Outdoors, Confidence, and Cymraeg: Affective Learning, Authenticity, and Language Confidence in Initial Teacher Education

Across many international contexts, teacher education programmes face persistent challenges in supporting adult learners to develop confidence, authenticity, and professional identity in relation to language use. These challenges are particularly pronounced where student teachers are expected to teach, or partially teach, through an additional or minoritised language, yet experience anxiety, low self-efficacy, or limited opportunities for meaningful use (Horwitz, 2001; MacIntyre et al., 2019). Research in bilingual and multilingual education further highlights tensions between formal language standards and the lived, flexible language practices through which learners construct legitimacy and belonging (García and Wei, 2014). In Wales, these issues are brought into sharp focus by statutory expectations for Welsh language competence within Initial Teacher Education (ITE), aligned with Curriculum for Wales and the national Cymraeg 2050 strategy (Welsh Government, 2017; 2023). While this policy context is distinctive, the underlying affective and pedagogical challenges resonate widely across bilingual and multilingual education systems.

This paper explores the potential of outdoor learning as an affective and pedagogical bridge between language policy aspirations and student teachers’ lived experiences of language learning. Outdoor and experiential learning environments are widely associated with increased confidence, willingness to take risks, social bonding, and emotional engagement, particularly through embodied, collaborative, and context-rich activities (Rickinson et al., 2004; Waite, 2017). In parallel, second language acquisition research foregrounds the centrality of affective variables—such as language anxiety, self-efficacy, and willingness to communicate—in shaping engagement and persistence, especially among adult and professional learners (Dörnyei, 2005; MacIntyre et al., 1998). However, these literatures are rarely brought into dialogue within ITE, particularly in relation to how affective learning environments might support authentic language use and professional identity development.

The study reported here examines a purposefully designed outdoor Welsh language activity day embedded within an ITE programme. The intervention sought to create low-stakes, authentic opportunities for student teachers to use Welsh collaboratively in outdoor, place-based contexts. Activities prioritised communication for meaning rather than linguistic accuracy, aligning with bilingual education perspectives that value flexible, socially situated language use as foundational to confidence and legitimacy (García and Wei, 2014). Tutors adopted facilitative roles, emphasising participation, peer interaction, and shared problem-solving over correction or assessment.

Using a qualitative exploratory design, data were generated through open-ended survey responses completed by approximately 120 student teachers across primary and secondary ITE routes. Participants represented a range of linguistic backgrounds, including first-language Welsh speakers and second-language learners with varied prior experiences. Data were analysed thematically using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) reflexive approach, enabling attention to both individual affective responses and shared patterns of meaning.

Findings demonstrate a strong convergence between affective processes commonly associated with outdoor learning and those recognised as critical for language learning. Participants reported reduced anxiety and increased enjoyment, alongside greater willingness to speak Welsh in front of peers. The outdoor context was consistently described as enabling more authentic language use, as communication emerged organically through shared tasks rather than formal classroom performance. Peer support and shared vulnerability were particularly salient, with student teachers describing how learning with others helped normalise uncertainty and shift perceptions of linguistic inadequacy. Importantly, many participants articulated emerging professional identities as Welsh-speaking educators, suggesting that confidence gains were not merely situational but connected to broader processes of professional becoming (Beauchamp and Thomas, 2009).

The paper argues that outdoor learning can act as an affective catalyst for language confidence in ITE, complementing formal language instruction by creating conditions in which authenticity, legitimacy, and professional identity can develop. While grounded in the Welsh context, the findings speak to international debates in bilingual teacher education, particularly those concerned with how programmes can move beyond deficit framings of language competence towards pedagogies that value participation, confidence, and relational learning. The paper concludes by suggesting that embedding experiential, community-linked language learning opportunities within ITE may offer transferable design principles for supporting adult language learners across diverse multilingual settings.