Wales has an ambitious goal: to achieve one million Welsh speakers by 2050. Schools are central to this.

For many children, particularly those who do not speak Welsh at home, school is where they learn the language. But learning Welsh at school is not the same as continuing to use it after leaving. A learner acquires the language, but a speaker has the opportunities and confidence to use it beyond the classroom.

My research explores what happens when young people finish compulsory education at age 16. The evidence points to a recurring problem. Many young people appear to use Welsh less often, feel less confident speaking it, or stop identifying as Welsh speakers altogether once they leave school.

Yet, we still know little about how these changes happen, who experiences them, or why.

Welsh is taught across Wales, but pupils’ experiences differ greatly. In Welsh-medium schools, Welsh is the main language of teaching. In dual-stream schools, Welsh and English-medium streams work alongside one another. In English-medium schools, Welsh is taught as a subject.

These routes do not produce the same outcomes. Welsh-medium education can give pupils strong language........

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