Professor Enlli Thomas to deliver 2022 O’Donnell Lecture on Education, the Pandemic and the Welsh Language

This year's O'Donnell Lecture will be delivered by Professor Enlli Thomas.

The annual lecture is organised by the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies.  The O’Donnell Lectures in Celtic Studies were founded in 1954 and are delivered annually at the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford and Wales. This year the lecture will be given by Professor Enlli Thomas of Bangor University, entitled ‘Education, the Pandemic and the Welsh Language’.

Professor Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, said: “We are delighted that Professor Enlli Thomas will deliver the O’Donnell lecture 2022. She is a well-known figure and leading expert in the field of education, bilingualism and psycholinguistics. The topic of her lecture is particularly timely and we very much look forward to hearing her analysis and her thoughts.”

Professor Thomas is Director of the School of Educational Sciences at Bangor University. Her main research interests and expertise span psycholinguistic approaches to the study of bilingual language acquisition, bilingual assessment, and education approaches to language transmission, acquisition and use.

Professor Thomas said, “There will, undoubtedly, be far reaching consequences to the Covid-19 pandemic, and to our collective response - on a local, national and global level - to its challenges. One key aspect of society that was particularly affected by our response was education. 

In this presentation, I outline some of the key challenges that affected Welsh language transmission and use among school pupils during lockdown, discuss current approaches to address these challenges and provide recommendations for future support.”

The lecture will be delivered via Zoom on Thursday, 26 May at 5.00 p.m. This is a Welsh language lecture with simultaneous translation into English.

Register here to receive the Zoom link:

https://tocyn.cymru/en/event/c3d05a3d-1ffb-4a9c-ba05-5cfb56737e96

A warm welcome to all!

Note to Editor

Contact: Dr Angharad Elias (Admin Officer) a.elias@wales.ac.uk

1. The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) was established by the University of Wales in 1985 as a dedicated research centre conducting team-based projects on the languages, literatures, culture and history of Wales and the other Celtic countries. It is located in Aberystwyth, adjacent to the National Library of Wales, which is an internationally-renowned copyright library with excellent research facilities.

2. CAWCS offers unique opportunities for postgraduate students to work alongside specialists in a dynamic and supportive environment. We welcome enquiries about MPhil/PhD topics in any of our research areas. For more information about research opportunities, or for an informal chat about possible topics, contact our Head of Graduate Studies, Dr Elizabeth Edwards: e.edwards@wales.ac.uk

3. CAWCS is the home of the Dictionary of the Welsh Language: https://www.welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/ 

Further Information

For more information please contact Arwel Lloyd, Principal PR and Communications Officer, on 07384 467076 / arwel.lloyd@uwtsd.ac.uk