Teaching through Basque: Achievement and Challenges 9781847690715

Table of contents :
Contents
Learning Through the Minority: An Introduction to the Use of Basque in Education in the Basque Country
Bilingual Education in the Basque Autonomous Community: Achievements and Challenges
Bilingual Education in Navarre: Achievements and Challenges
Assessment of Bilingual Education in the Basque Country
A Longitudinal Study of Academic Achievement in Spanish: The Effect of Linguistic Models
Measuring Student Language Use in the School Context
Basque, Spanish and Immigrant Minority Languages in Basque Schools
Promoting the Minority Language Through Integrated Plurilingual Language Planning: The Case of the Ikastolas

Citation preview

Teaching Through Basque

Other Books of Interest Cross-Linguistic Influence in Third Language Acquisition Jasone Cenoz, Britta Hufesein and Ulrike Jessner (eds) Bilingualism and Language Pedagogy Janina Brutt-Griffler and Manka Varghese (eds) Language Learning and Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Approach Margaret R. Hawkins (ed.) The English Vernacular Divide: Postcolonial Language Politics and Practice Vaidehi Ramanathan Bilingual Education in South America Anne-Marie de Mejía (ed.) Teacher Collaboration and Talk in Multilingual Classrooms Angela Creese Words and Worlds: World Languages Review F. Martí, P. Ortega, I. Idiazabal, A. Barreña, P. Juaristi, C. Junyent, B. Uranga and E. Amorrortu Language and Aging in Multilingual Contexts Kees de Bot and Sinfree Makoni Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (4th edn) Colin Baker Bilingual Minds: Emotional Experience, Expression and Representation Aneta Pavlenko (ed.) Raising Bilingual-Biliterate Children in Monolingual Cultures Stephen J. Caldas Language, Space and Power: A Critical Look at Bilingual Education Samina Hadi-Tabassum Developing Minority Language Resources Guadalupe Valdés, Joshua A. Fishman, Rebecca Chávez and William Pérez Language Loyalty, Language Planning and Language Revitalization: Recent Writings and Reflections from Joshua A. Fishman Nancy H. Hornberger and Martin Pütz (eds) Language Loyalty, Continuity and Change: Joshua A. Fishman’s Contributions to International Sociolinguistics Ofelia Garcia, Rakhmiel Peltz and Harold Schiffman Bilingual Education: An Introductory Reader Ofelia García and Colin Baker (eds) Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages Sinfree Makoni and Alastair Pennycook (eds) Language and Identity in a Dual Immersion School Kim Potowski Bilingual Education in China: Practices, Policies and Concepts Anwei Feng (ed.) English Learners Left Behind: Standardized Testing as Language Policy Kate Menken Pathways to Multilingualism: Evolving Perspectives on Immersion Education Tara Williams Fortune and Diane J. Tedick (eds) Biliteracy and Globalization: English Language Education in India Viniti Vaish

For more details of these or any other of our publications, please contact: Multilingual Matters, Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon, BS21 7HH, England http://www.multilingual-matters.com

Teaching Through Basque Achievements and Challenges Edited by

Jasone Cenoz

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD Clevedon • Buffalo • Toronto

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Teaching Through Basque: Achievements and Challenges / Edited by Jasone Cenoz. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Education, Bilingual–Spain–País Vasco. 2. Native language and education–Spain–País Vasco. 3. Basque language–Study and teaching–Spain–País Vasco. I. Cenoz, Jasone. II. Language, Culture, and Curriculum. LC3736.S72P358 2008 370.1170946’6– dc22 2008000296 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-84769-070-8 (hbk) Multilingual Matters Ltd UK: Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon BS21 7HH. USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA. Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada. Copyright © 2008 Jasone Cenoz and the authors of individual chapters. The contents of this book also appear in Language, Culture and Curriculum,Vol.21, No.1, 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Printed and bound in Great Britain by the Cromwell Press Ltd.

Contents Learning Through the Minority: An Introduction to the Use of Basque in Education in the Basque Country Jasone Cenoz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Bilingual Education in the Basque Autonomous Community: Achievements and Challenges Mikel Zalbide and Jasone Cenoz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Bilingual Education in Navarre: Achievements and Challenges Nekane Oroz Bretón and Pablo Sotés Ruiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Assessment of Bilingual Education in the Basque Country Josu Sierra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 A Longitudinal Study of Academic Achievement in Spanish: The Effect of Linguistic Models K. Santiago, J.F. Lukas, L. Joaristi, L. Lizasoain and N. Moyano . . . . . . . . . . 48 Measuring Student Language Use in the School Context Iñaki Martínez de Luna and Pablo Suberbiola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Basque, Spanish and Immigrant Minority Languages in Basque Schools Felix Etxeberria and Kristina Elosegi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Promoting the Minority Language Through Integrated Plurilingual Language Planning: The Case of the Ikastolas Itziar Elorza and Inmaculada Muñoa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

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Learning Through the Minority: An Introduction to the Use of Basque in Education in the Basque Country Jasone Cenoz Department of Research Methods in Education, University of the Basque Country, FICE, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain doi: 10.2167/lcc338.0

The Basque Country covers an area of approximately 20,742 square kilometres along the Bay of Biscay north and south of the Pyrenees and comprises seven provinces (Figure 1). Three of these provinces belong to the French department ‘Pyrénées Atlantiques’ (Lapurdi, Benafarroa and Zuberoa), and four to two autonomous regions in Spain: the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre (Nafarroa). The Basque Autonomous Community (BAC henceforth) has three provinces: Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Araba. This special issue of Language, Culture and Curriculum, Teaching Through Basque: Achievements and Challenges, looks at different aspects of Basque-medium education in the southern part of the Basque Country, that is in the BAC and Navarre. A description of education in the three Northern Basque provinces can be found in Stuijt et al. (1998). The total Basque population is approximately 3 million, 91% being Spanish citizens. The BAC is the most highly populated area with 73% of the total population, 18% living in Navarre and 9% in the Northern Basque Country.

Figure 1 Map of the Basque Country (EuskoSare, http: //www.euskosare.org/) 1

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Table 1 Language proficiency in the Basque Country BAC

Navarre

Northern Basque Country

Bilinguals

29.4%

10.3%

24.7%

Passive bilinguals

11.4%

6.6%

11.9%

Monolinguals

59.2%

83.1%

63.4%

The distribution of the Basque speaking population varies considerably from region to region. Table 1 includes the percentages of bilinguals, passive bilinguals and monolinguals in the BAC, Navarre and the Northern Basque Country according to the 2001 Survey (Basque Government, 2003). Bilinguals can speak Basque and either Spanish (in the BAC and Navarre) or French (in the Northern Basque Country). Passive bilinguals have receptive skills in Basque (oral comprehension and in many cases reading comprehension) but not productive skills (speaking and writing). Monolinguals can only speak the majority language, Spanish or French. There are practically no Basque monolinguals. The proportion of people who are proficient in Basque has increased in recent years in the three BAC provinces due to the educational system. The percentage of the population that speaks Basque is quite stable in Navarre but is in decline in the Northern Basque Country most likely due to the lack of institutional support. Basque is a non-Indoeuropean language and is the oldest language in Western Europe. It is a minority language which has survived in contact with its powerful neighbours: French and Spanish. In the Southern Basque Country, the dominance of Spanish increased in the 20th century due to industrialisation which attracted an important number of Spanish speaking immigrants from different areas in Spain. Another factor contributing to the weakening of Basque was its exclusion from the public domain including education during Franco’s dictatorship (1939–1975). The Spanish Constitution (1978) declared Spanish the nationwide official language and guaranteed the rights of Spanish speakers to use their language but also raised the possibility of recognising other languages as co-official in their own territories. Nowadays, Basque has a co-official status in the BAC and the northern area of Navarre. A lot of effort has been made in recent decades to reverse language shift, that is to try to stop the decline of Basque and to promote its knowledge and use in different domains (see also Azurmendi & Martinez de Luna, 2005, 2006; Fishman, 1991). In this volume we will focus on one of these domains, education in the BAC and Navarre. The educational system in these two autonomous communities is basically the same regarding the general curriculum and educational levels but, as we will see in the papers by Zalbide and Cenoz, and Oroz and Sotés, differs somewhat in the amount of Basque used. The levels of the educational system (excluding the university level which is not dealt with in this volume) are as shown in Table 2. One of the characteristics of the educational system is that children go to school at a very early age. Even though compulsory education does not start until the age

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Table 2 Levels of compulsory and non-compulsory education Level

Age

Non-compulsory

Pre-primary

2–6

Compulsory education 6–16

Primary school

6–12

Non-compulsory

Secondary school

12–16

Pre-university or vocational training

16–18

of six, practically all children go to school at the age or three and in many cases even at the age of two. It is also very common to take children to day care before this age. The activities and classes in pre-primary are adapted for the children’s age but the classrooms are located within the school premises and the timetables are quite similar to primary school. Non-compulsory education between 16 and 18 can either be aimed at students who are going to University or vocational training. Higher level professional training is also possible at the end of secondary school. This special issue of Language, Culture and Curriculum focuses on research in education in the Basque Country where Basque, a minority language, is in many cases the language of instruction for some or all the school subjects. The volume provides background information about the Basque educational system; about academic and linguistic results related to the use of the minority as the language of instruction and the challenges and problems the Basque educational system is currently facing. The volume focuses on research conducted in the Basque Country that can be useful for other bilingual and multilingual contexts involving different language combinations (see also Cenoz, forthcoming). Most papers are research oriented and based on research studies conducted in the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre, the southern part of the Basque Country. The papers in this special issue look at the achievements of the last 25 years but also discuss the challenges the Basque educational system is facing nowadays. The first two papers discuss different aspects of bilingual and multilingual education in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) and Navarre. Zalbide and Cenoz in Bilingual Education in the Basque Autonomous Community: Achievements and Challenges summarise the changes that have taken place in the educational system of the BAC in the last 25 years. They discuss the dramatic increase of the use of Basque as the language of instruction and its consequences for teacher training and material development but also look at current and future challenges. In the next paper, Bilingual Education in Navarre: Achievements and Challenges, Oroz and Sotés look at the situation in Navarre which is divided into three areas regarding the use of Basque in education. They also discuss the increasing importance of English and the new challenge of immigration in recent years. The next two papers focus on the outcomes of bilingual education and the use of Basque as the language of instruction in the BAC. In Assessment of the Bilingual Education in the Basque Country, Sierra summarises the results of

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several national and international evaluations (PISA, etc) and discusses data comparing results in bilingual and monolingual models. These evaluations also provide interesting information about the overall educational system in the BAC compared to other Autonomous Communities in Spain and other countries. In A Longitudinal Study of Academic Achievement in Spanish: The Effect of Linguistic Models Santiago, Lukas, Joaristi, Lizasoain and Moyano report the results of a longitudinal study on Spanish reading skills. They analyse the effect of some individual and contextual factors (gender, socioeconomic status (SES), school network, metacognitive skills, etc.) and the effect of using Basque or Spanish as the language of instruction on reading skills in Spanish. Schools are not isolated from the context in which they are placed and Basque schools are facing challenges related to the minority status of Basque, the increasing arrival of immigrants and the spread of English as a language of international communication. These challenges are discussed in the last three papers of the volume. Martínez de Luna and Suberbiola’s paper Measuring Student Language Use in the School Context reports a research study on one of the main challenges of Basque and other minority languages in education, the active use of Basque by students and the variables predicting this use. In Basque, Spanish and Immigrant Minority Languages in Basque Schools Etxeberria and Elosegi examine the new situation created by the most recent waves of immigrants from different countries. They provide data about these immigrants and discusses the difficulties they face in education. In Promoting the Minority Language Through Integrated Plurilingual Language Planning: The Case of Ikastolas, Elorza and Muñoa discuss a special programme that goes from bilingual to multilingual education by integrating the use of English in the curriculum. The programme has different goals for the different languages and its results indicate that it is possible to combine the use of Basque as the main language of instruction with the learning of other languages. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the editor of Language, Culture and Curriculum, Eoghan Mac Aogáin for his support in the editing of this volume. I would also like to thank him and the reviewers for their helpful comments on the papers included in this special issue. References Azurmendi, M.J. and Martínez de Luna, I. (eds) (2005) The case of Basque: From the past towards the future. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 174 (special issue), 1–105. Azurmendi, M.J. and Martínez de Luna, I. (eds) (2006) The Case of Basque: Past, Present and Future. San Sebastián-Donostia: Soziolinguistika Klusterra. Basque Government (2003) Euskararen Jarraipena. La Continuidad del Euskera. La Continuité de la Langue Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Cenoz, J. (forthcoming) Towards Multilingual Education: Basque Educational Research in International Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Fishman, J. (1991) Reversing Language Shift. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Stuijt, M., Garay, M., Basmoreau, M. and Delbel, T. (1998) The Basque Language in Education in France. Ljouwert/Leeuwarden: Mercator-Education. On WWW. at http://www. mercator-education.org. Accessed 2.10.07.

