(b) The Sub-Normal Child. There is one problem, however, which confronts the modern school and which the grammar school rarely, if ever, has to face. It is that of the child whose intellectual capacity is below normal. How far such a child can or should pursue any formal study in a second language is frequently a matter for anxious speculation, and it is difficult to supply a categorical answer, for research has still to be undertaken in this subject. At the lowest level of course the answer is obvious; a child who has not mastered the elements of reading and writing in his mother tongue is obviously unfitted to study a second language whether that language be Welsh or English. The problem however is rarely as simple as this; more often it is a question of how much study of a second language a pupil may profitably undertake, and what is the best line of approach to such study. The answers to these questions can be given only in relation to the individual children concerned, but two suggestions may be made. First it should be remembered that a well chosen scheme of oral work rarely fails to arouse interest in a second language, especially when such work is linked to physical activities, to craftwork, to music and to drama. Secondly, even though it may not be possible to undertake formal study in a second language, much may be done, by way of picture and story to interest the pupil in the culture of the nation which speaks that language.
4
The Medium of Instruction
SO FAR ENGLISH AND WELSH HAVE BEEN TREATED AS SUBJECTS IN THE curriculum. It is now necessary to consider the use of each of these two languages as a medium of instruction.
So far as English is concerned, little apprehension need be felt. It occupies pride of place, in most secondary schools the only place, as a medium of instruction. It is to the use of Welsh as a medium that attention needs therefore to be given, and to the reasons why greater use should be made of Welsh as a medium of instruction in secondary schools where Welsh is the mother tongue of all, or nearly all the pupils.
There is first of all the obvious advantage which must accrue to such pupils. Their knowledge of the language is widened if Welsh is the medium of instruction, and it becomes a more elastic and pliable medium of expression. Their respect for the language increases; from being the medium of daily intercourse in home and street and dulled by familiarity, it becomes the medium of scholarship and a wider culture, used not only by the Welsh teacher, whose job it is to use it,
