Bilingual Education in the Basque Autonomous Community: Achievements and Challenges

Abstract

This paper focuses on the situation of Basque in education in the Basque Autonomous Community. First, it provides statistical information about four crucial aspects of bilingual education: (1) Parental choice regarding the linguistic model, that is, the use of Basque, Spanish or both Basque and Spanish as languages of instruction over the last 20 years; (2) teachers' proficiency in Basque and the special programmes for teach ers to learn Basque; (3) teaching and learning materials including audiovisual and software materials; (4) promotion of the use of Basque at school including some special projects. The second part of the paper compares the situation and challenges Basque was facing in the 1970s before Basque became an official language and now adays. This comparison shows that even though there have been important achieve ments regarding the use of Basque as the language of instruction and the number of Basquespeaking teachers at school, Basque continues to be a 'small' language. In the last part of the paper the possible ways to overcome current and future challenges are discussed.

A Literature-Based Approach on International Perspectives of Bilingual Education

“…These measures and in-migration had damaging impacts, and the number of Basque speakers fell from 83% of the population at the beginning of the 20 th century to only 23% a half century later. However, during the last decade (1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)) of Franco's rule this linguistic repression was somewhat lessened, as the regime was breaking down and was not as oppressive as before (Etxeberria, 2006;Zalbide & Cenoz, 2008).…”

“…Bilingual education in the Basque County is divided into three models, which are Model A, Model B, and Model D (Zalbide & Cenoz, 2008). In Model A, almost all topics are taught in Spanish, and Basque is taught as a second language for four to six hours in a week.…”

“…The main goal in this model, according to Gardner (2000), is to reach fluency in the Basque language. The limitation of this model is that students cannot communicate fluently in schools because they have not learned Basque adequately; therefore, they do not prefer model B (Zalbide & Cenoz, 2008;Gardner, 2000).…”

“…The government has printed many books in the Basque language yearly (Gardner, 2000;Zalbide & Cenoz, 2008). Currently, using Basque (bilingually) in the elementary and secondary education, in published and written materials, and in public areas (such as church) has continued to develop.…”

“…Subjects such as history and geography that had specific Basque-centered components were integrated into the curriculum. In incorporating bilingual education, the government has become more supportive and has increasingly improved its finance mechanisms for Basque-centered education (Zalbide & Cenoz, 2008;Gardner, 2000). The Spanish central government, in Madrid, has completely funded the public schools, and supported and funded the private Ikastola schools, which had been funded completely parents in the later part of the Franco regime, have been supported and financed by the central government.…”