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Bilingual Education in the Basque Autonomous Community: Achievements and Challenges Mikel Zalbide Department of Education, Universities and Research, Basque Government, Vitoria-Gasteiz , Spain Jasone Cenoz Department of Research Methods in Education, University of the Basque Country, FICE, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain 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 teachers 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 nowadays. This comparison shows that even though there have been important achievements regarding the use of Basque as the language of instruction and the number of Basque-speaking 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. doi: 10.2167/lcc339.0 Keywords: Basque, bilingualism, bilingual education, Basque Autonomous Community

Introduction The Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) has three provinces (Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) and it is the most highly populated area in the whole of the Basque Country with 73% of the total population, approximately two million inhabitants. The capital cities are Bilbo-Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastian and Vitoria-Gasteiz which is the administrative capital of the BAC. The majority language of the BAC is Spanish. It lives side by side with Basque which is a minority language in its own territory. Both languages have an official status in the BAC. According to the Spanish Constitution (1978) all Spanish citizens have the duty to know Spanish and the right to use it. Other languages are equally official in their Autonomous Communities. The BAC Statute of Autonomy (1979) affirms that Basque has, like Spanish, the status of an official language in the BAC and that citizens have the right to know and use both languages. English is becoming increasingly important for Basque citizens as a language of international communication and its role in Basque schools is becoming more 5

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prominent in recent years (see also Cenoz, 2005, forthcoming). However, English is not used as a language of everyday communication in the BAC and is actually a foreign language. As in many other areas in Europe, it is a third language but communicative competence in English is not as high in the BAC as in many other European countries (Cenoz & Jessner, 2000). Nowadays most school children start learning English at the age of four, in kindergarten. French used to be more popular in the past but nowadays it is an optional fourth language. An important new development in the Basque educational system is the increasing number of immigrants (see Etxeberria, this volume) This overview is based on the general situation of primary and secondary education in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) excluding university studies.

Sociolinguistic Situation Basque and Spanish have been in contact in the BAC for centuries and there was a long established pattern of diglossic use between them, although it is changing rapidly in recent times (see Cenoz, in press; Zuazo, 1995). Basque was the language of everyday use in all or most of the informal, orally-conducted spheres of life for the bulk of the population. Spanish (or some previous Romance language or variety) was the language of formality, the literacy-related language of power, academic life and of the high-status interaction networks. Traditionally, schooling was primarily in Spanish, although one of its basic components, religious formation, was bilingual in its written form and, at least initially, fully or predominantly Basque on the spoken plane. But that diglossic pattern has weakened substantially due to many factors such as industrial revolution and urbanisation, transportation and universal education, non-Basque speaking immigration or language policy pursuing a monolingual state. The situation in the BAC could be best described as fragmentary bilingualism with residual diglossia in the Basque speaking districts of the BAC. Spanish has reached into the home in most areas. Basque, on the other hand, has begun to appear on signs in the street, in schools and in the local press but never so far as to take away Spanish’s primary role from it, except at school. Most present-day inhabitants of the Basque Country cannot speak Basque. According to the most recent sociolinguistic survey conducted by the Basque Government, (Aizpurua Tellería & Aizpurua Espín, 2005; Basque Government, 2003) 29.4% of the population in the BAC is bilingual (Basque-Spanish), and 11.4% is passive bilingual, that is they can understand Basque but have limited production skills. Monolinguals in Spanish are 59.2% of the population. According to the same survey, the proportion of people who are proficient in Basque has increased in the three BAC provinces and in 2001 there were 110,000 more bilinguals than in 1991. The number of Basque speakers has risen from 419,200 to 530,900 since 1991. The main increase has taken place in the 16–24 age group, from 25% of Basque speakers in 1991 to 48% in 2001. The effect of Basquemedium education is clear here. Even though these figures are encouraging, the level of command of Basque by those who claim to be Basque speakers varies greatly, with receptive skills being clearly stronger than productive ones, and oral skills normally stronger than those that are literacy-related. Many of the new bilinguals are Spanish-dominant bilinguals who are speakers of Basque as

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a second language and have learned Basque at school. These speakers do not often speak Basque at home but sometimes they speak Basque with their friends. The bilingual population is estimated to be 28.2% Basque-dominant, 26.8% balanced, and 45% Spanish-dominant (Basque Government, 2003). This means that almost half of the speakers of Basque find it easier to use Spanish than Basque. This situation is reflected in the use of the language. Some studies have observed the languages people speak on the street (Altuna, 2002a). Four studies of street measurements have been carried out since 1989 and altogether over one million people have been observed. The results indicate that there has been a slight increase in the use of Basque in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia but not in Araba (Altuna, 2002b). The percentage of people using Basque on the street in Gipuzkoa has gone up from 23.3% in 1989 to 29.9% in 2001. In Bizkaia it has gone up from 8.1% to 11% but in Alava it has gone down from 3.9% to 3.3%. These figures indicate that in spite of the higher number of speakers who are proficient, Basque is still a language at risk.

Bilingual Education Legal background Compulsory education in the Basque Autonomous Community includes six years of primary (6 to 12-year-old children) and four years of secondary school (12 to 16-year-old children). Most children go to school from the age of two or three and many attend day-care centres from an earlier age. Non-compusory secondary education goes from 16 to 18. There are state and private schools and each type accounts for approximately 50% of the total number of students. Private schools are in many cases Catholic schools but some non-religious schools are also private. Basque was banned from education during the Franco regime (1939–1975) but despite legal strictures, in the 1960s, groups of enthusiastic parents and teachers in the BAC fought for and succeeded in re-opening a number of private Basque-medium schools (or ‘ikastolak’). These schools were not officially recognised in the beginning, but the Franco government was eventually forced to accept them because they had attracted so many students that they could not be ignored. With the end of the Franco regime, a new political climate that was more favourable to Basque and the Basque Country ensued and exists to this day. For example, in 1982, the Law for the Normalisation of the Use of the Basque Language recognised the possibility of using either Basque or Spanish as the language of instruction. This led to the Bilingualism Decree (1983) which established the models of bilingual education. As far as McRae’s (1975) clear-cut dichotomy between the personality and the territoriality principles of language rights is concerned, the legal framework of the BAC rests primarily on the individuality of language rights. It is the parents (tutors or students themselves if over 18) and not the government or any other public authority who have the right to choose the medium of instruction for their children. Public powers have the duty of guaranteeing the fulfilment of this right.

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Another interesting point of the legal framework is the objective to be achieved regarding language proficiency in Basque and Spanish: ‘the public authorities have to guarantee that all students have a sufficient practical knowledge of both official languages by the time they finish their compulsory studies’ (Law for the Normalisation of the Use of the Basque Language, 1982: article 17). This objective is quite ambitious and not achieved in many cases. Bilingual education in the BAC is organised according to the following basic tenets: (1) Schooling is the basis of Reversing Language Shift (RLS): school is the means whereby Basque bilinguals are being created or will be created. After that, it will be possible to spread the use of Basque throughout geographic and sociofunctional space. (2) If it is properly organised, the school will be able on its own and unaided to achieve fully balanced bilingual new generations in the BAC. In this formulation, ‘proper organisation’ means, above all, school subjects (as many as possible) being taught and learnt through the medium of Basque. The amount of exposure to the language, although not the only factor, is regarded as paramount. However, these tenets are not necessarily true. The Basque language faces an important problem regarding language use even among students who have Basque as the language of instruction (see Martínez de Luna & Suberbiola, this volume). The amount of exposure to the language is an important factor in second language acquisition but it is still difficult for second language speakers to become balanced bilinguals and to use Basque instead of Spanish. Models of Basque education Regarding the language of instruction, there are three models of education in the BAC, traditionally referred to as models A, B and D in ascending order of exposure to Basque (there is no letter ‘C’ in Basque): Model A It is intended for native speakers of Spanish who choose to be instructed in Spanish. Basque is taught as a second language for three to five hours a week. Schoolchildren in this model acquire minimal proficiency in Basque as a second language. Even though according to the legal framework students are expected to be competent in both official languages by the end of compulsory education, the results of evaluations comparing the different models indicate that proficiency in Basque is very poor as compared to the other models (Gabiña et al., 1986; Sierra & Olaziregi, 1989, 1991; see also Sierra, this volume). Following Baker’s typology this would be a weak model of bilingualism (Baker, 2006). Model B This model is intended for native speakers of Spanish who want to be bilingual in Basque and Spanish. Both Basque and Spanish are used as languages of instruction for approximately 50% of school time, although there is considerable variation from school to school (Arzamendi & Genesee, 1997). This model is similar to Canadian models of early partial immersion in which French and

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English are used as languages of instruction for majority group English speaking students (Genesee, 1987). Model D Basque is the language of instruction in this model and Spanish is taught as a subject for four to five hours a week. This model was originally created as a language maintenance programme for native speakers of Basque, but currently also includes a large number of students with Spanish as their first language. Consequently, Model D can be regarded as both total immersion programmes for native Spanish speaking students and first language maintenance programmes for native Basque speakers. Model D is similar to Canadian early total immersion but more intensive in the case of the BAC. An important difference when comparing these models and Canadian immersion is that children with Basque as their first language are often mixed in the same class with children with Spanish or Basque and Spanish as their first languages. This happens in model D in particular where children with both Spanish and Basque speaking home backgrounds are likely to be mixed in a single class group. This happens rather less in model B, as most children with a Basque speaking home background these days attend model D classes, but there is no prohibition on mixing children from different home backgrounds in model D, neither according to model design nor by law. The aim for Spanish-dominant children instructed through Basque is to achieve a level of functional competence in L2 (not equivalent, nevertheless, to that achieved by a child with a strong Basque language background from home) alongside the ‘usual’ level of knowledge of L1, without delay or loss in academic development. In the case of Basque-dominant children, the aim is to develop these children’s first language as broadly as possible. It is important that they pass from oral language to reading and writing, and that they develop their language style towards higher, more formal registers of the spoken language including the use of richer terminology. It is expected that they will develop their L2 (Spanish) adequately both orally and in writing through the influence of the social environment and the Spanish language classes. Being taught through Basque is also intended to expose them to Basque culture in general. In practice there are more models than the three described. There is a lot of variation in the case of model B regarding the number of subjects taught in each language and the acquisition of literacy skills (Arzamendi & Genesee, 1997). When the models were established there was also a model without any Basque (model X) which is practically non-existent now. An important characteristic of educational models in the BAC is that schools can combine different models. For example, additionally to exclusive A, B or D model schools, there are frequently A
B stream classes, B
D formulations or, more exceptionally, A
D model combinations in the same school. The numbers of students studying under models A, B and D each year since the Law for the Normalisation of the Use of the Basque Language (1982) are shown in Figures 1 and 2. The figures are based on the total number of students in both state and private schools. Figure 1 shows that use of Spanish as the language of instruction (model A) has undergone a significant decline while the use of Basque as the medium of

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Figure 1 Primary and secondary school student totals in the BAC by model, 1982–2007

Figure 2 Primary and secondary school student percentages by model in each school year, 1982–2007 instruction (models B and D) has attracted an increasing number of students. Figure 1 also records a steady decline in the numbers of students in all programmes in the BAC. The figure falls from 519,869 in 1984–1985 to 314,736 in 2006–2007, a 39.46% decrease. When this demographic effect (Gardner, 2000, 2005) is removed, by expressing the number of students in each programme as a percentage of all students (Figure 2) the full extent of the increase in Basquemedium teaching (models B and D at the top of the figure) is more apparent. The percentages in Figure 2 indicate the increasing use of Basque as the language of instruction in models B and D. Only 20% of students had Basquemedium teaching (model B and D) in 1982–1983, compared with almost 80% in 2006–2007, a four-fold increase. The reverse is the case for the teaching through Spanish only. The distribution of the models is not the same in the three provinces of the BAC but the increasing use of Basque as the language of instruction is taking place in all the provinces.

