Language programs at Villababel High: rethinking ideologies of social inclusion

Abstract

This article explores language ideologies underlying two language programs implemented in one secondary school in Madrid (Spain). The Spanish for newcomers immersion program (Aula de Enlace) is aimed at immigrant origin students who do not know or have a poor command of Spanish; and the Spanish–English bilingual program targets students from different cultural and national backgrounds with a good command of English. These two language programs exist side by side under one roof and play a crucial role in the placement, educational choices, and, ultimately social inclusion/exclusion of students in mainstream education. Guided by a critical sociolinguistic ethnography perspective, the article analyses data collected at the two language programs, mostly audiotapes of classroom interactions and interviews with teachers, immigrant and non-immigrant background students who attend this public school. Our analysis shows how the discontinuities between the two language programs regarding language ideologies and the organization of language learning bring to the fore a disputed view of social inclusion, namely inclusion from above and inclusion from below, which bear important repercussions for immigrant origin students in mainstream education.

Keywords:

• bilingual education
• language ideologies
• language programs
• immigration
• social inclusion
• Spain

Acknowledgements

Data for this research were collected as part of the project ‘Multilingualism in schools: a critical sociolinguistic analysis of educational linguistics programs in the Madrid region’, directed by Luisa Martín Rojo and supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (HUM2007-64694).

Notes

1. Statistics on immigrant students elaborated by the Spanish Ministry of Education refer only to ‘foreign students’; this means any student whose nationality is different from the Spanish one, regardless of their place of birth. More figures can be found in: http://www.educacion.es/mecd/jsp/plantilla.jsp?id=31andarea=estadisticas

2. For more information, visit: http://www.madrid.org/dat_este/upe/c_prior_proa.htm

3. The Municipal Census of Madrid can be found online at http://www.munimadrid.es/portal/site/munimadrid/menuitem

4. For more information about the Bilingual Schools Project, visit http://www.britishcouncil.org/spain-education-bilingual-project

5. Additionally, since the academic year 2004-05 other primary and secondary schools in the Madrid region have also implemented Spanish–English bilingual programs, which are not sponsored by the British Council. These programs have been coordinated by the Madrid Regional Administration. For more information about this modality visit http://www.madrid.org/cs/Satellite?c=CM_Actuaciones_FA&cid=1142431446124&idConsejeria=1109266187254&idListConsj=1109265444710&language=es&pagename=ComunidadMadrid%2FEstructura&sm=1109265843983

6. Due to the word limit, we have decided to include only the translated excerpts of the original Spanish data.

7. For information about transcription conventions, see Gallardo (1998).