Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
(Gàidhlig). It was developed from the
Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...
Wlpan
Wlpan is the name of an intensive Welsh course for beginners used by some Welsh for Adults courses in Wales. On the course, basic patterns are taught in as short a time as possible.
The first ''Wlpan'' course was organized by the Extramural Dep ...
courses, which were in turn developed from the techniques of Israel's
Ulpan
An ulpan ( he, אולפן), plural ''ulpanim'', is an institute or school for the intensive study of Hebrew. Ulpan is a Hebrew word meaning "studio", "teaching", or "instruction".
The ulpan is designed to teach adult immigrants to Israel the b ...
s (intensive schools for learning
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
). The course aims to increase the number of fluent adult speakers.
The course starts with spoken language only, and reading and writing are only introduced once the students have gained some proficiency in the spoken form. The courses are available in many parts of Scotland.
By 2012, there were more than 150 accredited tutors across Scotland and 2,000 adults had taken up learning Gaelic using this method.
Ùlpan has been criticized for having a low completion rate despite receiving over 250,000 pounds of funding from
Bòrd na Gàidhlig
(, ) is the executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government with responsibility for Gaelic..
However, a more serious source reported that 64.9 percent of Ùlpan students’ expectations "had been met or exceeded", and over half (53 percent) of learners believed Ùlpan taught Gaelic either ‘well’ or ‘very well’.