Letter: Treason against Welsh speakers

Sir: My four eldest children attend Ysgol Gyfun Bro Myrddin, a bilingual comprehensive school in Carmarthen. As with many other children in the school, their mother tongue is English (their mother comes from Pinner in London). Last year, the school was the top state school in Wales in the Government's GCSE result tables.

I was therefore startled to read of a report by a Reading University sociology professor claiming that "Welsh children's prospects are being blighted by misguided attempts to preserve the Welsh language". My children's prospects have been enhanced by their bilingual education.

They are also fortunate enough to have been brought up in a bilingual community, where the existence of two languages side by side enriches all our lives. The report states that "all Welsh speakers also speak English". Most first-language English speakers learned French at school. That does not mean they want (or are able) to speak it all the time in preference to their mother tongue.

Dr PATRICK THOMAS

Brechfa, Dyfed