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More and more pupils study in part (model B) or wholly (model D) through the medium of Basque. As far as pre-primary and primary levels are concerned, only 8.8% of all students in the BAC are in model A, while 28.7% are in model B and 61.7% in model D. It is expected that these children will also go on learning through the medium of Basque in secondary school. The use of Basque as the language of instruction for Spanish-dominant children implies a substantial change in the bilingual schooling system of recent years. Less importance is given to the child’s home language background now than in the past when it comes to defining the medium of instruction. As we have already pointed out, parents can choose the model they want for their children, and each model is available in the public and private sectors. Access to all three options is limited in some areas of the country, however, where there are not enough students interested in a particular model. Some schools have introduced English as an additional language of instruction for some of the school subjects (see Cenoz, 1998, 2005). The use of English as an additional language of instruction is still exceptional but it is taking place in the different models (see Elorza & Muñoa, this volume). Even though it provides the opportunity to increase the limited time devoted to English it also faces problems related to the teachers’ proficiency in English and the development of specific materials. The evolution of bilingual models in the BAC: Challenges The dramatic change regarding the language of instruction in Basque schools has important implications in different areas of the educational system (see also Gardner, 2000; Gardner & Zalbide, 2005). Some of the most important changes have taken place in the following areas: (1) teachers’ proficiency in Basque; (2) the development of teaching and learning materials in Basque; (3) the use of the language. Teachers’ proficiency in Basque The level of command of the Basque language required of a teacher to be hired for teaching Basque or through the medium of Basque is one of the main challenges the educational system in the BAC. This is not an easy task in a system where state school teachers are tenured and the number of students has dropped because it means that the weight of the Basquisation of teachers is in in-service training and not in pre-service training. Figure 3 shows the available percentages of public sector teachers qualified to teach Basque or through Basque in the BAC. The data show the important increase in the percentage of Basque speaking teachers. In order to be qualified teachers have to obtain a certificate of proficiency (see also Gardner, 2000). Some teachers have obtained this certificate before they get a job but many others were already teaching through the medium of Spanish and studied Basque in order to be qualified. In some cases there were teachers who had Basque as the first language but had only used Basque orally because the language of instruction at the time they were students was Spanish. In these cases special courses to acquire literacy skills and enrich their vocabulary and grammar have been organised. The data in the figure does not include the private schools where approximately half of the students in the BAC are enrolled. In these schools there are fewer teachers (approximately 63%) who have obtained the certificate of Basque proficiency.

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Figure 3 Percentage of public sector pre-primary and primary school teachers qualified to teach through the medium of the Basque language in the BAC Table 1 Teachers in language training in the BAC School year

Teachers in language training

1981–1982/1990–1991

5,093

1990–1991/2000–2001

13,575

2001–2002/2006–2007

4,071

Total

22,739

The Basque Government Department of Education has organised in-service training through the programme IRALE. This programme offers the possibility of whole or partial release from teaching duties so that teachers become full-time students of Basque for a period of up to three years. Teachers in this situation get their full salary. Table 1 shows the number of places available and the teachers taking part in the IRALE programme over the years. The table gives some idea of the thousands of teachers who have participated in the IRALE programme. The 1990s have clearly been the most intensive decade of in-service training efforts at the basic level, that is at the level of preparing for the Basque proficiency certificate. The IRALE programme also includes teachers on full time courses during the summer holidays or on part time courses during the school year who are not included in the table because they go on with their teaching. The development of teaching and learning materials in Basque Another major challenge faced by bilingual education in the BAC is the development of appropriate materials in Basque. When Basque became an official language that could be used as the medium of instruction there were very

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few materials in Basque. Along these years the availability of materials in Basque for primary and secondary school has increased and in most cases schools can even select among three or more textbooks or other materials. The Basque Government Department of education has set a number of programmes to incentivise the creation, production and circulation of curricular material in print, audiovisual and electronic media. Table 2 gives an idea of the number of materials that have been funded in the years 2003–2005. The data indicate that the production of teaching and learning materials is important in the BAC. The materials are produced by individuals and companies who get funding from the Basque Government. As Gardner and Zalbide (2005) point out, this funding is based on the principal of equal opportunity so that parents who have to buy Basque materials do not have to spend more that if they bought them in Spanish. The use of the language The use of Basque is one of the main challenges not only in education but for the survival of the Basque language in general. The fact that speakers of Basque in the BAC are also proficient in Spanish and that the changes in society have derived in the weakening of Basque speaking spaces has consequences for the use of Basque. In the school context it is common, at least in Spanish-dominant areas, for students with Basque as the language of instruction to use Spanish among themselves. The promotion of Basque language use in the school domain has been considered an important aim of schooling and language use dynamisation plans have been set up. This language use promotion programme for schools has been running for about 20 years, though its initial form offered far fewer options and far less financial support. Table 3 provides information about the the extent of the language schemes developed to promote the use of Basque at school. The Ulibarri programme consists of language policy making for individual schools so as to promote the Table 2 Number of learning and teaching materials supported by grants. Data for 2003–2005 on written, audiovisual and software products Printed materials

Audio-visual materials

Software and CD-ROM

Support for material writers

2003

205

63

40

83

2004

269

40

38

52

2005

205

56

40

55

Table 3 The Ulibarri programme to promote the use of Basque (2004–2005)

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Ulibarri programme of school language schemes

Number of schools involved

Number of classes involved

Number of teachers involved

Number of pupils involved

Language normalisation schemes

390

8646

12,576

180,977

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Table 4 Grants for the promotion of language use at school Number of schools involved

Number of classes involved

Number of events

Number of pupils involved

364

3240

1846

57,369

• School drama

254

701

12,004

• Improvised sung verse at school

219

637

10,553

• School choirs

226

857

16,513

• Story telling

60

173

3,025

• School radio

130

872

15,274

Grant programmes

Oral expression, including:

Extracurricular activities (IKE)

315

Short-stay centres for students to improve informal language skills, other than governmentstaffed (EGE)

177

618

14,170

46

66

1,423

Twinning schools within the Basque Country (IKABIL)

97,603

Authors on school visits (EIE) Working on literature (EIE) Basque in films (TINKO)

332

4,607

389

15,560

25

1,000

272

71,190

use of Basque (see Aldekoa & Gardner, 2002 for further information). Table 3 includes information about the academic year 2004–2005. The schools taking part in the Ulibarri programme and other schools can also apply for grants for special activities to promote the use of Basque. The figures corresponding to the main activities carried out with these grants in the year 2005–2006 are given in Table 4. The NOLEGA programme also includes other activities such as short-stay centres for students to improve informal language skills and competitions to improve elocution and writing skills.

A Comparison of Current and Past Challenges The information provided so far indicates that a great effort has been made to use Basque as the language of instruction in the BAC. This effort has involved human and economic resources and it has resulted in a very important shift in the language used in education. Are the challenges now very different from those of the 1970s? In this section we are going to compare the situation in the 1970s when Basque was not an official language and was only used as the medium of instruction in a few schools with the situation three decades later. Table 5 summarises the main differences.

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Table 5 Basque-medium education. Differences between the 1970s and the current situation in the BAC 1970s

Current situation

(1) Basque as the language of instruction

Only in very few Basquemedium schools

Most schoolchildren have Basque as the medium of instruction

(2) Legal status and funding

No official funding, unclear legal status

Same funding and legal status as Spanish-medium schools

(3) Teachers’ competence in Basque

About 5%

80% in the public sector and 63% in the private sector

(4) Learning materials

No learning materials

Variety of learning materials in Basque

(5) Standard Basque language

No standard for school Problems with technical terms

Standard Basque used at school Technical terms available

When we compare the situation we can observe the following: (1) Basque as the language of instruction. Basque medium schools were few and far between in the 1970s and pupils studying in Basque were a clear minority. Basically, the ‘ikastola’ schools were the only ones attempting to provide a Basque language education. The use of Basque as the language of instruction has grown substantially both in public and private schools. Nowadays Basque is the main language of instruction in the BAC. (2) Legal status and funding. Basque-medium education received no official funding at that time and legal authorisation for such education was unclear at the least. The schools which teach wholly or partly in Basque enjoy full legal status at the present time. These schools are on a par with Spanish medium schools with regard to material resources, human resources and funding. (3) Teachers’ competence in Basque. There were hardly any teachers capable of teaching in Basque or of getting by in Basque. In 1977, less than 5% of teachers reported that they knew Basque and there was not a single teacher training college training teachers to teach through the medium of Basque. At the present time, the majority of teachers in the BAC are bilingual. Some have Basque as their first language and others Spanish and have learned Basque later, in many cases in the IRALE programme. Around 21,000 teachers have achieved the level required to teach through the medium of Basque. (4) Learning materials. There were virtually no learning materials in Basque in the early 1970s, Nowadays, there is a considerable variety of materials to choose from in primary and secondary school. There are usually several textbooks and reference materials in Basque to choose from for each subject and an increasing number of audiovisual material and educational software. The materials in vocational training are more limited. The development of learning materials is a never ending process because of curriculum innovation.

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(5) Standard Basque language. Standard Basque for school purposes was undefined and technical terminology was very limited. Major steps have been taken in the last decades with the development of ‘euskara batua’ (unified Basque) in the establishment, acceptation and use of the standard form of Basque. In spite of these important differences between the situation in the 1970s and now Basque continues to be a minority language in its own territory. On the international scene, Spanish has moved upwards over the last 25 years and is likely to improve its standing even further over the next 25 years. Basque will inevitably remain a small language. As compared to three decades ago Basque’s breathing spaces, that is those physical environments where Basque has been dominant, are weakening. Moreover, Basque is now losing out or weakening in domains once regarded as its very own: the home, the local community, friendship networks and the local worksphere. Schoolchildren who come from fully or primarily Basque speaking homes are an exception rather than the rule, even in model D. The use of Basque in different domains has important implications for the educational system. Another important challenge that Basque has to face in the near future is related to quality. The figures given in this article indicate that the Basque language education has to a substantial degree won the struggle for quantity. Now the important challenge is quality understood as quality in teachers’ Basque medium performance, in the linguistic and curricular appropriacy of learning materials and, above all else, in pupils’ results. The advances made in quantity should be matched by a similar leap in quality.

The Future of the Bilingual Models Bilingual models were established in 1983 and the degree of consensus on them is a long way from being total. On the one hand students in the A model only acquire very basic skills in Basque and this is not considered satisfactory. In fact, the evaluations carried out indicate that schoolchildren in the A model do not acquire sufficient practical knowledge of Basque as it was expected according to the Law for the Normalisation of the Use of the Basque Language (1982). On the other hand the Basque educational system is facing new challenges such as the arrival of immigrants or the increasing need to learn English. Should the models be changed? Nowadays the debate about the future of the models is open in the BAC and there are different positions. The main bodies of opinion are given in the following paragraphs. On the one hand there exists a body of opinion which considers the final objective and the means deployed to achieve that end as insufficient because the educational policy of the BAC is not applied in the whole of the Basque Country. This body of opinion also considers that the current models do not ensure that all pupils (and not even the majority of pupils) in the BAC obtain by the end of their compulsory schooling a sufficient practical knowledge of both official languages as intended in the legal framework. For some of the advocates of this criterion, the bilingual models should be supressed and replaced by a single model with Basque as the language of instruction for all students. This model would not take into account very strongly the home language, the

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sociolinguistic environment or the desire of the parents to have their children educated via one or other official language. On the other hand, there is another body of opinion which considers that the revitalisation of Basque in education has been excessive or even injudicious. They consider that the intensive use of Basque in education is producing (or will in the future produce) negative results as far as the global objectives of academic development. They also disagree with the pressure on Spanish speaking teachers to learn Basque. There are many different possibilities but one of the most clear-cut proposals within this school of thought is to replace the models by one single model for everyone with Basque and Spanish as languages of instruction but with more emphasis on an international language and a broader possibility for each school to fine-tune this overall model to its own preferences. As we can see these two viewpoints are completely opposite and not all points of view can be reduced to these two bodies of thought. Both viewpoints include a good part of the proposals for substantive change in the present legal framework. An additional formula gives more power to the school so as to decide the weight of the different languages in the curriculum within the legal framework. But is it possible to have a form of language acquisition planning radically different from the present one? A radical change would have to be in accordance with the legal framework and it would have to bear in mind the sociolinguistic configuration of the country in general and of school pupils in particular. It would also have to take educational requirements into account, give due attention to strictly pedagogical and educational requirements and be aware of the human, economic, material and organisational resources that such changes would necessarily require. Limitations to changes in the models The legal, sociolinguistic and educational situation of the BAC implies some limitations when considering different possibilities for bilingual education as an alternative to the models created in 1982. Legal limitations On the legal plane, there seems to be very little room for manoeuvre. Since Basque and Spanish are official languages, and the right of choice belongs to parents, models A and D will continue to be legal and necessary. The present day model B, on the other hand, is not compulsory by law but it stands completely within the legal framework, and as far as parental choice is concerned, its future seems secure. The stipulation that one must ensure that all students, by the end of their period of compulsory schooling, attain a sufficient practical command of both languages (Spanish and Basque) also has deep roots in the legal framework. The continuing validity of this last objective in the modus operandi of the Basque school system thus also seems assumed. Sociolinguistic limitations On the sociolinguistic plane it is clear that the options for change would be somewhat broader. There is the possibility of strengthening the Basque language in the curriculum and this could be accepted by society in the BAC as has been shown in the last decades. But attitudes are not static and Basque society could think in a different way in the future. The section of society which views

