Interview with C1 (The original interview was in English)

C1: Our biggest... my biggest eh concern I think is that the Welsh groups often seem to get almost forgotten on a day to day basis because... because they are in a minority and because [inaudible] separate from the English groups there is a tendency as far as I am concerned when I’m thinking about a

year group I tend to be thinking of the English pupils in that year group more than the Welsh because they’re almost like a separate entity and because of my lack of ability to speak Welsh I’m not able to perhaps to be involved in there as much as perhaps I would like to or should do em... so in my own mind I tend to segregate them a bit and think of them as separate... separate entity when perhaps we should think of them as being more integrated.Whereas often of course because of... they might be using different resources they have their lessons obviously at

different times when you know everybody in year nine might be having maths on the English side it will be different on the Welsh side and so you tend to again think of them as being separate entities from that point of view... that’s my main feeling.

C1’s concern was based on his personal views, and experience, which was marked by the change from the plural “our” to the singular “my” possessive adjective.

The decision to purchase new English textbooks may have squared with attempts to reassert normal linguistic markets, and ensure the English medium streams appeared attractive to parents and pupils. The accounts given here by the teachers seem to reveal that practice was tending to diverge further from formal linguistic policy.

7.2.2 Teachers’ accounts highlighting the needs of their subject

My second point is related to departments prioritising subject needs and subsequently placing limits on change. The discourses drawn upon by the teachers appeared to embody the local formula for funding the development of bilingual education. Although an opportunity for Welsh speaking pupils to use their cultural capital more effectively was appraised in school B-reasons against socio-linguistic change were elevated and linked to standards and complexity to add gravity to the case for stability, this can be appreciated from the following extract.

Extract 6 Interview with B1

DHJ: Next question if your classes are divided along language lines what are the advantages/ disadvantages?

B1: Just on language... so Welsh in one class and eh... in maths I believe that the spread is too much because we looked at one time at just dividing into

sets to have Welsh sets one two three and English sets one two three and I compared the two sides and on the Welsh side there isn’t much of a problem because we have a lot of clever children there because there are good learners in the Welsh classes anyway but on the English side in the [inaudible]...when I did the sorting out in the English set one... if I used children we had at the time then there were children from

set one to set four in one class so because I had three tiers at GCSE and in the SATs that was... we just couldn’t raise standards with such complicated sets really.

This less positive view towards operating three streams in both Welsh and English in school A, contrasted with the actual system School C was running of just one or two Welsh medium streams in each year and around six English medium streams. In school C, there was an appreciation that the wide range of abilities in some Welsh medium classes, created by wider access policies, had to be alleviated, as in the interview with C1. But C2’s description of a teaching strategy to cope with the nature of the classes, suggests complexities that support B1’s concern over mixed ability teaching.

On a few occasions, the power of the linguistic market made itself apparent as in the paradoxical discourse of B1 who chose to elevate the effective use of cultural capital to support reverting to English first language teaching away from a bilingual approach. This is discernable in the next extract.

Extract 7 Interview with B1

B1: I think its worked OK but with the Bs after we did everything

in Welsh up to Christmas and then I thought... right... so we are going to turn to English and I believe they find it easier in English because they are learners so and with these books sending them home to do homework because the parents couldn’t read Welsh if they have a problem doing the homework because the excuses “no we can’t read the question [noun]” I didn’t know what to do so... so that was a slight nuisance really.

7.2.3 Teachers critiquing Welsh medium mathematics resources

Moving on to the third point I want to consider, that of dissatisfaction with equivalent Welsh medium resources, many of the interviews contained negative

comments in regard to Welsh medium textbooks. These came from teachers in school B and school C. A1, however, seemed to be more content to use translated books.

Extract 8 Interview with B1

B1: Right we bought Allwedd mathematics books... these for year seven... but on comparing these with what is in the English they have too much writing on one page... they are not user friendly really. So I began last year to try and do

something different so I have prepared those [pointing to materials the teacher had prepared herself] so [name] translated them he translated everything I had in English.

Extract 9 Interview with B2

B2: I’m fortunate I’ve only taught the first language [another teacher] has been teaching the good learners so the only thing we had to get perhaps were books... we got books eh... Allwedd but unfortunately I think they are not suitable books for the Welsh the language is too difficult you know the language is difficult if it was in English anyway