Project Description
GCSE Welsh Course
Exam board: WJEC
Exam code: 3020QS
Studying GCSE Welsh as a language will increase your sense of awareness of culture and what is around you. Studying Welsh can help you become attuned to other languages as well. This might mean it is easier for you to learn another language if you want to. Studies have shown that people with bi-lingual skills are more mentally agile and better at organising information and problem-solving.
This means that learning Welsh will help with other study subject areas too, not just languages. Research has also shown that people with bi-lingual skills earn an average of 8-10% more than people without language skills.
What is covered in Welsh GCSE?
- Reading in Welsh
- Writing in Welsh
- Understanding of the Welsh language
- Welsh history and culture
Why study GCSE Welsh as a language?
- Welsh is now the oldest surviving living language in Europe
- Welsh was one of the original languages of the Britons
- All signs in Wales are now written in both Welsh and English
- Welsh has legal status with English within Wales
- Welsh has enjoyed a significant revival following the Welsh Language Act of 1993
Further study
After completing your GCSE Welsh language course it would be possible to continue your studies in areas such as:
- A level Welsh
- Diploma of Higher Education in Welsh
- Welsh Honours degree (Bangor university offers a taught BA in Welsh)
- You could also consider wider studying options such as Modern European language courses that include Welsh in their programme
Future career
Having studied GCSE Welsh as a second language opens a significant number of career paths for you:
- Teaching – All children in Welsh schools either speak or learn Welsh. It is going to be a language of the future and good teachers are going to be needed to carry the language forward. There will be strong demand for Welsh teachers but there is also a need for teachers of other subjects in Welsh schools too and they will be looking for Welsh-speaking professionals.
- Tourism and Hospitality – Being able to offer a potential employer two languages and a sense of Welsh culture will put you in a strong position to work in these industries. Not just in Wales but all over Europe as well.
- Public Sector Jobs – All public sector organisations in Wales are legally bound to provide services in both English and Welsh. This is a vast area and consists of jobs in the emergency services, hospitals, social services and local government and many other places too.
- Private Sector – Although not legally bound to offer Welsh services, many Welsh companies believe that employing staff who can speak and understand Welsh is good for their public image so having GCSE Welsh as a second language on your CV will open a lot of doors for you in private industry.
Candidates need to be fluent Welsh speakers to access this course.
Curriculum
This GCSE specification in Welsh language will enable learners to:
- demonstrate oracy (speaking and listening), reading and writing skills that are instrumental in communicating with others confidently, effectively, precisely and appropriately
- demonstrate their proficiency in accessing and retrieving information from a wide range of written and dynamic/digital texts, forming a broad general
understanding of the text, summarising and synthesising content, inferring intended meaning and evaluating its purpose - understand the patterns, structures and conventions of oral and written
language - understand the impact of variations in language, selecting and adapting
speech and writing to different situations, purposes and audiences - develop their skills in order to meet their own personal needs as well as the
needs of employers and further education so that they can fully participate in
society and the world of work - develop their verbal reasoning and their ability to think constructively and
critically in response to written and digital/dynamic texts - develop their proofreading and editing skills
- acquire the necessary skills needed for further study, including the study of
Welsh at Level 3 of the National Qualifications Framework
Assessment
This is a linear specification: all assessments must be taken at the end of the course.
Exam Access Arrangements
Exam access arrangements allow candidates/learners with special educational needs, disabilities or temporary injuries to access the assessment without changing the demands of the assessment. For example, readers, scribes and Braille question papers. In this way, Awarding Bodies will comply with the duty of the Equality Act 2010 to make ‘reasonable adjustments’.
We can arrange access arrangements and assess you with our special assessor. The deadline for application to the exam board is the February of the year the learner sits exams.
To find out more about exam access arrangements click here
FAQs
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