years old, especially in south–east Wales, since the 1991 Census. The aim of this paper is to elaborate upon this quantitative data by providing qualitative data with regard to the main reasons and incentives for parents to choose this educational option for their children. The study location is Cwm Rhymni, Caerffili county. A combination of quantitative questionnaires and qualitative in-depth interviews were administered amongst parents from the meithrin, primary and secondary school sectors in Cwm Rhymni. The reasons why parents choose this educational system for their children were cultural, educational, economic and personal. However, it is pertinent to note from the outset, that the parents chose Welsh-medium education for their children in this area for mainly cultural reasons, rather than economic reasons which featured heavily in past studies such as research by Williams et al. (1978) on bilingual education in the Rhondda. This study is the first in a larger corpus of work and one that hopes to address the existing lacunae in the Sociology of Language in Wales, especially as there is a lack of Sociology of Language studies through the medium of Welsh in Wales.