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Basque medium schooling with deep mistrust is unlikely to contribute to the strengthening of any model going beyond model A. Further, the major influx of foreign, often young, immigrants over the past few years, many of whom are native speakers of Spanish, may influence the evolution of the models, if the new arrivals continue to show a relative preference for model A. Educational limitations When thinking about radical changes, it is evident that some things will be impossible over the next 5 or 10 years. For example, about 37% of private sector teachers do not know Basque. Even if language training IRALE programme were to continue at full speed and most of the new hiring were of bilingual teachers, then there would still be a substantial group of teachers unable to teach in Basque 5 or 10 years hence. Potential changes In spite of the limitations, it is evident that it is possible to implement specific changes in a number of spheres. Some of the possible changes are the following: Basque-dominant children There could be a more differentiated treatment of children who have a good command of Basque from home and children from Spanish-dominant bilingual or non-Basque speaking homes. If we take the experience of many teachers into account, it would seem that the advantages gained by non-Basque speakers are frequently matched or even surpassed by decline amongst Basque speaking pupils. That does not mean that children of different home language backgrounds must be placed in different models or even different schools. But it does mean that the language of the home must be protected and fostered, so as to develop the potential for language normalisation to the full. Varieties of Basque When developing that potential, teachers must attend to the variety of Basque used by their pupils, in the home, on the streets, and in the local community, particularly if the dialect is far removed from the standard variety of the language. Facilitating oral fluency in the language is to be set above grammar based models of correctness in the initial years of those schoolchildren’s education. Spanish-dominant children Some changes are also necessary for children with non-Basque speaking home backgrounds who learn Basque as a second language. All students should know how to use both official languages orally and in writing by the end of their period of compulsory schooling, as it is a clear expression of the school system’s prime language objective. Nevertheless, that is not enough to ensure the appropriate steps to achieve that objective in the case of Basque. It is necessary to go further by establishing precisely the targets to be achieved at the end of the intermediate stages and examining whether those objectives are being attained or not via external or other evaluation. Teachers’ language skills Another urgent matter is the improvement of skills of teachers on active service both at the level of practical knowledge of Basque and in connection with the Basque dimension of the curriculum. A good number of teachers have

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serious limitations with regard to oral ability (particularly those who have learnt Basque over the last few years through in-service training), as they themselves increasingly recognise. Many native speakers of Basque have also expressed their clear limitations to cross over from informal registers to more formal explanatory ones in the written forms of the language. Many teachers who are native speakers of Basque had Spanish as the only language of instruction and find it difficult to use academic and technical language in Basque. The situation is even more complex when their listeners, over half of the students, are from non-Basque speaking homes, and if we take into account that the presence of Basque is frequently modest in the community, on the streets and even among friendship groups. With regard to pre-service teacher training, it seems essential to collaborate with the universities in the BAC so as that the real needs of teachers at work are taken into consideration. International language English is taught from the age of four in most schools in the BAC although its teaching is not compulsory until the third year of primary when children are eight years old. However, there is still the need to improve proficiency in English and some schools have English as an additional language of instruction. This can result in a higher level of proficiency in English but it is necessary to establish very clear objectives for Basque, Spanish and English because these languages have different roles in the sociolinguistic context of the BAC. It is also important to design the syllabuses of the different languages from an integrative perspective so as to enhance language awareness. The different sectors of the educational system in the BAC have made a great effort to promote the use of Basque in education. However, a school does not exist in a vacuum. It is part of the society where it is located and it is related to the sociolinguistic context (see also Fishman, 1991). The success or failure of the school-based Basquisation process depends on factors external to the school, on the reward and sanction system operating in the vast domain, external to the school. Given that dependence, these school-based initiatives could turn out to be a waste of time unless they are integrated in broader, out-of-school planning. If, after spending 10 to 15 years studying in model B or, particularly, in model D, school-leavers do not find domains, relationship networks and suitable interlocutors to use their Basque their Basque language skills will be at risk. Users of Basque must find solid relationship networks in Basque for their post-school years, particularly those involving everyday topics and spheres of activity. To achieve that, language planning for the school sphere must be linked to the preservation of Basque speaking environments in those districts where Basque still retains its place in everyday life. The most important challenge for the future, without any doubt, is to ensure that the Basque language is equipped for the many new demands that will be made of it in urban areas. Before this can happen consensus is required not only on standards for the language itself, the production of learning materials, and the training of teachers, but also some consensus on the varieties of bilingualism that are acceptable and realistic for speakers of Basque. The desire to ‘save Basque in its entirety’ is lodged deep among Basque speakers in the BAC. Perhaps the efforts made in education will show how Basque can find a place for itself outside the school that comes as close as possible to this objective.

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Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Mikel Zalbide, Department of Education, Universities and Research, Basque Government, Donostia-San Sebastian kalea, 1, 01010, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain ([email protected]). References Aldekoa, J. and Gardner, N. (2002) Turning knowledge of Basque into use: Normalization plans for schools. International Journal for Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 5, 339–354. Altuna, O. (2002a) Erabileraren kale neurketa. Ibilbidea eta metodologia. Bat Soziolinguistika Aldizkaria 43, 25–35. Altuna, O. (2002b) Erabileraren IV kale neurketa. Emaitzen azterketa. Bat Soziolinguistika Aldizkaria 43, 37–48. Aizpurua Telleria, X. and Aizpurua Espin, J. (2005) The sociolinguistic situation in the Basque Country according to the 2001 Sociolinguistic Survey. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 174, 39–54. Arzamendi, J. and Genesee, F. (1997) Reflections on immersion education in the Basque country. In K. Johnson and M. Swain (eds) Immersion Education: International Perspectives (pp. 151–166). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baker, C. (2006) Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Basque Government (2003) Euskararen Jarraipena. La Continuidad del Euskera. La Continuité de la Langue Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Cenoz, J. (1998) Multilingual education in the Basque Country. In J. Cenoz and F. Genesee (eds) Beyond Bilingualism: Multilingualism and Multilingual Education (pp. 175–191). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cenoz, J. (2005) English in bilingual programs in the Basque country. The International Journal of the Sociology of Language 171, 41–50. Cenoz, J. (in press) The Basque language Baskisch. In A. Ulrich and H. Haarmann (eds) Wieser Enzyklopädie der Sprachen Westereuropas. Klagenfurt: Wieser. Cenoz, J. (forthcoming) Towards Multilingual Education: Basque Educational Research in International Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cenoz, J. and Jessner, U. (eds) (2000) English in Europe. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Fishman, J. (1991). Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Gabiña, J.J., Gorostidi, R., Iruretagoiena, R., Olaziregi, I. and Sierra, J. (1986) EIFE: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Gardner, N. (2000) Basque in Education in the Basque Autonomous Community. VitoriaGasteiz: Basque Government. On WWW at http://www.hezkuntza.ejgv.euskadi.net/ r43–573/eu/contenidos/informacion/dia6/en_2027/adjuntos/Basque_in_ Education_i.pdf. Accessed 25.9.07. Gardner, N. (2005) The Basque Language in Education in Spain. Ljouwert/Leeuwarden: Mercator-Education On WWW at http:// www.mercator-education.org. Accessed 5.9.07. Gardner, N. and Zalbide, M. (2005) Basque acquisition planning. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 174, 55–72. Genesee, F. (1987) Learning Through Two Languages. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House. McRae, K. (1975) The principle of territoriality and the principle of personality in multilingual states. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 4, 33–54. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1989) EIFE 2: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1991) EIFE 3: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Zuazo, K. (1995) The Basque Country and the Basque language: An overview of the external history of the Basque language. In J.I. Hualde, J.Lakarra and R.L. Trask (eds) Towards a History of the Basque Language (pp. 5–30). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

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Bilingual Education in Navarre: Achievements and Challenges Nekane Oroz Bretón Department of Philology and Language Didactics, The Public University of Navarre, Campus Arrosadia, Pamplona, Iruñea, Spain Pablo Sotés Ruiz Department of Psychology and Pedagogy, The Public University of Navarre, Campus Arrosadia, Pamplona, Iruñea, Spain This paper examines the impact of the Basque Law of 1986 on the status of Basque in schools in the Autonomous Community of Navarre. The sociolinguistic situation of Navarre is outlined, and changes in enrolment figures for the three principal language models (A, D and G) in infant and primary school in the different linguistic zones are examined from 1988 ⁄ 1989 to 2005 ⁄ 2006. It is argued that the linguistic zoning established by the Basque Law and the influence it has on the limitations to the teaching of Basque and through the medium of Basque exert a great influence on the social consideration of the language, its development in education and its potential to increase in the future. The attitudes of the population towards bilingual education in Basque are positive and the linguistic immersion model in this language is becoming an important reference. The teaching of foreign languages, mainly English, in Basque models is considered as a way towards multilingual education, while in Spanish models English has become a way to start bilingual education. doi: 10.2167/lcc340.0 Keywords: Basque, bilingualism, bilingual education, Navarre

Introduction Navarre is a small autonomous community of 601,874 inhabitants situated in the north of Spain, in the far west of the Pyrenees, where it borders France for some 163 kilometres. From a historical, linguistic and cultural point of view, Navarre maintains very strong ties with the three provinces that make up the French Basque Country (Lapurdi, Zuberoa and Benafarroa), and also with the provinces which constitute the Basque Autonomous Community (Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa). All these areas form part of what is usually called ‘Euskal Herria’ (the Basque term for ‘the territory where the Basque language, euskera, is spoken’). In Navarre, two languages, Spanish and Basque, live side by side, though in a situation of difficult equilibrium, since Spanish is the majority language, widely used in the media and in public administration. Such inequality often causes tension between certain sectors of the population in which opposing views are held about the value of Basque and the role that is appropriate for it in public life. The situation is regulated by the so-called Basque Language Law (1986) which establishes a linguistic zoning that divides the community into three parts, and has important implications for the development of different educational language models. 21

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French, a language geographically and typologically close to Spanish, has been gradually disappearing from the education system in this community to the extent that it is hardly used any longer in the schools. The teaching of English, however, has become widespread and it is being introduced at increasingly younger ages. The importance of immigration should be added to this general situation, as it adds to the linguistic variety already existing in the education system. In schools, therefore, one can find a situation which goes from quasi-monolingualism, Spanish, to multilingualism in Spanish, Basque and English, to which we have to add the growing presence of other languages which, from a typological and cultural point of view, are even more distant from the immediate environment. Given this complex situation, it is essential to describe Navarre from a sociolinguistic perspective before going on to deal with issues related to its diverse programmes of bilingual education.

Sociolinguistic Situation Background, legal situation and the attitude of the administration During the period of Franco’s regime in Spain (1936–1975), the Basque language, as well as Catalan and Galician, that is, languages different from Spanish, were withdrawn from public use and banned in the schools. In the case of Basque, this resulted in the greatest losses in the history of the language, which had previously survived as a pre-indo-European language through successive conquests and the period of Romanisation which ended the great linguistic diversity that existed earlier in the Iberian Peninsula. After Franco’s dictatorship, a revival of the autonomous languages took place and a series of language laws were drawn up to normalise their situation. The law which regulates this issue in Navarre is the Basque Language Law (1986). It took some time to be passed because of disagreement between political parties, in particular the opposition of the nationalists to the establishment of language zones (Etxebarria, 1995). The law divides the community into three specific areas: the bascophone, or Basque speaking, zone, the mixed zone and the nonbascophone, or non-Basque speaking, zone (see Figure 1). These areas have different population densities, different urban and rural characteristics, and different percentages of people who are bilingual or monolingual in the two languages Basque and Spanish. The Basque language is recognised as an official language only in the so-called ‘bascophone’ zone, where 10.8% of the total population lives. Most of the inhabitants of this area are bilingual. It is made up of 61 villages, each one having no more than 10,000 inhabitants. Half of Navarre’s population (52%) lives in the mixed zone, which includes Pamplona, the capital and its neighbouring areas. The majority of Navarre’s public services are concentrated here. The remainder of Navarre’s inhabitants live in the non-bascophone zone (37.2%). In public life, the law recognises that the inhabitants of the bascophone zone have the right to use the Basque language in their dealings with the administration. In the mixed and the non-bascophone zones, this right is also recognised, although the measures the law proposes are very limited and not always implemented in practice (Rodríguez Ochoa, 2001). As far as teaching is

