Since the new Statute of Autonomy was voted for in 2006, Catalonia gained a third official language - Occitan, the autochthonous language of Val d’Aran, a small territory in the Catalan Pyrenees. The official status of Occitan was regulated by law by the Parliament of Catalonia in September 2010, but temporally suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court at the demand of the Spanish Government.

During the last two decades, education in Catalonia has been based on the ‘conjunction model’, which establishes that children shall not be separated according to first language; Catalan is the main language of education (children are, however, entitled to be taught in Castilian in their first years of education if their parents ask for it); and all children shall be bilingual and biliterate in these two languages by the end of compulsory education. Comparative results show that this model results in the bilingualism of most children, although Castilian is still better known (see Vila 2008, 2010). The reason for such results is to be found in a mixture of demolinguistic and sociolinguistic factors: Castilian is the main lingua franca between Catalan, Castilian and alloglot speakers, and given its powerful status and ubiquity in society, it is rapidly picked up by non-native speakers. It should also be remembered that while the data used in the Language Rich Europe research are declared by official sources, both observational and self-declared data by children show that Castilian is quite often used in interaction with teachers in classes especially where Castilian-speakers and alloglots are in the majority. In 2010, a much debated ruling on Catalonia’s new Statute of Autonomy (2006) from the Constitutional Court required that Castilian should have a wider presence as a vehicular language in Catalonian schools, and thus opened the door to a major legal and political conflict which is still ongoing.

The research is quite accurate in depicting the position of most languages. The distinction between ‘foreign’ and ‘immigrant’ languages obscures the fact that two of the main L1 foreign groups — namely French and English speakers - find it relatively easy to get tuition in their L1 within the educational system (see figures above). A number of private foreign schools — American, French, Italian, and ‘international’ — also cater for relatively well-off foreign residents and locals wishing their children to be plurilingual.

The research captures the general environment for language learning in Vocational Education and Training (VET) but the higher institutions looked at in the study do not highlight the wide range of language learning possibilities at many universities in Catalonia, which, beyond the big international languages, include regional languages like Occitan; widely spoken immigrant languages such as Tamazight/Berber; several medium-sized European languages such as Dutch or Swedish; and Asian languages such as Japanese, Chinese, Farsi or Turkish.

The research detects the predominance of Castilian as the language most in supply in mass media, followed by Catalan, and English with other languages only at a distance. Castilian is vastly predominant in television, thanks to the existence of many Spain-wide channels, and in cinema, where Castilian-dubbed products are still predominant. In comparison, the Catalan/Castilian ratio was much closer in radio and newspapers.

The position of other languages was more difficult to spot. Since digital television replaced analogue, the question of dubbing and subtitling lost importance, because most television stations broadcast the original version of foreign products, usually with subtitles, as well as a dubbed version. Listening to the original versions is popular among certain social sectors, including some groups of immigrants, but no research is available to date in this particular area. The use of satellite television was also relatively widespread among immigrant communities, but the small absolute numbers of each language group makes this consumption unnoticed.

By the end of 2011, the economic crisis was reducing the supply in all fields and languages. In December 2011, for instance, the free, Castilian-language newspaper ADN, was closed down. The crisis has especially affected local and public initiatives, such as local television stations, which were a stronghold for Catalan. Much more importantly, in late 2011 the Government of Catalonia announced severe cuts to public television, which would probably imply that two public channels — both in Catalan — would stop broadcasting.

The strong multilingual profile shown by the data for local public services and spaces clearly reflects the multifaceted nature of this domain, which deals simultaneously with all sorts of customers, for example locals, immigrants, and tourists. It is therefore not surprising that languages from different families and continents, from Catalan to Japanese and Finnish to Swahili, are mentioned as being present.

The data collected suggest that, in general terms, the private sector lags behind local public institutions in adopting multilingual strategies in their daily routine. In the business sector, Catalan moves to third position, behind Castilian and ‘Business English’, and is followed at a considerable distance by other European languages, mostly those of tourists and European residents, or other languages in Spain. Non-European languages play a negligible role in this sector, suggesting that African and Asian immigrants and the markets in these regions are not being taken into account by the firms consulted, or alternatively, they are served via ‘Business English’.

These conclusions should nevertheless be taken with a grain of salt: not only was the sample of firms analysed small, it was also internally heterogeneous, including firms from different sectors, some of them being international, some working throughout Spain, and others only working in Catalonia. Comparison between the public services and spaces domain, where only local institutions were analysed, and the business domain, is less than straightforward.

1. Differentiating between Castilian as a ‘national’ and Catalan as a ‘regional’ language made little empirical sense in Catalonia, for both were widely present in all areas: in future research, both should be subsumed under a common, more adequate label, be it national, official, or another.

2. The Language Rich Europe project is focussed on language policies on supply, but supply can only be duly analysed when demand and results are taken into consideration. In its current linguistic ecosystem, a comparatively small supply of Castilian at school produces high results in language proficiency, while a small supply of English produces low results in this language. In other words, the ways that lead to plurilingualism may be different for each language in each situation, and the whole linguistic ecosystem has to be taken into account. In this sense there is certainly room for development in foreign language learning in the Catalonian linguistic ecosystem. 

3. As a whole, the questionnaire adequately reflects the weak position of ‘immigrant languages’ in Catalonia, a position consistent with both their recency and their heterogeneity. In its current design, the questionnaire is conceived to detect only initiatives which affect large tracts of society. In the future the methodology could be developed to incorporate community initiatives more available to new, less established immigrant groups — such as extra-school language courses, community libraries and bookshops, satellite television or television consumption via the Internet. In any case, pedagogic attention to these languages should increase if the immigrant children’s linguistic heritage is to be preserved for their benefit and that of Catalonian society.

1. Several programmes of Language volunteers, sponsored by both public and private initiatives, have resulted in the creation of ‘linguistic couples’ which have made it possible for thousands of Catalan-language learners to practice the language with fluent speakers all over Catalonia (cf. Boix-Fuster, Melià and Montoya 2011). 

2. Vila (2010) describes a number of activities addressed at raising awareness of minority languages developed in Catalonia such as the Language Gymkhana or the Amazigh Spring. 

3. Proxecto Galauda (http://phobos.xtec.cat/galauda/ [in Galician]) is a project which has taught Galician in Catalonia and Catalan in Galicia in several secondary education centres as a way to enlarge the linguistic repertoire and raise awareness about the value of linguistic diversity.

Boix-Fuster, Emili, Joan Melià, and Brauli Montoya. 2011. ‘Policies promoting the use of Catalan in oral communications and to improve attitudes towards the language.’ Pp. 150-181 in Democratic Policies for Language Revitalisation: The Case of Catalan edited by M. Strubell i Trueta and E. Boix-Fuster. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave.

EULP 2008: Enquesta d'usos lingüístics de la població 2008. Available at: < http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/Llengcat/menuitem.b318de7236aed0e7a129d410b0c0e1a0/?vgnextoid=d5349cede4c43210VgnVCM1000008d0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=d5349cede4c43210VgnVCM1000008d0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default >

Vila i Moreno, F. Xavier. 2008. ‘Catalan in Spain.’ Pp. 157-183 in Multilingual Europe: Facts and Policies edited by G. Extra and D. Gorter. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Vila i Moreno, F. Xavier. 2010. ‘Making choices for sustainable social plurilingualism: some reflexions from the Catalan language area.’ Pp. 131-154 in International Perspectives on Bilingual Education: Policy, Practice, and Controversy edited by J. Petrovic. Charlotte, N Caroline: Information Age Publishing series.