ABSTRACT
Modern Welsh-medium education in Wales is regarded as having commenced in 1939 with the opening of an independent Welsh-medium primary school established by Welshspeaking parents in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, initially for just seven pupils (Williams 2000, 2002; Baker 2010). Whereas the first Welsh-medium schools (or ysgolion Cymraeg) were established with the main aim of providing children from Welsh-speaking homes with education in their first language (L1), today the situation in these schools varies significantly depending on the region of Wales in which they are located (Lewis 2008). Classes in schools across Wales frequently include children with diverse language backgrounds, with the consequence that Welsh-medium education today means different things to different cohorts of children (see Welsh Assembly Government 2006). For 7.6% of the pupil population in Welsh primary schools, Welsh-medium education is heritage or
maintenance language education or community language education. For almost every child in predominantly English-speaking areas, Welsh-medium education is immersion education, while in the more traditionally Welsh-speaking areas, it is a mixture of maintenance language education and immersion education (Lewis 2008). Redknap (2006) argues that Welsh-medium education is now characterised by provision in the same classroom of immersion education for second-language (L2) speakers alongside provision for L1 children who speak Welsh at home.
