Language use in secondary school classrooms in Catalonia and the Valencia region: Students and teachers as actors in language-in-education policy

Identifier:  imarina:9524982

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina9524982

Authors:  Flors-Mas A

Abstract:
This paper adopts a participatory analysis model of language policy that views teachers and students as actors in educational language policies and, therefore, as subjects with agency and capacity to make their own choices and intervene in those of the other actors. Based on the discourse of a sample of 4th-year secondary school students in Mataró and Manlleu (Catalonia) and Castelló de la Plana (Valencia Region) on language use in the classroom, it analyses to what extent the reported practices reproduce or question the education language policies in each area, and the impact they have on the institutionalisation of Catalan. The analysis shows that Catalan is reasonably institutionalised in Mataró and Manlleu classrooms, even though Spanish maintains a certain presence, basically in side talk. By contrast, there is a considerable institutional deficit of Catalan in Castelló, where both students and teachers use Spanish in spaces where, a priori, Catalan is the medium of instruction.