Previous studies have demonstrated how primary-school-aged children learning a minority language at school revert to the use of their dominant L1 in peer-peer situations, both within and outside the classroom. Identifying the cause of this pattern is central to language policy strategies and initiatives across many minority language regions, and requires a consideration of the pupil's own perceptions on the issue. This study examined the views of 98 primary-school-aged children attending schools in four counties of Wales. All children were from English-dominant homes and between the ages of 8 and 11. All children attended schools that taught predominantly through the medium of Welsh. Their attitudes towards speaking and using Welsh and English, their beliefs about the linguistic opportunities afforded to them at school, and their perceptions of their own linguistic abilities were collected via questionnaires and focus group interviews. Whilst their attitudes towards Welsh and English were generally positive, their perceptions of the opportunities to use Welsh in a supportive and sympathetic context, and their own perceptions of their linguistic abilities in Welsh, varied across the different counties in Wales. The implications of the findings, particularly in relation to effective language policy strategies in minority language contexts, are discussed.

Children's exposure to a minority language is often limited to the education domain. Consequently, educational establishments have an important role to play in maintaining and enhancing the linguistic achievements of minority first language (L1) speakers whilst at the same time developing the competence of those learning it as a second language (L2). This not only involves the provision of continuous exposure to the language, but also the need to elicit extended speech from the child. In order to identify the extent to which Welsh-speaking children (and L2 speakers in particular) are given enough opportunities to participate actively in extended conversations in Welsh, the linguistic interchanges between teacher and child in the classroom were examined in 10 schools across Wales. The results revealed that whilst children do have opportunities to respond in Welsh to verbal requests through extended speech in class, the extent to which L2-speaking children -and boys in particular -engage in such practices is limited. The implications of the results for classroom discourse strategies in minority language contexts are discussed.