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Figure 1 Map of the language zones in Navarre (Taller de Sociología, 1997)

concerned, the law only fully recognises the right to receive teaching in Basque in the bascophone zone, whereas in the mixed area this right is subject to choice. Those who express a wish to study in Basque can receive it, but only as long as there is sufficient demand. In the non-bascophone zone, this right is also very restricted and depends on social demand. The Basque Language Law has been, and still is, harshly criticised by different groups in Navarre because of the division of the community into language zones and the legal obstacles it imposes to the teaching of Basque in the mixed and non-bascophone zones. At first, the criticism mainly came from the nationalist parties but it spread to other groups (parents, teachers, public opinion and so forth). But even in spite of the legal obstacles imposed by law (Monreal, 2001), the teaching of Basque has increased. This has been possible mainly due to the great efforts parents have made to use the few opportunities the law offers and to create parallel systems of Basque teaching in private Basque schools (ikastolas). In general, it can be said that the law originally set out to stop the decline of Basque in Navarre but it did not establish measures that favoured its normalisation and the achievement of an effective bilingualism (Cobreros, 1989, 1998). In the Sociolinguistic Map of Navarre based on data from the 1991 census, there were both worrying and encouraging tendencies. Among the worries were the decline and loss of Basque among the oldest speakers. There were

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Teaching Through Basque

reasons for greater optimism in the higher level of transmission among the population of Basque origin, and the growing tendency to learn Basque as a second language (General Office of Language Policy, 1997: 15). Among the conclusions drawn from the sociolinguistic map, the influences the law would have in its later development were very clear, particularly the division of speakers’ linguistic rights into different categories. Such differentiation is creating, to an ever-increasing extent, a division among the population which, in principal, is fictitious but which influences the perception of the language which the inhabitants of these zones have and, on occasions, brings about absurd situations (Sotés & Oroz, 2005), such as the ones experienced by Basque speakers in the non-bascophone zone. Some of them go to work to the capital city, Pamplona, which is located in the mixed zone, where they get some linguistic rights that disappear when they go back to their living-place again. As a consequence of this categorisation of rights, the inhabitants of the bascophone zone, where Basque is the official language, find it difficult to cope in their own language in the capital, Pamplona, where the majority of public services related to health, education or the administration are concentrated. Such citizens lose their rights when they travel to the capital since Pamplona is located in the mixed zone where the Basque language is not an official language. As a result, there is a growing belief in society that the Basque language is becoming a highly controversial issue, always involved with the courts or with legal practice. This perception has a negative influence on Basque in gaining a normal status and adds the risk of the population developing a negative attitude to the language. Data relating to the Basque language: Competence, use and attitudes To describe the present situation, we shall take the Third Sociolinguistic Map for the year 2001 (Basque Government, 2005) and the Sociolinguistic Study of the Basque language in Navarre for the year 2003 (Government of Navarre, 2004) as our reference. The most important data regarding competence, use and attitudes towards the language are as follows. Competence in Basque is growing in Navarre. However, this is because Basque is being learned more often as a second language. The percentage of Basque speakers whose first language is Basque is continually on the decrease. In Navarre, 10.3% of the population is bilingual in Spanish and Basque. To this figure 6.6% of passive bilinguals should be added. The remainders, that is, 83.1% are monolingual Spanish speakers, as can be seen in Figure 2. In the bascophone zone, 59.2% of the population is bilingual, 7.5% are passive bilinguals and 33.3% are Spanish speaking monolinguals. In the mixed zone, the percentage of bilinguals amounts to 6.5%, passive bilinguals to 9.6% and Spanish speaking monolinguals to 83.8%. In the non-bascophone zone, the bilinguals represent a percentage of 1.3%, passive bilinguals, 2.2% and Spanish speaking monolinguals 96.5%. The percentage of monolinguals is lower in the youngest age group. Among those older than 24, there is an average of one bilingual person for every 10 while among those younger than 25, the percentage of bilinguals represents 16%. There have not been any major changes in the use of the Basque language

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Figure 2 Language competence of the inhabitants of Navarre (%) (3rd sociolinguistic map, 2001) Table 1 Language use (family, friends and public use) (3rd sociolinguistic map, 2001) Type of use

1991 (%)

1996 (%)

More in Basque than in Spanish

4.0

4.6

4.3

As much in Basque as in Spanish

2.2

2.6

1.8

Less in Basque than in Spanish

4.9

9.9

7.5

82.9

86.4

Only in Spanish

89

2001 (%)

in the family environment in the last 10 years, though its use in the public sector has increased, as can be seen in Table 1. As far as attitudes to the Basque language are concerned, the data indicate that 37% of people in Navarre are opposed to Basque while 29% show a positive attitude towards it. Quite a high percentage, 34%, is indifferent. In all the age groups, there is a greater number of those opposed to Basque than those in favour, except among the youth, which gives grounds for greater optimism for the future. In this particular group, however, almost half are indifferent. As in other aspects, there are great differences in attitudes according to the language areas. In the bascophone zone, the majority show a favourable attitude to Basque (70%) while those who are opposed are few (6%). In the mixed zone, the percentage of those in favour and those against are somewhat similar, 32% and 30% respectively. In the non-bascophone zone, however, more than half are opposed to Basque (55%) and only 1% is in favour. The attitudes in favour of Basque and the reasons for preserving the language and giving it greater value are generally of the historical, affective type, born out of a sense of attachment to one’s own language (Oroz, 1998). Basque speakers tend to attribute a great value to their mother tongue but feel that it is not valued enough in the social environment or in the world of work. Unfavourable attitudes on the part of monolingual Spanish speakers are generally linked to criteria based on usefulness. Those people who are above 51 years old and are monolingual Spanish speakers, who have not completed their education, and are living in the mixed or non-bascophone zones are those

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Table 2 Evaluation of language policy of the government of Navarre (%) (sociolinguistic study of the Basque language in Navarre 2003) Average

Bascophone zone

Mixed zone

Non-Basco phone zone

The teaching of Basque in schools

4.5

4.2

4.3

4.9

The teaching of Basque to adults

3.9

3.4

4.0

4.0

Level of competence of Basque among employees in the public administration

4.0

3.5

3.9

4.3

Level of competence of Basque teachers

4.8

4.4

4.7

5.2

The promotion of the use of Basque in the community

3.9

3.3

3.7

4.4

The promotion of the use of Basque in cultural and social events

3.9

3.3

3.8

4.3

who are most indifferent to a possible increase in the use or appreciation of the Basque language (Oroz, 1998, 1999). The attitudes of the public towards Government actions on behalf of Basque are summarised in Table 2. Attitudes were recorded on a point scale from 1 to 10. Attitudes are clearly negative on the use of Basque in the media, in cultural events or in the teaching of the language to adults (Government of Navarre, 2004). Government actions on the teaching of Basque and the improvement of teacher competence in Basque receive a slightly more favourable response, but still do not get the pass grade. To conclude, it can be said that Navarrese society has opted for recognition of the Basque language as an integral part of its culture. Recognition is much greater among Basque speakers and in the bascophone zone. In the nonbascophone zone, the language is not greatly valued. This is because of low levels of competence, few opportunities to use it, and the lack of support for it. The mixed zone, which shows attitudes of both sorts, can be taken as an image of Navarre as a whole. There is no doubt that the administration’s policy on the Basque language has a negative effect on the attitudes towards it. This effect can be seen clearly in the changes in the data from the year 1996 to 2001 which show a fall in the percentages of people using Basque and having positive attitudes towards its use, and a rise in the percentage of those whose attitudes are indifferent.

Bilingual Education Background The introduction of Basque into the education system in Navarre has its roots in the Second Republic in Spain (1931–1939) through the Euskaren Adiskideak

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(‘The friends of Basque’) and the Emakume Abertzale Batza (‘The Basque nationalist women’s league’). In 1931 the first Basque school appeared in Pamplona. The Basque Schools were identified from the beginning with the revival and restoration of the Basque language, along with the development of a nationalist and catholic approach. However, with the arrival of the Civil War, these schools closed and the ikastola (‘Basque immersion school’) movement, as it is known today, did not really begin until the 1960s. Pamplona is a pioneering city in the movement, since it was here that the first ikastola was set up providing the seed for the later creation of many others in the rural environment of Navarre, all of them open to the new pedagogic methodologies which were being developed in Europe at that time (Garagorri, 1983). From this moment the main characteristics that defined the ikastola movement began to take shape: the teaching of Basque in the whole school curriculum; an education model that was open and participatory, given that they were centres created thanks to the initiative of parents or the town councils; and the use of innovative methodologies and their lay character. As a consequence of the growing demands of parents, in the middle of the following decade, the teaching of the Basque language was introduced in public education. Since the passing of the Basque Language Law (1986) and its subsequent application, education in language models in Basque has progressively grown in all the pre-university levels, and in the distinct language zones of Navarre, to the present. Basque, as a subject, was incorporated into public education in 1973 and, from 1975 the teaching of Basque in differing models was offered. This process of introducing and developing the teaching of Basque throughout the whole community has frequently depended on the education policy of the political party in power. The Autonomous Decree (1988) that is still in force, regulating the introduction and use of the Basque language in pre-university teaching in Navarre at all education levels and centres (both public and private), makes the freedom of learners to learn Basque and to have their education through the medium of Basque conditional on the language zones in which they live. This division of the community into three specific language zones is precisely what makes it different from the whole of the Basque Autonomous Community in its interpretation of the co-official status that Basque has (Larrañaga, 1990). In the distinct language zones established by law, different languageeducation models, which regulate the use of Basque or Spanish in the education system, are applied. Through the application of these models, in the bascophone zone, the teaching of the Basque language (Model A) is obligatory, while the teaching in the Basque language (Models B and D) is voluntary (see Table 3). In the so-called mixed zone, the teaching of the Basque language is guaranteed as long as the requests made by parents allow the formation of a group or school annex. The teaching in the Basque language (Model D) is guaranteed if two conditions are met: there are sufficient requests made by the parents that allow the setting up of a group or school annex and that there is availability within the centre. In the non-bascophone zone, the only possibility that is considered is the teaching of Basque as a subject, which also depends on the two previously mentioned conditions being satisfied.

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Spanish

Basque and Spanish

Basque

Spanish

A

B**

D

G

F.L.

Spanish and F.L.

Spanish and F.L.

Basque and F.L.*

Teaching of language(s)

General with teaching of F.L. Submersion or transitional

Basque or both languages

Maintenance

Basque or both languages Spanish

Early total immersion

Transitional

Basque or both languages

Spanish

General teaching of two languages

Type of programme

Spanish

Pupils’s language

*F.L.: Foreign language (English). **Model B hardly exists in Navarre thus its characteristics are not analysed.

Language(s) of instruction

Model

Assimilation

Limited enrichment

Pluralism and improvement

Pluralism and improvement

Assimilation

Limited enrichment

Social and educational aims

Two restrictive monolingualisms

Relative monolingualism or very limited bilingualism

Balanced bilingualism and possible balanced multilingualism

Balanced bilingualism and possible balanced multilingualism

Relative monolingualism or very limited bilingualism

Relative monolingualism or very limited bilingualism

Language outcome

Table 3 Typology of bilingual teaching in Navarre (based on the varieties of bilingual education proposed by Baker, 2001)

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The most direct consequence of the language models is that parents in the non-bascophone zone cannot choose education through the medium of Basque. To some extent, this situation is mitigated by the fact that private ikastolas, which belong to the Federation of Ikastolas in Navarre, can offer Basque-medium education. Although some Basque-medium schools exist in the non-bascophone zone, they are considered ‘unregulated’ and do not receive any funding from the Government of Navarre. Thus education in Basque is restricted to only a few towns in the vast area of the non-bascophone zone. Bilingual teaching models As has already been pointed out in the previous section, bilingual teaching in Navarre has been based on the differentiation of three language models (see Table 3) that have a lot of similarities with those introduced in the Basque Autonomous Community. As far as the teaching of the Basque language is concerned, the proposed model is Model A, which means the teaching of this language as a school subject at all levels. In theory, the option of giving some subjects in Basque at higher levels also exists in Model A but, in practice, this possibility rarely materialises given that this model does not guarantee the language competence necessary for this to happen. This model is in effect a transitional or ‘submersion’ programme for the Basque speaking pupils and constitutes the traditional method of learning languages (in this case, Basque and a foreign language) for Spanish speaking pupils. Regarding the teaching through the medium of the Basque language, the proposed models are Model B and Model D. Model B uses Basque as a vehicle for teaching, having Spanish as a subject at all levels of compulsory education, and, moreover, using it as a medium for teaching all subjects in the first five years of Primary Education and, from then on in two subjects. At first, this model was aimed at those pupils who came from a totally Basque speaking background, but, in practice, it has not had much demand in Navarre. Model B introduced in the Basque Autonomous Community differs in that teaching is carried out through both languages (Basque and Spanish) and their proportion is varied throughout compulsory education. In Model D, teaching is carried out exclusively in Basque, except in the case of the teaching of Spanish as a subject. This model becomes a maintenance programme for the Basque speaking pupils and an early total immersion programme for the Spanish speakers. In general, the immersion programmes are education programmes that use the second language as a teaching medium for a very significant part of the subjects in the curriculum. These programmes are based on the principle that knowledge of the contents and the second language gradually develop throughout the curriculum, thus generating a special educational situation in which the pupils have to learn the language and the curricular contents at the same time. There is also Model G, in which all subjects are exclusively taught through Spanish. A foreign language (in most cases, English) is introduced in all the models presented here, in accordance with the normative established in the current education law, which must be complied with in all communities. This model represents the traditional method of the learning of a foreign language within the school curriculum.

