ARFer: New app set to revolutionise use of Welsh in the workplace

A new app that aims to revolutionise the use of Welsh in the workplace will be showcased at the  National Eisteddfod in Wrecsam next month.

On Wednesday, 6 August at 11am on the Bangor University stand. ARFer is set to wow the crowds where it will receive its first public audience.

The ARFer app is based on the science and evidence of behaviour change and is an outcome of a project that has been conducted over a period of six years by researchers at Canolfan Bedwyr, the University’s Centre for Welsh Language Services, Research and Technology.

Its primary purpose is to provide an easy and fun framework for groups of staff to use more Welsh in the workplace.

Hit

The app caters for all abilities – from beginners to fluent speakers – and has proved to be a hit with early adopters, with 79% of those who’ve used the app noting that it has had a significant effect on their use of Welsh in their workplaces.

One of those is Mari Gwenllian Roberts, who uses Welsh regularly in her place of work and credits the app with introducing her and her colleagues to new opportunities to use Welsh together.

She said: “There are some members of the team with whom I’d never spoken Welsh before using ARFer. By now, we’re having many conversations in Welsh and that’s purely as a result of the behaviour change that the app has brought about.”

Benefits

Marcel Clusa Ferrand, originally from Catalonia, has also felt the benefit of the app being used in his workplace.

He shared: “I’ve learned Welsh and the ARFer app has helped me use my Welsh in more situations than I did before. It’s certainly helped me increase my confidence in using my Welsh.”

The ARFer programme is sponsored by the Welsh Government and funding has also been received through the ARFOR fund to develop the app.

Changing language practices is challenging, but step by step ARFer can gradually increase the use of the Welsh language in the workplace.

Based on the behavioural sciences, ARFer provides a series of tasks for colleagues to complete together in Welsh. The ARFer tasks will vary in effort levels, with some taking only a few minutes to complete. Inspired by the Aldahitz project held by the company Soziolinguistika Klusterra in the Basque Country, we have applied two principles that derive from the behavioural sciences:

• Committing to behave in a particular way;
• Capitalising on the significant influence that defaults can have on people’s behaviour.

Impact