Bilingualism in Spain
Jun 24th, 2008 by admin
The bilingual situation which exists today in Spain, according to legal and institutional facts, has double basis:
1. Constitution of Spain confirms the existence and usage several languages in the country, because Spanish nature is multilingual and multicultural.
2. Structure of every Autonomous Community justify bilingual situation.
The official language of Spain is Spanish language which is also called as Castilian language. Other languages which are also widely used in different regions have the status of co-official language. In Basque Country and Navarre such language is Basque. Catalan is co-official language of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, which later became officially knows as Valencian. In Galicia second language is Galician. There is one more co-official language which is spoken in Val d’Aran, district which is situated in north-west of Catalonia. It is called Aranese.
Bilingual situation which is supported by Constitution determined during past twenty year certain changes in the sphere of education. Such phenomenon as bilingual education is rather common today in Spain. The presence of Autonomous Communities which have their own languages except Spanish determines the appearance of great number of bilingual programs. Today such regions as Catalonia and Basque Country have bilingual educational systems and other regions with similar situation begin to develop their own bilingual educational programs.