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Although the similarity between the two language models regulated in Navarre and the Basque Autonomous Community (A, B, D and G) is evident, it is important to stress that the criteria used in their design was different. In the Basque Autonomous Community, the pupils’ mother tongue determined the model, but in Navarre the pupil’s mother tongue is not mentioned in the legislation, and can only be inferred from parents’ choice of teaching model (Ruiz Bikandi, 2000). Thus education through Basque takes place subject to three different sets of conditions, the first determined by the language zones, the second by parental choice between models, and the third by the resources made available by the Education Administration to support the long-term development of education through the medium of Basque. The development of the models (Zalbide, 1998) and their linguistic and academic outcomes have been the subject of evaluations in the Basque Autonomous Community (Gabiña et al., 1986; Sierra, 1991; Sierra & Olaziregi, 1989, 1991, 1992; see also Sierra, this volume). Varying degrees of efficiency were attributed to each. Model A was not considered bilingual, and the command of Basque achieved by students in Model B was found to be inadequate. Model D is the only one that guarantees greater competence in Basque, and a level of Spanish similar to the other language models. These results confirm the evaluations carried out on immersion programmes in other similar sociolinguistic situations throughout the European Union (Arnau & Artigal, 1998). In Navarre, there is no comparative study between the bilingual education models to refer to, but some research has been carried out in the immersion programmes in Basque (Etxagüe, 1993; Goikoetxea, 1994; Zabaleta, 1994). Due to the increase of bilingual teaching in Basque, and due to the fact that a considerable number of pupils follow immersion programmes, the research carried out in Navarre focused on the learning of Basque as a second language at the start of these programmes. In this research the communicative resources that both teachers and pupils resort to in order to guarantee mutual comprehension and the pupils’ pragmatic competence in Basque were analysed. The main results pointed out that children were able to understand the teacher’s linguistic input in Basque and to start using the language during their first school year (Arnau & Sotés, 1996; Sotés, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000). Similar research on Catalan arrived at the same conclusions (Arnau & Sotés, 1998). Navarre is characterised, therefore, by a complex situation in which language models are developed in different ways in different language zones. The educational authorities lack information on student background that would permit the development of a form of bilingual education adapted to the sociolinguistic situation in which students live. Due to this situation, some public schools located in the bascophone and mixed zones and the ikastolas in the whole community of Navarre have looked into the design of Model D in much greater depth, trying to adapt it so that pupils acquire sufficient competence in the two languages, Basque and Spanish. While in the ikastolas, curricular content is taught through Basque, in the public schools three models are given (A, D and G), according to the language zone they are located in. In the bascophone zone, the vast majority of schools share the D and A models. At present, in the mixed zone, there are centres that have these three

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models while others offer only one model (G or D). The stance defended by the Department of Education of the Government of Navarre is that of creating schools that provide, on the one hand, education models that have Spanish as the language of instruction (G and A) or on the other, Model D, even to the extent of dividing schools which have a great tradition of accommodating these two models together. Subsequent development of the language models From 1965, when the first ikastola in Pamplona began its classes, to the present, the educational reality in Navarre has changed notably. The introduction of Basque and education through the medium of Basque in the public education system described in the previous section has gradually developed at all educational levels prior to university. This development has been the consequence, to a great extent, of the demands created by increasing enrolment in Basquemedium schools, and by demands of parents, particularly in the higher levels of the education system. Figure 3 shows the percentage of all students in Infant Education and Primary Education in Models A, D and G in Navarre, from the passing of the Autonomous Decree 159/1988 which regulates the introduction and use of the Basque language in compulsory education to the last school year for which we have data, 2005/2006. The very small number of pupils matriculated in Model B is included in the data for Model D. The data referring to the whole of the Autonomous Community of Navarre show a growing social demand for instruction in Basque and education through the medium of Basque, suggesting an important movement for the revival and normalization of the language (Aldasoro, 2001). From the application of the law till the school year 2005/2006 the teaching of Basque (Model A) has increased five-fold, going from 5.48% to 27.19% for the whole of Navarre. Enrolment in Basque-medium schools (Model D) has doubled, going from 13.34% to 26.28%. Conversely, enrolment in Spanish-medium schools (Model G) has declined

Figure 3 Percentage of all students in language models D, A and G in infant and primary schools in Navarre, 1988/1989 to 2005/2006

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Teaching Through Basque

sharply during the period, falling from 81.18% to 46.53%. From the school year 2004/2005 the three models have stabilised. This situation is the consequence of differing factors: increasing numbers of immigrant pupils, limited availability of Basque-medium education, and the setting up of pilot projects in the teaching of English. The period analysed coincides with the period of campaigns and activities carried out throughout Navarre to promote Basque. Such campaigns underlined the true value of Model D, firstly, as a fundamental element in the revival of the Basque language and culture and secondly, as the only real linguistic model that guarantees the pupils’ competence in Basque and Spanish. Although the majority of these initiatives are of a popular nature, up until a few years ago The Office of Language Policy of the Government of Navarre (currently, The General Office of Universities and Language Policy) also organised an annual campaign with information about enrolment in Basque. Results within the three language zones of Navarre are presented in Figure 4. The distribution of the student population over the language zones is: 61.25% in the mixed zone, 30.75% in the non-bascophone zone, and 8% in the bascophone zone (School Council of Navarre, 2006). In the bascophone zone (Figure 4), enrolment in Model D has doubled in 18 years (from 43.37% to 88.12%), while there has been a considerable decrease in Model A (from 43.02% to 11.88%). From the school year 1991/1992 the demand for Model G is practically nonexistent. Therefore, in the bascophone zone the priority social demand is for Model D. In the mixed zone (Figure 4), Model D has made considerable progress, doubling its proportion of the student population (from 13.36% to 30.13%). The progression of Model A is still more striking since it goes from about 1% to 25.74% of the enrolment in an area where the majority of the school population of Navarre lives. Conversely, Model G declines (from 85.2% to 44.13%). In this zone, where Pamplona, the capital, and its surrounding area is located, containing half of the population of Navarre, Model G is still the most requested. On the other hand, parents are still showing more and more interest in teaching through Basque or in those programmes where the curriculum is taught through Spanish and which include the teaching of Basque as a subject. In the non-bascophone zone (Figure 4) the data referring to Model D are difficult to assess because it is a model which is not offered by the Government of Navarre and information given by the administration does not include the pupils educated in the ikastolas, which have not been legalised in this zone. However, taking the data up to the school year 2004/2005 as a reference, Model D is slowly on the increase (from 1.35% to 5.9%). Model A, independent of the Model D offered by the ikastolas, is the only option for parents who want their children to learn in Basque in public education. Its significant growth (from 0% to 34.14%) is comparable to that of Model D in the bascophone zone. Model G has fallen from 98.65% to 59.96% in the 17 years of the application of the law. The data for the school year 2005/2006 show an increase in Model G (63.45%) over Model A (34.05%) and D (2.5%). One should bear in mind, however, that pupils educated in the ikastolas have yet to be made legal and are not included in these data.

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Figure 4 Percentage of all students in language models D, A and G in infant and primary schools in the 1988/1989 to 2005/2006, by language zone The teaching of foreign languages With the aim of completing the panorama of the education system, the teaching of foreign languages (in the majority of cases, English) has to be referred to as it has been increasing in the least few school years. The advance in the introduction of English has already become widespread in the final years of Infant Education and the first stage of Primary Education (Iza, 1999). This early introduction of English, together with a decrease in demand for French as a foreign language, are the most striking features in this area. The Basque-Spanish bilingual centres are becoming centres of innovation in implementing multilingual teaching with the introduction of a third language, aware of the importance of the use of different languages in the European context. The ikastolas have taken a very active part in the introduction of the new methodologies related to the teaching of a third language through the Eleanitz project, and are also active in the field of educational innovation in

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Teaching Through Basque

the teaching of a second language in the school context (see also Elorza & Muñoa, this volume). Other education centres, equally with a bilingual tradition, are the French language and culture schools, which have also adapted to the new social demands with the introduction of English through curricular content. Such schools have great prestige in the Navarre education system. One should not forget the importance that society gives to bilingual education whether it be in languages of the community or in other European languages. This social tendency is reflected in the great interest that bilingual education arouses in parents for several reasons: the advantages that bilingualism entails, the benefits of bilingual education in the area of communication, its importance in the development of thought and personality, cultural enrichment, the advantages from the psycholinguistic point of view, the ease of entry into the job market, and the respect and tolerance towards other cultures it fosters (Baker, 2000). In the option for a bilingual education, English is a priority language. The demand of parents has undoubtedly contributed to this, as they greatly value English as a language that is used internationally. For their part, schools have adopted the criteria of market demands that oblige them to offer the most widely used foreign language, both in public and private schools. The administration has also played a fundamental role in the spreading of the English language. The immigrant pupil Finally, it is necessary to add data on immigrant pupils in Navarre (School Council of Navarre, 2006). The number of immigrant students in Navarre rose from less that 1000 in 1999/2000 to over 8000 in 2005/2006 and is now 10% of the total student population. As far as country of origin is concerned 66.18% come from South America, 14.53% from Africa, 10.72% from Eastern Europe, 6.67% from the European Union, 1.51% from Asia and the remaining 0.43% are made up of North Americans and Australians. Of the total, 64.46% is Spanish speaking and 35.54% speak languages different from Spanish. Eighty percent of these pupils are enrolled in public schools while 20% follow their studies in independent schools which have a collaboration agreement with the Department of Education. Such a situation shows great variations according to the language zones and schools. More than half of the 300 schools in Navarre do not even have 10% of the immigrant pupils in their classrooms. In the other half, however, some 30 centres show percentages superior to 50% while only another 30 would be in a sustainable band, from the pedagogic and social point of view, with between 10% and 20% of pupils of immigrant origin. As regards the language models in the community, the imbalance is overwhelmingly in favour of Spanish, since a little more than 1% is enrolled in Model D in public schools and ikastolas, far from the 53% of immigrant pupils enrolled in Basque in the Basque Autonomous Community. Varying reasons, such as the particular language of the immigrant pupil or the social urban environment they find themselves in, may account for this difference. All these data are absolutely essential to understand the current complex situation of the education system in Navarre, where starting from two native

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languages (Basque and Spanish), there is an attempt to integrate pupils from different linguistic and cultural origins following a curriculum which, moreover, introduces the learning and use of languages used at an international level.

