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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=gcintra@bn.com.br href="mailto:gcintra@bn.com.br">Geraldo Cintra</A>
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<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title='"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@bn.com.br'
href='mailto:"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@bn.com.br'>"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@bn.com.br</A>
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<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, August 24, 2005 9:06 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Fw: The Guardian...</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><B><FONT size=5>Parlez-vous Cymraeg?</FONT></B> <BR><BR><B><FONT
size=2>Donald MacLeod </FONT></B><BR><B><FONT size=2>Tuesday August 23,
2005</FONT></B><FONT size=2> </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>Swansea University is
offering language degree students the chance to study German, French or Spanish
- in Welsh.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>With language courses around the UK
struggling to recruit students as the numbers taking French and German at
A-level plummets, Swansea has become the only university in Wales to offer this
option.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>A team of dedicated lecturers will be on hand
to assist students with their work, including the opportunity to analyse foreign
language literature in a Welsh-language tutorial. Essays and examination papers
can also be submitted in Welsh.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>Kathryn Jones, who in
charge of admissions to the languages department at Swansea, said there were
already 20 students studying languages through the medium of Welsh, and there
had been a surge of applications from Welsh-medium schools.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT
size=2>Dr Jones, who teaches French through Welsh, said: "There is a more
informal atmosphere in the Welsh medium classes because the students feel at
home being taught like that - and there are slightly smaller
classes."</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>She said even students who do not come from
Welsh-speaking families often wanted to continue learning in Welsh if they had
been exposed to it at school.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>Swansea has lecturers
in its French, German and Hispanic departments who are fluent in Welsh and is
now exploring potential student exchanges with a university in Argentina - home
to a long-established Welsh-speaking community in Patagonia.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT
size=2>There are now Welsh-German and Welsh-French dictionaries, but there is
not yet a substantial one for Spanish.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>"It's great to
be able to offer bilingual students the opportunity to study through what is,
for many people, their first language," said Dafydd Johnston, professor of Welsh
at Swansea. "However, many second language students feel that their
understanding of Welsh is strengthened from having it as a teaching
medium."</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>And while European languages can be studied
in Welsh, students can also study the Welsh language itself. This helps develop
language skills and extends knowledge of the history and nature of Welsh and its
literary tradition, the university said.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>According to
2001 Census figures, 16.5% of Swansea's population can read, speak and write
Welsh - an increase of 3.22% since 1991.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>Teaching
languages in Welsh is a relatively new phenomenon - it was only five years ago
that the first Welsh/French and Welsh/German dictionaries were
published.</FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>The books, which were produced by the
Centre for Educational Studies, at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, marked
a "major step forward" for language teaching through the medium of Welsh,
according to the university.</FONT><BR><BR></DIV>
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