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Promoting the Minority Language Through Integrated Plurilingual Language Planning: The Case of the Ikastolas

2008; Routledge; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2167/lcc345.0

1747-7573

Itziar Elorza, Inmaculada Muñoa,

Immigration and Intercultural Education

Abstract In this paper we will present the main principles behind language planning in the Ikastolas (Basque medium Schools), where a plurilingual school model has been developed as a way of promoting minority languages in a globalised world. We will start by contextualising the Ikastolas' language policy, briefly tracing their history from their beginnings as schools which ensured the right to education in the minority mother tongue (forbidden at that time), to the current Integrated Plurilingual School model, which involves the teaching and use of four languages. This model started as an Integrated Language Curriculum for language teaching, and it is now facing the challenge of creating a global framework – the School Language Project – which considers the various domains of language use within the school context (i.e. classroom management, break times, administration, school-family relations, etc) as active factors in the development of the communicative competence of the students, and therefore subject to a comprehensive school language planning policy. Keywords: plurilingualismcurriculumBasquelanguage planning Notes Ikastolas: Basque medium schools (minority language maintenance and immersion) commited to the promotion and development of the Basque language and culture. They are organised in a network of nearly 100 schools (Ikastolen Elkartea) that offers collective services such as management and administrative services, publication of Basque medium materials for all subjects and levels, in-service teacher training programmes, evaluation services and programmes to foster specific aspects of the Basque culture (sports, arts, etc.). Tools for the diagnosis, planning and evaluation referred to have been developed and tried out within a pilot experience started in 2002, in which a group of schools developed their own individual School Language Project. General competence is a synonym of key competence: 'A set of knowledge, skills and attitudes essential to enable individuals to participate effectively in multiple contexts or social fields, and that contribute to an overall successful life for individuals and to a well-functioning society' (OECD, Citation2002). Specific competence: competences that describe in a more concrete and precise way the general competences of the area, with a level of specification that will suggest learning objectives to work on and serve as indicators of the level that has been achieved in a given general competence. See the on-line catalogue at www.ikastola.net. The control group consisted of a group of Ikastolas with similar characteristics to those within the Eleanitz-English group but whose students had started learning English at the age of eight with ordinary textbooks. The Eleanitz-English group consisted of eight Ikastolas. For further information see Arzamendi et al. Citation(2003). For a detailed description of SSLIC see Muñoa Citation(2003) and Ball et al. Citation(2004).