Discussion and Conclusions The sociolinguistic situation of Navarre shows a great complexity due to the wide range of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that exert their influence and to the division of the community into three different language zones imposed by the Basque Language Law. This law fragments the rights of Basque speakers in the different areas of Navarre, eliminating some altogether and making others conditional on people’s place of residence or the location of the public services which they need to use. It also influences how the Basque language is considered in society, particularly in the non-bascophone zone, where it is perceived as an alien element. The so-called mixed zone, where the greatest number of Navarre’s inhabitants lives, continues to grow, and thus a large population is concentrated in this area. Here there has been an increase in the number of Basque speakers as a consequence of the language being introduced into school education at different levels, and also due to the teaching of Basque in adult education programmes. However, the law limits the possibilities of this language being used in dealings with the government, in the media, and in further education, thus restricting the language rights of the inhabitants of the Basque speaking zone who come to Pamplona, the capital, which is located in this zone. In the bascophone zone, the Basque language continues to have great ethnolinguistic vitality. However, only 10% of the population of Navarre lives here and it is a rural region, with small municipalities and a low birth rate. Its inhabitants find themselves in what could be termed ‘linguistic isolation’. They have rights as far as their immediate environment is concerned but they lose them as soon as they leave it. In the non-bascophone zone, which covers the largest area of the community, Basque has a very limited presence in society, due to the fact that this region, throughout its history, has been under Romance influence, and also because of the limitations that the law imposes on the use of Basque. Here, there are very few language rights, the level of competence in Basque is low and its use in everyday life very restricted. Its application in teaching is considered ‘unregulated’ and the attitudes towards Basque reflect a great indifference to the language, and a tendency to regard it as something foreign to the area. One should also take into account, however, that there are towns in the non-Basque speaking zone which are very close to the capital and whose situation, therefore, is in practice, very similar to that in the mixed zone, even if the individuals in question have the language rights associated with the non-bascophone zone. The introduction of bilingual education in Basque dates from the 1960s. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the social awareness of the Basque language, which has meant the diversification of teaching, given that from the start it was limited to private ikastolas though, subsequently, it spread to public education. This variety of teaching has always been linked to pedagogic renovation and to the use of new methodologies for the introduction of second and

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third languages in the school curriculum. During this period, the teaching of Basque and education through the medium of Basque gained a greater presence in the education system in the whole of Navarre. To be more exact, Model D has become the model that revitalises the Basque language, given the standing it has in the bascophone and mixed zones, and the success it has had not merely in the field of language education but also in the total cultural and social education of its students. It is most used in the Bascophone zone, where it helps to maintain the native language and culture. However, although in this area the continuation of the language is assured, the language rights of its inhabitants are severely restricted when they go to other parts of Navarre. Model D is also common in the mixed zone, due to the fact that it is the most populated area, but its development falls short of expectations because of the limitations imposed by the Basque Language Law, including a restrictive application of the same law which even goes beyond the very area of education. Model A leaves its students with only very limited levels of competence in Basque. However, it acts as key for a very important sector of the population in the mixed zone, providing it with an introduction to Basque language and culture. Besides, in the non-Basque speaking zone, it gives students a certain familiarity with the language, even if they consider it remote from their everyday lives, or are even hostile to it. Finally, the early introduction of English and the growing presence of immigrant pupils must be taken into account, since they are clearly having an impact on the educational scene in Navarre. The teaching of English has been proposed by the education administration in such a way that it excludes already existing models. Besides, none of the research institutions that are concerned with the growth of multicultural education in Navarre have done a rigorous evaluation in this area. As a general conclusion, it could be said that the population of Navarre has accepted in a reasonable way the presence of the Basque language and culture which have always existed in the community. This is shown in positive attitudes and increasing demand for the teaching of Basque and education through the medium of Basque, although the growth of indifference must also be noted. Perhaps it is in the schools that linguistic normalisation has achieved the most success in this community, despite obstacles and setbacks. The population now considers education through the medium of Basque as something normal. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Pablo Sotés Ruiz, Department of Psychology and Pedagogy, Public University of Navarre, Edificio los Magnolios, Campus Arrosadia, 31006 Pamplona, Iruñea, Spain ([email protected]). References Aldasoro, E. (2001) La evolución de la enseñanza en euskera en Navarra: Una perspectiva pedagógica. Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos 46, 593–624. Arnau, J. and Artigal, J.M. (eds) (1998) Immersion Programmes: A European Perspective. Barcelona: University of Barcelona.

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Arnau, J. and Sotés, P. (1996) La comunicación profesor/a alumno/a en los programas de inmersión al catalán y al euskara: Una comparación. In M. Siguán (ed.) La Enseñanza Precoz de una Segunda Lengua en la Escuela (pp. 13–26). Barcelona: Horsori/I.C.E. University of Barcelona. Arnau, J. and Sotés, P. (1998) Diferencias individuales al inicio de un programa de inmersión: El uso y la adquisición del euskara. In J. Arnau and J.M. Artigal (eds) Els Programes d’immersió: una Perspectiva Europea/Immersion Programmes: A European Perspective (pp. 450–467). Barcelona: University of Barcelona. Autonomous Decree (1988) Autonomous Decree 159/1988 Decreto Foral 159/1988, de 19 de mayo, por El que se regula la incorporación y uso del vascuence en la enseñanza no universitaria de Navarra. Boletín Oficial de Navarra, de 1 de junio. Baker, C. (2000) The Care and Education of Young Bilinguals. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Baker, C. (2001) Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (3rd edn). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Basque Government (2005) 3rd Sociolinguistic Map, 2001/III. Mapa Sociolingüístico, 2001. Donostia-San Sebastián: Servicio Central de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco. Basque Language Law/Ley Foral del Vascuence (1986) 18/86 de 15 de diciembre, Boletín Oficial de Navarra, n. 154. Cobreros, E. (1989) El Régimen Jurídico de la Oficialidad del Euskera. Bilbao: Instituto Vasco de Administración Pública. Cobreros, E. (1998) Algunas reflexiones sobre la Ley de Normalización del Euskera. Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos-RIEV- 43, 2, 333–339. Etxagüe, X. (1993) Nafarroako “D” ereduko ikasleen euskara errendimendua. Azterketa deskribatzailea. Tantak 9, 21–44. Etxebarria, M. (1995) El Bilingüismo en el Estado Español. Bilbao: Ediciones F.B.V. Gabiña, J.J., Gorostidi, R., Iruretagoiena, R., Olaziregi, I. and Sierra, J. (1986) EIFE: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Garagorri, X. (1983) Ikastoletako irakaskuntzaren garapena eta egoera. Jakin 28, 6–60. General Office of Language Policy/Dirección General de Política Lingüística (1997) Mapa Sociolingüístico de Navarra, 1991. Pamplona: Gobierno de Navarra. Goikoetxea, M. J. (1994) Eskola eta Hizkuntza/Escuela y Lengua. Donosita-San Sebastián: Txertoa. Government of Navarre/Gobierno de Navarra (2004) Sociolinguistic Study of the Basque Language in Navarre 2003 / Estudio Sociolingüístico sobre el Vascuence en Navarra 2003. Competencia lingüística, uso y actitudes. Pamplona: Dirección General de Universidades y Política Lingüística del Gobierno de Navarra. Iza, L. (1999) Situación actual de la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras en Navarra. In Departamento de Educación y Cultura del Gobierno de Navarra (ed.) Actas de las Jornadas de Lenguas Extranjeras (pp. 11–30). Pamplona: Departamento de Educación y Cultura del Gobierno de Navarra. Larrañaga, I. (1990) Nafarroako egoera demolinguistikoa. Jakin 56, 35–72. Monreal, G. (2001) Origen de la Ley del Vascuence en Navarra. Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos – RIEV- 46, 2, 517–543. Oroz, N. (1998) La lengua vasca en Navarra. Creencias, actitudes e ideología. Tesis doctoral Publicación no. 9999728 en UMI (ProQuest). Oroz, N. (1999) Euskararekiko Jarrerak Nafarroan. Bat Soziolinguistika 32, 35–45. Rodríguez Ochoa, J.M. (2001) Aplicación y desarrollo normativo de la Ley Foral del Vascuence en el ámbitos de la Administración Foral de Navarra. Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos – RIEV- 46, 2, 545–592. Ruiz Bikandi, U. (ed.) (2000) Didáctica de la Segunda Lengua en Educación Infantil y Primaria. Madrid: Síntesis. School Council of Navarre/Consejo Escolar de Navarra (2006) Informe del Sistema Educativo en Navarra, curso 2005–2006. Sierra, J. (1991) La inmersión y la enseñanza en el País Vasco. Comunicación, Lenguaje y Educación 9, 47–55. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1989) EIFE 2: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government.

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Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1991) EIFE 3: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1992) Evaluación de la Lengua Escrita en la Escuela. GasteizVitoria: Basque Government. Sotés, P. (1993) La interacción profesor-alumnos en la adquisición del euskera como segunda lengua. In M. Siguán (ed.) Enseñanza en Dos Lenguas (pp. 243–250). Barcelona: Horsori-I.C.E. de la Universidad de Barcelona. Sotés, P. (1995) Berbaldia hezgarria murgiltze programa batetan. In Eusko Ikaskuntza (ed.) Eusko Ikaskuntza XII Kongresua: Euskal Ikaskuntzak Hezkuntza Sarean (pp. 655–660). Donostia: Eusko Ikaskuntza. Sotés, P. (1996) Ikasgelako berbaldia: Irakaslea eta ikasleak nola komunikatzen dira elkarren artean bigarren hizkuntzaz?. Jakingarriak 32 34–38. Sotés, P. (1998) La Comunicación Profesor/a-Alumnos al Comienzo de un Programa de Inmersión al Euskara. Tesis doctoral microfichada no. 3267. Barcelona: University of Barcelona. Sotés, P. (2000) Uso y adquisición de la segunda lengua en un programa de inmersión: Diferencias individuales. Infancia y Aprendizaje 92 29–49. Sotés, P. and Oroz, N. (2005) El tratamiento de las lenguas en Navarra. In X.P. RodríguezYanes, A.M. Suarez and F. Ramallo (eds) Bilingualism and Education: From the Family to the School (pp. 435–454). Muenchen: Lincom Europa. Zabaleta, F. (1994) Bigarren Hizkuntzaren Irakaskuntza Murgiltze-Ereduan. Donostia: Zubia Editoriala. Zalbide, M. (1998) Normalización lingüística y escolaridad: Un informe desde la sala de máquinas. Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos-RIEV- 43, 355–424.

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Assessment of Bilingual Education in the Basque Country Josu Sierra ISEI-IVEI, Basque Institute for Evaluation and Research in Education, Bilbao, Spain The evaluation of bilingual education in the Basque Country has gone through different stages during the last 25 years. From 1983 onwards, language models of schooling A, B and D were developed, according to parental choice. Model A is not considered a bilingual education model, since L2 is taught as a subject only, while models B and D are immersion programmes. The first doubt that arose in those years was whether the learning of L2 would affect the competence level of pupils in L1, and how the different language models of schooling would function. This was the main reason for the EIFE 1, 2 and 3 studies and the HINE study. These evaluations compared models A, B and D on scores obtained in the two official languages. Around 1995 a new phase started in Spain when the first evaluations of academic achievement in Primary Education were set up. Many people were convinced then that bilingualism had a price, and that the academic achievement of bilingual pupils would be lower than the academic achievement of monolingual pupils. This preconception vanished when the results of the 1995 evaluation mentioned above were known: the Basque Country and Navarre obtained the best scores in all Spain. Later in 2000, the PISA International Evaluation of the OECD raised the issue of the language used to administer the test: in which language do pupils score better? Finally, in 2004, the Basque education system was evaluated using the Common European Framework of Reference so as to find out the level of competence pupils reach at the end of compulsory education. doi: 10.2167/lcc341.0 Keywords: assessment, evaluation, bilingual education, Basque

Introduction The Basque language is a minority language in the Basque Country. According to Mateo and Aizpurua (2003), this has come about because . . . during the last century the steady decline of Basque . . . resulted in such a large ‘language shift’ that nowadays monolingual Basque speakers have almost disappeared, the number of Basque speakers has been reduced to a third of the population, and the population whose mother tongue is Basque is a minority in all the Basque provinces. (Mateo & Aizpurua, 2003) It is now more than 20 years since the Statute of Autonomy (1979) declared Basque an official language in the BAC and the Basque Country recovered its own public institutions. The Law for the Normalisation of the Use of the Basque Language (1982) ensured BAC citizens’ language rights and stated the obligations on public institutions to achieve a complete normalisation of the use of Basque. From then on, ‘Reversing Language Shift’ became the central objective of language policy (Mateo & Aizpurua, 2003). 39

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Education Bilingual education in the Basque Country (BAC) started with the Law for the Normalisation of the Use of the Basque Language (1982). As Zalbide and Cenoz (this volume) point out, its subsequent development (Bilingualism Decree, 1983) established the bilingual teaching models A, B and D, representing three different approaches to the learning of Basque and Spanish, all of them subject to parental choice. In model A learning takes place in Spanish and Basque is taught as a subject. Models B and D are immersion programmes in Basque. Model B is a partial immersion programme, and model D, in most cases, is a total immersion (‘super-immersion’) programme. One of the main reasons for establishing these three models was the very small number of teachers able to teach their subjects in Basque at that time. However, the 1982 Law established a unique objective for all the pupils: to be able to use the two official languages by the end of Compulsory Education. The evolution of parental choice for each model has been very clear during all these years: model A has decreased and nowadays most schoolchildren are schooled in models B and D (see Zalbide & Cenoz, this volume for figures). The increase in the number of teachers able to teach their subjects in Basque has also been remarkable, following on a large allocation of resources and major organisational changes that were made for this purpose. Despite the great importance given to the education system in the revival of Basque in society, some other areas of everyday life have not seen such a big effort. And this is probably one of the reasons why the use of Spanish is found in every place and situation, while there has been little increase in the use of Basque in everyday situations

Bilingual Education and its Outcomes The first assessment of the outcomes of the bilingual education in the Basque Country, ‘EIFE 1: The Teaching of Basque: Influence of Factors’, comes from the 1980s (Gabiña et al., 1986). The aim of the study and the following two studies, EIFE-2 and EIFE-3, was to assess the command of Basque and Spanish acquired by pupils schooled in the three models (Sierra & Olaziregi, 1989, 1991). They also intended to identify the variables affecting the acquisition of Basque and Spanish, such as mother tongue, attitudes toward languages, pupils’ overall attitude, percentage of input received in each language, and so on. The tests designed for the EIFE studies were published under the name of GALBAHE (Olaziregi & Sierra, 1986a, 1986b) and their main aim was to compare the command of the two languages of pupils schooled in the three models, A, B and D. From the beginning it was obvious that the command of Spanish was similar for the three models, since it was the majority language in the street, the media, and society in general. On the other hand, command of Basque varied greatly across the three models, as one would expect given the differences in teaching methods and the amount of exposure to the language. The first study shows that model D, and to a certain extent model B, achieved quite acceptable test scores in Basque, but model A pupils achieved only a very low level of competence in the language.

