Asset, affiliation, anxiety? Exploring student perspectives on Welsh-Medium Study at post-sixteen further education Colleges

This chapter considers the attitudes of Welsh–English bilingual students aged between sixteen and nineteen in further education (hereafter, FE) colleges in Wales towards Welsh-medium study. Young people in this age range have been described as a ‘critically important cohort’ of speakers in the revitalisation of the Welsh language (Price 2010: 22). Owing to the expansion of Welsh-medium education, an increasing proportion of young people have acquired the language at school rather than through intra-family transmission (Lewis 2006: 21–5) and, as they leave compulsory education, those who progress to further study face an increasing range of choices, including choosing their language(s) of study. This chapter outlines recent legislative and policy developments which have sought to provide a national framework for the expansion of Welsh-medium education, including post-sixteen provision, and considers the institutional support afforded to Welsh, and the status such recognition has conferred on the language in public discourse. It examines the contributions made by a number of studies to understanding orientations towards the language within this context and recounts the findings of our own qualitative study conducted at seven FE colleges. The chapter ends by reflecting on how the student perspectives identified variously align with, and problematise, the rapidly developing policy narrative of Welsh-language revitalisation through the education system.