Language, Education and COmmunity in a Digital Age: A Welsh Digital Resources Case Study

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

This chapter attempts to address two of the overarching themes of
this volume by exploring which innovative digital teaching tools and
methods are emerging in various autochthonous minority language
contexts, and how digital communication is taken into account by
policymakers. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to provide
a digital resources case study focusing on two digital teaching and
language revitalisation projects within the spheres of education and the
community in Wales. The two resources are A Toolkit for Promoting
the Use of the Welsh in the Community (Hodges & Prys, 2017) and a
Sociology Multimedia Resources Pack (Prys et al., 2018). Education,
community and the digital sphere are three language use domains which
are considered important by the Welsh Government as they attempt to
double the numbers of Welsh speakers to one million by 2050 (Welsh
Government, 2017a). This ambitious target represents a concerted
effort to revitalise the Welsh language over the last decade with various
language planning agents at the forefront of the revitalisation agenda.
Both digital language revitalisation projects reported in this chapter
reflect the key typologies of language planning which are outlined by
as status, corpus, acquisition (Cooper, 1989) and prestige planning
(Haarmann, 1990). The projects discussed within this chapter, while
limited in scope and budget, contribute to all four typologies, and
influence the Welsh Language corpus, afford new opportunities to use
Welsh in the field of education, community and the digital sphere, while
also impacting the status and prestige of the Welsh language within
higher education. This chapter also highlights the importance of digital
104 Part 2: Digital Tools and Practices
content in providing key opportunities for language use and language
normalisation for minority languages

Keywords

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHeritage Languages in the Digital Age: The Case of Autochthonous Minority Languages in Western Europe
EditorsBirte Ahrendt, Gertrud Reershemius
PublisherMultilingual Matters
Chapter5
Pages103-127
ISBN (print)978-1800414228
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Apr 2024
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