By Tom Barton

26 Jul, 2002

Page 10

WELSH-medium playgroups are encouraging and helping children to speak Welsh, a new report confirms.

The Bangor University study was commissioned to provide evidence that pounds 1m of tax payers' money - used to support Welsh language playgroups - was paying dividends.

The study, of 1,259 children in more than 100 ysgolion meithrin (Welsh-language playgroups), now confirms that the groups contribute 'significantly' to pupils becoming fluent in Welsh, particularly for children from Englishspeaking families.

Report author Professor Colin Baker said pre-school children playing in a Welsh language environment allowed them to pick up the language very easily.

'Children with no Welsh go along to the groups and pick up the language as they're playing, which is the best way of doing it - rather than awful language lessons in school,' he said. The Professor of Education added that learning Welsh at that stage could also help children in other ways.

'There is evidence that children who are fluently bilingual find it easier to pick up a third language later in life, as they are more sensitive to the differences between languages,' he said.

The study looked at whether children were able to understand Welsh. That included whether they joined in with Welsh nursery rhymes, and if they were able to guess what happened next in a story told in Welsh.

It also assessed how the children used spoken Welsh, showing that those pupils who rarely spoke in Welsh at the start of the study were using the language more regularly nine months later.

The study formed part of a drive by the National Assembly to ensure that all expenditure can be justified and aimed at determining whether the playgroups were really as effective as people assumed.

There are almost 1,000 groups nationwide, with around 13,500 children taking part in the activities - around pounds 75 per year for each child.

That compares to the predominantly English-language groups organised by the Preschool Playgroup Association Wales, which receives around pounds 8 of public funds per year for each child.

Gwynedd has 176 ysgolion meithrin - more than any other Welsh county - and there are 393 groups across North Wales.

A spokeswoman for the Welsh Assembly said the Assembly provided funding for a free, at least part-time, early years place for every fouryear-old in Wales and they were working to extend this to all three-year-olds by September 2004.

Local education authorities had responsibility for securing sufficient places for three to four-year-olds and there was nothing to stop them funding voluntary groups.

It was recognised there should be bilingual provision and authorities were encouraged to support a mixture of groups.