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Schemes of Work
IN FRAMING A SCHEME OF WORK IN WELSH IN ALL TYPES OF SECONDARY schools, the following observations should be borne in mind: the emphasis will vary according to the type of school, but the underlying principles hold true whatever the type.
A. Welsh as a First Language
(a) It is often assumed that pupils coming from homes where Welsh is always spoken need no special training in speech. This assumption can rarely be justified. It is part of the training which a child should receive in a language that he should be taught to speak it clearly, correctly and pleasantly. The course should, therefore, make provision for systematic speech-training, for general dramatic activities and also for training in reading aloud both prose and poetry.
Such training is necessary in all secondary schools. In the linguistically-mixed areas in particular, the development of clear fluent speech both in general oral work and in reading requires special emphasis. The choice of reading material will need careful consideration, especially for the lower intelligence groups, in the secondary modern school. In these classes, group reading will probably be found to be the most satisfactory solution, and this implies a greater variety of readers both for classwork and for supplementary reading. A greater variety of suitable Welsh books for the secondary modern school is now available but many more are needed. In these schools, and especially in the classes referred to above, much will depend on the liveliness and variety of the oral work. Reading, oral work and written work should be closely correlated, and the language work as a whole should stand in as close a relation as possible to the whole background of the pupil's life and activity, in the school generally and outside the school. In this connection teachers might consider the techniques of the project method.
(b) The courses should provide for the study of the work of great Welsh writers of prose and verse; pupils should read more of the work of great Welsh prose writers. Even though it may not be possible to read whole texts, much may be done by a judicious selection and the making and using of anthologies. In poetry no course should be deemed complete unless it has provided for some study of poetry in the "strict" metres, and also for some study, however elementary,
