Maria Torres-Oliva, Cristina Petreñas, Á. Huguet, Cecilio Lapresta
{"title":"The legal rights of Aragonese-speaking schoolchildren","authors":"Maria Torres-Oliva, Cristina Petreñas, Á. Huguet, Cecilio Lapresta","doi":"10.1075/lplp.00045.tor","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Aragon is an autonomous community within Spain where, historically, three languages are spoken: Aragonese, Catalan, and Castilian Spanish. Both Aragonese and Catalan are minority and minoritised languages within the territory, while Castilian Spanish, the majority language, enjoys total legal protection and legitimation. The fact that we live in the era of the nation-state is crucial for understanding endangered languages in their specific socio-political context. This is why policies at macro-level and micro-level are essential for language maintenance and equality. In this article, we carry out an in-depth analysis of 57 documents: international and national legal documents, education reports, and education curricula. The aims of the paper are: (1) to analyse the current state of Aragonese language teaching in primary education in Aragon, and (2) to suggest solutions and desirable policies to address the passive bilingualism of Aragonese-speaking schoolchildren. We conclude that although Aragon is a trilingual community, education policy actually does not reflect this reality. There is also a need to implement language policies (bottom-up and top-down initiatives) to promote compulsory education in a minoritised language. We therefore propose a linguistic model that brings to the forefront minority languages. This study may contribute to research into Aragonese-Castilian bilingualism in contexts of possible language loss.","PeriodicalId":44345,"journal":{"name":"Language Problems & Language Planning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2019-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language Problems & Language Planning","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.00045.tor","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Abstract Aragon is an autonomous community within Spain where, historically, three languages are spoken: Aragonese, Catalan, and Castilian Spanish. Both Aragonese and Catalan are minority and minoritised languages within the territory, while Castilian Spanish, the majority language, enjoys total legal protection and legitimation. The fact that we live in the era of the nation-state is crucial for understanding endangered languages in their specific socio-political context. This is why policies at macro-level and micro-level are essential for language maintenance and equality. In this article, we carry out an in-depth analysis of 57 documents: international and national legal documents, education reports, and education curricula. The aims of the paper are: (1) to analyse the current state of Aragonese language teaching in primary education in Aragon, and (2) to suggest solutions and desirable policies to address the passive bilingualism of Aragonese-speaking schoolchildren. We conclude that although Aragon is a trilingual community, education policy actually does not reflect this reality. There is also a need to implement language policies (bottom-up and top-down initiatives) to promote compulsory education in a minoritised language. We therefore propose a linguistic model that brings to the forefront minority languages. This study may contribute to research into Aragonese-Castilian bilingualism in contexts of possible language loss.
期刊介绍:
Language Problems and Language Planning is published in cooperation with the Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems. This international multi-lingual journal publishes articles primarily on political, sociological, and economic aspects of language and language use. It is especially concerned with relationships between and among language communities, particularly in international contexts, and in the adaptation, manipulation, and standardization of language for international use.