About This Course
This is a part-time, level 7 short course delivered on our Bangor campus and delivered through the medium of Welsh.
Who is this course for?
This short course is aimed at graduates and public sector workers, private sector workers and third sector workers responsible for policy and language planning, including language officers, community development officers, local and national government officers, policy makers and those working in the field of social administration and other independent freelance workers within the field
Why study this course?
The main aim of this short course is to present an introduction to language policy and planning to the course attendees. There will be an opportunity to define and identify the purpose of language planning and language policy, drawing on examples from Wales and beyond. We will offer a theoretical context to the field discussing some of the main methods that language planning operates within our society today. The course will give a broad overview of the legislative development of the Welsh language discussing linguistic rights and weighing up the importance of key language use spheres namely the family, the community, education, and the workplace. There will be an opportunity to learn more about different minority languages such as Basque, Breton, Catalan and Frisian and many others while offering examples of their various language planning strategies.
This Short Course is part of our MA Language Policy and Planning.
How long does this course take to complete?
This part-time short course runs over 11 weeks between September and December.
This face-to-face course will be delivered on our Bangor campus (usually in the Main Arts Building), and will consist of:
- lectures and seminars delivered in blocks of 2 hours of teaching each week (over 11 weeks). These will be at the same time each week.
- 178 hours of independent study with guidance from the course leader.
- the final assignment will be submitted in January.
Tutor
Dr Rhian Hodges
Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy
Dr Rhian Hodges is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the School of History, Law and Social Sciences, Bangor University and has been for fifteen years. She specializes in linguistic policy and planning, sociology, education policy and new Welsh speakers. Dr Hodges teaches on a Welsh-medium degree, Sociology and Social Policy and leads on the M.A Language Policy and Planning at Bangor University. Dr. Hodges has published widely in the field of new speakers, the use of Welsh in the community, education, the health sector and on digital platforms.
She has created and contributed several resources that encourage the use of the Welsh language in several important areas such as a Toolkit for Promoting the Use of the Welsh Language in the Community (in partnership with Mentrau Iaith Cymru), a Multi-Media Resource Kit for Sociology (with Cynog Prys, funded by the CCC) and the Digital Learning Materials project (Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol/ HEFCW). Dr Hodges is currently part of a research team that is creating a toolkit and typology that tackles the challenges of recruiting bilingual speakers within the workplace (Prys, Bonner and Hodges, funded by the Challenge Fund, ARFOR). She has been commissioned to do research on behalf of the Welsh Language Commissioner, the Welsh Government and the Community Regeneration Fund of the United Kingdom (through Menter Môn and the Isle of Anglesey County Council).
Course Content
What will you study on this course?
This short course will place language planning in its international context, looking at different examples of language planning in various countries.
The course will include:
- language planning in Wales focusing on the historical social development of the Welsh language, the education system, and the legislative development of the Welsh language, particularly the Welsh Language Act 1967, the Language Act 1993 and the Measure Welsh (Wales) 2011.
- various language schemes, including Bangor University's Language Scheme, as well as the movement towards the standards of the Language Measure.
- the debate regarding linguistic rights, especially the rights of speakers of minority languages and linguistic groups.
- a study of Welsh as a language for users and will also focus on discussing language use in minority language transmission spheres namely the household, the community, the education system and the workplace.
List of units
The short course syllabus will include but is not limited to the following:
- Introducing Language Planning – defining and identifying the purpose of the field
- Holding your own - the ongoing struggle of minority languages
- Laws and Users - the legislative context of the Welsh Language
- Is there anywhere like home? Language Transmission in the Family
- Language Planning Crossroads: Language use within the community
- The Quiet Revolution? Education as a tool for language transmission and use
- Language Planning's Poor Relation? The importance of the Workplace as a language transmission and language use sphere.
- But whose language, is it?' New speakers and minority languages
- The use of Welsh in prison? A discussion about rights and the importance of maintaining Welsh language services within the Courts Service in Wales
- Statutory Developments of the Welsh Language: Language Schemes, Language Standards and more: Discussion on Bangor University's Language Scheme
- Help and Support Workshop
Course Cost
- The fee for the 2025/26 academic year will be £1,056.00 (including VAT).
- Please see our Postgraduate Fees and Finance page for further information.
Entry Requirements
Applicants must fulfil the following criteria to be eligible for this course:
- an Undergraduate degree (2:1 or higher)
If you do not meet the academic requirements detailed above but have relevant work experience, we can consider your application.
Please contact the course lead to discuss this further.
Please note that this course is delivered through the medium of Welsh.
Application
To apply for this course, you need to create an account in our APPLICANT PORTAL
You will need access to the email address you specify while creating your account to confirm it.
After creating an account, you will see a homepage with several tabs:
- Personal
- Programme
- Info
- Contact
- Education
- Employment
- Language
- Finance
You need to complete all sections before submitting your application.
When a section is complete, a ‘tick’ symbol will appear below it.
- Click on ‘Non-graduating applications / Stand alone Modules’, then select ‘Non-graduating Undergraduate’.
- In the next section, select Non-Graduating Taught Modules in Health(NGGT/HEALTH) Click Save and Continue.
- On the next page, the default for the first question is Full Time. You need to change this to ‘Part time’:
- You now need to input the module code. LANGUAGE PLANNING the code is SCS4008 This section must be completed for your application to be processed.
- You also need to state the start date. Please make your selection, then click ‘Save and Continue’.
- IMPORTANT: You do not need to write a personal statement to apply for this course. Instead, please upload the document including employment, experience and education information that you have created prior to starting the application that contains the name of your current employer, the number of years of experience you have, and your highest qualification to date. Click Save and continue.
You only need to enter the details of your highest qualification to date, e.g. if you have a postgraduate qualification, please only only include this.
You will be asked for evidence of the qualification. Please either upload a copy of your qualification if it's easily accessible, or upload the Word document again (that you prepared earlier)
(details not required as you've already prepared this)
Please scroll to the bottom of the page and click on ‘I have no employment history’ (as you have already provided this in your Word document).
If you are HEIW / Health Board funded, please answer the questions as follows:
- How will you finance your studies? Sponsored
- Exact name of funding authority: Health Board
- Country: United Kingdom
- Give details of the amount of the award? Fully funded.
- Sponsorship will cover: Tuition Fees
- Have you been awarded this funding? Please select ‘yes’ * Note that you will be required to upload evidence of the funding. If you wish to confirm ‘yes’ to this question, but do not have any written confirmation to upload, you can upload your Word document here again.
If you are self-funding, please provide all details as appropriate.