Data analysis in Welsh

I started learning Welsh as soon as I moved to Wales. When I hoped I would be using it for teaching! And on a small scale I have; I once had three Welsh speaking students in the small module, and if they had questions we dealt with it in Welsh. But I have never before created Welsh teaching materials, or lectured in Welsh. But it was about time, after more than eight years, that I would. And I had a chat with Dei, who does all the Welsh language teaching in the School, and he suggested I join the Welsh language version of the module "Environmental Data & Analysis". I already work in the English version of the module; I take students to the beach every year within its framework. But it was time to start to do it in both languages. And I thought that would be good; it is a module that deals with science in general, and that is always useful. The terms I would learn would be widely applicable!

During a meeting with the other Welsh speakers from the School of Natural Sciences it was decided that I will try to make Welsh language versions of some very good instructional videos made in English by our colleague Jenny about general data analysis. So I set to work!

What I'd do is: I make a transcript of what she says, then make a translation of that, make a PowerPoint, and then narrate the PowerPoint with my script. It is quite a lot of work! Because my use of Welsh is largely colloquial, I really have to look up things such as "variable" and "generalisation" and "inferential statistics". And I regularly struggle with things such as prepositions.

When I narrate, I also need to be able to be confident in the material because otherwise I think I will sound too robotic. You can generally tell if someone is just reading from a text! I want to avoid that. But it does require a bit of practice. One word I kept tripping over is still Welsh word for generalisations: cyffredinoliadau. It just doesn't yet roll of my tongue. But I will get there!

The first presentation has been narrated. One down, two to go!

Example slide