The national census carried out nation-wide provides periodically updated data on national, regional or minority languages, and immigrant languages based on home language and language proficiency questions. 

National, minority, foreign and immigrant languages are dealt with in various Spanish legislation and policy documents, mainly the Spanish Constitution passed by Cortes Generales and ratified by the Spanish people in 1978, and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, ratified in 2001. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages has also had a very deep influence in the Spanish educational system. 

Several reports presented to the EU explain what has been done regarding minority or regional languages in Spain after the different statutes of autonomy of the regions were signed in the 1980s, establishing the official languages of the different communities: Aranés as co-official language was introduced in the new text of the Statute of Cataluña enacted in July 2006; Fablas, spoken in Aragon, was set out in Law 3/1999 of 10 March; the General Plan of Normalisation of the Galician language was passed by the Parliament on 22 September 2004.

However, regional languages are not promoted or taught in other communities, leaving the initiative to regional clubs or academies.

Languages offered in pre-primary education

It is in pre-primary education where Spain stands out with regard to multilingualism, with high scores for both foreign and minority languages as the Strategic Plan for Citizenship and Integration 2007-2010 included among its lines of action the preservation of languages and cultures of origin, and provided for their promotion within the education system via bilateral agreements.

Depending on particular communities, the foreign languages offered comprise English, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic and Romanian, but normally either English or French is compulsory, with the rest being optional.

Languages offered in primary education

Languages offered in secondary education

In secondary education the profile is not as outstanding because the new multilingual trend has not yet reached this level, meaning that only some secondary schools are bilingual. Nevertheless, the range of languages offered, the organisation of tuition and teacher training and qualifications are impressive.

Immigrant languages are not widely taught in secondary education although some Action Plans have been put in place, especially regarding their preservation. The integration of immigrants into Spanish culture through the acquisition of the Spanish language has also been promoted.

Languages offered across 3 VET institutions in Spain

Languages offered across 3 higher education institutions in Spain

In Vocational Training (VET) only French and English are offered and not as compulsory subjects, hence why the results are low. Some attention from educational authorities is needed in this area, considering that VT is aimed at acquiring education with a professional projection.

In university education, English and French lead the offer followed by German and Italian.

Languages offered in audiovisual media and press across 3 cities in Spain

As all television broadcasts are digital, the original language of the production is also transmitted, meaning that most dubbed programmes are also available in the original version, as are those in the regional languages of Catalan, Galician or Basque. However, this fact is not always known to the general public and perhaps this is the reason for the low values obtained in this domain.

In press and print six different languages were identified in newspapers. The dominance of English, however, is remarkable.

Languages offered in public services and spaces across 3 cities in Spain (N ≥ 2)

Even though there are 12 languages mentioned, English dominates the panorama in the cities surveyed. However, there seems to be a growing interest in multilingualism and a greater need of languages in public service s at local, regional and national level.

Oral facilities are far less significant than institutionalised strategies or written facilities.

Languages other than English offered in business across 24 companies in Spain (N ≥ 2)

Management practices, even if subjugated by national languages, seem to have become more sensitive to multilingualism but figures are still low and there is room for future improvement, especially in the areas of languages strategies and employees’ language competence. Multinational firms have a more global perspective in linguistic matters, knowing that multilingualism greatly improves the competitiveness of the companies.

Particular areas of recent improvement towards multilingualism are in pre-primary and primary education and immigrant languages, with the shift being progressive and regular.

It is also important to stress the change attempted by public services and spaces considering that a decade before one could hardly expect to find any language other than Spanish.

More or less the same can be said regarding newspapers and books where the offer is now huge compared with only a few years ago.

Nevertheless there are areas that need some thinking such as in audiovisual media and business where habit or traditional practice persists.

The document entitled Action Plan for the decade 2010-2020 signed in 2010 by the Government, lists 12 measures to improve language learning and multilingualism, teacher education being one of the most expected. 

Some of these objectives have already been reached by most of the autonomous communities although the terrible financial crisis we are immersed in has slowed down the initial desire.

 

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