Language Planning and Bilingual Education in Catalonia

Abstract

Bilingual educational policies are discussed in a case where the official and legal aim is to reverse a language shift, that of Catalan in Catalonia. The context of such policies, and attempts to encourage changes in language-choice habits, taking advantage of the favourable social attitudes towards the Catalan language, are outlined. The enormously successful Catalan-language immersion programme in primary schools is described, and reference made to the reactions of some Spanish nationalists opposed to the programme. The main language act is discussed, as are the appropriate directorate general (founded in 1980), the Social Council of the Catalan Language (1991), with a wide social composition; and a General Plan of Language Normalisation, announced by the government in March 1995. The latter allows the overall design, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the numerous projects to promote Catalan in (regional) government and other organisations. Finally, the results of these policies are briefly surveyed, in terms of improvements in language proficiency revealed by official censuses; and some comments are made on the pitfalls of bilingualism in a situation such as that of Catalan.