Page 101 - 《客語及少數族群語言政策》附錄_少數語言法律

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The findings of the Welsh Language Use Survey 2013–15 (Welsh Government and Welsh
Language Commissioner 2015) show that Welsh speakers who have learnt Welsh at home as
young children are more likely to be fluent than those who have learnt to speak the
language at school. The survey also shows that fluent Welsh speakers use the language
more often than non-fluent Welsh speakers. Another fact revealed in the survey is that
young Welsh speakers are more likely to have learnt to speak Welsh at school than
anywhere else, and that older Welsh speakers are more likely
to have learnt Welsh at home as young children than anywhere else.

At present there are different transmission rates in couple households in which two adults could
speak Welsh (82 per cent), couple households in which one adult could speak Welsh (45 per
cent),
and lone parent households in which one adult could speak Welsh
(53 per cent). We will tailor our interventions to reflect these variations.
No government can control how people behave in their homes, or force a parent/carer to
speak Welsh with their child. It is crucial therefore that we encourage and support families
to use Welsh with their children, promoting the advantages of Welsh-language
opportunities to parents and prospective parents, and ensuring that families have opportunities to
learn Welsh.
These messages will need to be embedded in the work of the many professional people
who come into contact with parents and prospective parents, including midwives, primary
care providers, and services which provide information to families, in order
to create a clear and consistent picture of the Welsh language and bilingualism at
crucial times during the child-rearing years. We will aim to increase awareness among
the professionals who support new and prospective parents of the importance of
language transmission in families, to embed positive linguistic
practice among children and young people, the parents of future generations.
The importance of language transmission remains a key aspect of our strategy, and as we
see an increase in the numbers acquiring the Welsh language through the education system,
and therefore a higher proportion that have acquired the language at school rather than at
home, the challenge in relation to language transmission will change over time. We will
need to tailor policy accordingly.

Our aim: provide our children with the best start in the
language by expanding support for families to transmit
the language in the home.

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