Catalonia

Key Findings overall

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.

Promising initiatives and pilots

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.