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Another matter of concern at that time was the issue raised in Canada about ‘additive bilingualism’ but not subtractive, this is, whether the L2 was acquired at the expense of L1 or there was an enrichment without any loss in L1 (see Cummins, 1988; Genesee, 1987; Lambert & Tucker, 1972; Swain & Lapkin, 1982). The EIFE studies were useful to show that acceptable levels could be achieved in the immersion programmes with no loss of competence in the mother tongue. The research carried out in this field, especially in Canada, and the contribution of some distinguished Canadian researchers were basic points of reference for the assessment of bilingual education in the Basque Country. For example, Jim Cummins in the foreword to the study EIFE-2 (1989), criticised model A (L2 learnt as a subject) and recommended changes to it. He also said that the outcomes of the research carried out through EIFE-1 and EIFE-2 matched exactly the outcomes in other countries and offered a good basis for school language policies, outlining that models B and D proved efficient in the teaching of Basque. The EIFE studies were followed by the study HINE (Sierra, & Olaziregi, 1992) on written Basque.

Student Achievement Evaluations of immersion programmes indicate that children acquire language skills in a second language at no expense of the first language or academic development. As Holobow said: Further evaluations have proven that not only does English develop at a normal rate in immersion students, comparable to that of their peers, but also that immersion students readily transfer their language skills and knowledge of subject matter from the target language to English. (Holobow, 1988) Another milestone in the development of bilingual education in the Basque Country was confirmation that it did not lead to poorer academic achievements. As we shall see below, the belief, widespread throughout Spain, that bilingual education systems lead to poorer academic achievements was disproved by the outcomes of the studies ‘Assessment of Primary Education, 1995’ (INCE, 1997) and ‘Diagnosis of the Education System. Compulsory Secondary School 1997’ (INCE, 1998), both of them carried out by the National Institute of Evaluation INCE. Mean scores from the evaluation conducted in 1997 are shown in Table 1. These studies became the starting point of the assessment of the Educational System and their outcomes were quite surprising in the Spanish context. The Basque Country and Navarre obtained the best results in the Primary Education study across the participating autonomous communities. According to results, the scores of the BAC are the same as the Spanish average in one of the subject areas assessed (Grammar) and above it in the other two (Mathematics and Reading Comprehension). Another landmark in this field was the PISA 2003 international evaluation (OECD). The Basque Country participated with its own sample, but making sure that pupils whose L2 was Basque took the tests in their mother tongue, since otherwise they would be at a disadvantage due to the high language requirements of the PISA tests. This issue of the ‘language of the test’ is important

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Table 1 Mean scores in the tested subjects by Autonomous Communities. Reading Comprehension, Grammar and Literature, Maths, Sciences, Geography and History Areas

Reading Comprehension

Grammar and Literature

Mathematics

Sciences

Geography and History

Aragon

232

237

245

238

236

Asturias

225

231

228

226

236

Baleares

216

219

215

225

209

Cantabria

222

229

229

230

212

Castilla La Mancha

216

222

220

226

222

Castilla y Leon

227

232

232

238

239

Cataluna

218

216

224

Ceuta/Melilla

212

223

208

201

205

Extremadura

215

223

222

226

219

Galicia

230

241

231

—

La Rioja

224

232

242

211

223

Madrid

223

233

232

232

232

Murcia

210

213

213

222

219

Navarra

218

215

239

Valencia

213

219

215

Basque Country

224

226

242

Media

220

226

227

—

230

228

in achievement testing, since pupils learning the language in the school have not reached the ‘almost-native’ level yet (see ISEI-IVEI, 2004a). Table 2 shows the results for Reading in PISA 2003. The Basque Country obtained a score of 497, 3 points higher than the OECD mean, which was 494 points (ISEI-IVEI, 2006a). It does not seem to be a bad score for a majority of bilingual students (more than 2600 out of the 3900 in the sample). In fact, bilingual education and particularly immersion programmes can have a positive effect on skills such as reading comprehension. Statistics Canada (2004), comparing the scores of immersion and non-immersion students in PISA 2000, notes Immersion students outperform non-immersion students in reading. Students were assessed in the language of their school system; 98% of

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Table 2 Results for Reading in PISA 2003 The Basque Country

497

Polans

497

France

496

United States

495

OECD MEAN

494

French immersion students were tested in English. While the percentage of immersion students tested in French was generally very small, most of these cases were in Manitoba, where about one-quarter of French immersion students were tested in French. In all but one province (Manitoba), students in French immersion programs performed significantly better in reading than other students. (Statistics Canada, 2004) These results are obtained when students are tested in the language they have a better command of, which is English in this case. These findings contradict the idea that the ‘most brilliant’ pupils are those who have their mother tongue as the language of instruction since these Canadian students had French as the main language of instruction. It would be true to say that the most ‘brilliant pupils’ are usually pupils from the highest socioeconomic backgrounds but this is a different issue. On the other hand, it should be taken into account that learning in the mother tongue is not the most usual way of learning across the world (UNESCO, 2003, 15). In short, neither the international data nor the data from the Basque Country show a higher level of academic achievement among pupils who learn in their mother tongue. Apart from the mentioned assessments, the ISEI-IVEI has assessed the levels of competence of the Basque pupils in Basque and Spanish through studies such as ‘Assessment of Compulsory Education 2000’ (ISEI-IVEI 2004b) and ‘Assessment of Primary Education 2004’ (ISEI-IVEI 2006b). The results confirm the outcomes of the EIFE studies.

Evaluation of Language Competence and the Council of Europe Framework of Reference With the publication of the Council of Europe’s (COE) ‘European Framework of Reference for Language learning, teaching and assessment’ (Council of Europe, 2001), we entered a new era with regard to assessing language competence. Up till then, tests were often designed ‘ad hoc’ for each assessment and the same Basque and Spanish tests were used in models A, B and D. From 2001 on (year in which the ISEI-IVEI was created), one of the objectives of this institute for evaluation is to design tests based on the European Framework of Reference, which will allow us to make comparisons by using criteria specially established for pupils learning different languages as second languages. Besides, we sought to establish a clear level of reference for all the Basque pupils, since nowadays it is not clear what the language objectives are for each of the models. These two main objectives of the ISEI-IVEI were achieved in

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2004 with the study ‘Level B2 in Basque at the end of Compulsory Education’ (ISEI-IVEI, 2005). The levels defined in the Framework of Reference range from A1 (lowest) to C2 (highest), with B2 is defined as a suitable level for an independent language user. The B2 test was designed by a group of experts and after the pilot study it was decided not to include model A pupils in the assessment, since the test was clearly too difficult for them. A representative sample of pupils from models B and D (1191 pupils) showed that 68% of pupils from model D and 32.6% from model B scored above level B2 in Basque (see Figure 1). Moreover, these figures are probably under-estimates, since this kind of test was completely new to the pupils. The results were widely reported in the media and the subsequent discussion within the school community, as in society generally, is still ongoing and has had important consequences, as we will see later. Figure 2 shows the distribution of test scores obtained by model B pupils (excluding the speaking test). In addition to those who passed the test, there is another 25% of the students very close to the minimum score required to

Figure 1 Percentage of students reaching level B2

Figure 2 Distribution of test scores (Basque, B2) in model B

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Figure 3 Distribution of test scores (Basque, B2) in model D pass the test (60%). The same applies to model D (Figure 3). The data indicate that there is an additional 25.6% of students who were very close to the passing score. In the light of these results, Level B2, as proposed by the Council of Europe, may be suggested as an objective of Compulsory Education in the Basque Country since it is high enough as to allow pupils to manage in L2 and to interact with native speakers and at the same time ensures the acquisition of competences that will allow pupils to learn different academic subjects in L2, with no risks of harmful effects in their academic achievement. B1 level’s assessment was published recently too.

Social and School Debate and the Reform As mentioned earlier, the assessment of level B2 in Basque (the only language we have assessed against this reference) has had important consequences. The intense debate that followed the publication of the outcomes has shown different opinions about the success or failure of the ‘system of bilingual teaching models’ in use in the Basque Country, the observation of the Law for the Normalisation of the Use of the Basque Language (1982), and the suitability of the level of competence proposed for pupils. The results show that the ‘system of bilingual teaching models’ in use since 1982, has failed, in spite of early successes, and must now be replaced. It has been also shown that one of the objectives established by the 1982 Act, that all the pupils should be able to use the two official languages, has not been achieved in all the cases. The debate on the appropriateness of the Council of Europe’s level B2 in assessing the competence of pupils in Basque has also been intense. Some people think this level of requirement is too low and others think it is too high. In this setting, the Basque Parliament asked the Department of Education, Universities and Research for a proposal to reform the bilingual teaching models A, B and D. This proposal was presented in 2007. Therefore, the assessment of bilingual education in the Basque Country that has been reported here provides a valuable opportunity to discuss the future of bilingual education in the

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Basque Country, and several recommendations have already been made by the Basque Government Minister of Education. The most important of these are: • the establishment of an internationally recognised level as an objective to be achieved for the two official languages at the end of compulsory education; • external assessments to monitor the actual level achieved by pupils in all the schools; • the establishment of a unique objective for all the pupils, flexible enough for schools to achieve, but according to their characteristics and wishes. The kind of agreement that the Basque educational system will be able to reach with regard to these language objectives, and the procedures to achieve them, remain to be seen. It seems unrealistic to go back to the situation that existed prior to 2005, but it is not easy to find the most appropriate way forward. The estimated deadline to achieve the objectives of the reform is 10 years. Hopefully, Basque bilingual education will be a model of efficiency and openness by then; meanwhile our task is to learn from the experiences of other countries in similar situations, while at the same time continuing with our own research. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Josu Sierra, Basque Institute for Evaluation and Research in Education, ISEI-IVEI, Asturias 9, Bilbao, 48015, Spain ( [email protected]). References Council of Europe (2001) European Framework of Reference for Language Learning, Teaching and Assessment. Strasbough: Council of Europe, Modern Languages Division. On WWW at http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_EN.pdf. Cummins, J. (1988) Research and theory in bilingual education: The Basque situation in international perspective. In II. Euskal Mundu Biltzarra (pp. 197–210). Gasteiz: Eusko Jaurlaritzaren Argitalpen Zerbitzu Nagusia. Gabiña, J.J., Gorostidi, R., Iruretagoiena, R., Olaziregi, I. and Sierra, J. (1986) EIFE: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Genesee, F. (1987) Learning Through Two languages: Studies of Immersion and Bilingual Education. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House. Holobow, N.E. (1988) The effectiveness of partial French immersion for children from different ethnic and social class backgrounds. FLES News, 2 (1), 2–3, 5–8. INCE (1997) Evaluación de la Educación Primaria. Instituto Nacional de Calidad y Evaluación. Madrid. INCE (1998) Los resultados escolares, diagnóstico del sistema educativo. Instituto Nacional de Calidad y Evaluación. Madrid. On WWW at http://www.ince.mec.es/diag/ index.htm. ISEI-IVEI (2004a) Influencia de la lengua de la prueba en los resultados de las evaluaciones. On WWW at http://www.isei-ivei.net/cast/pub/influencialenguacast.pdf. ISEI-IVEI (2004b) Informe de la evaluación de la ESO 2000. On WWW at http:// www.isei-ivei.net/cast/pub/indexpub.htm. ISEI-IVEI (2005) Level B2 in Basque at the end of obligatory education. On WWW at http://www.isei-ivei.net/eng/pubeng/B2_ENGLISH1.pdf. ISEI-IVEI (2006a) Pisa 2003: Summary of the Basque Country Reports. On WWW at http://www.isei-ivei.net/eng/pubeng/RES_PISA_ingles.pdf. ISEI-IVEI (2006b) Evaluación de la educación primaria 2004. On WWW at http:// www.isei-ivei.net/cast/pub/indexpub.htm.

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Lambert, W.E. and Tucker, G.R. (1972). Bilingual Education of Children. The St. Lambert Experiment. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Mateo M. and Aizpurua X. (2003) Evolución Sociolingüistica del Euskera. On WWW at http://www.euskonews.com/0201zbk/gaia20107es.html. Olaziregi, I. and Sierra, J. (1986a) Galbahe E1 Hizkuntza testa. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. On WWW at http://www.ej-gv.net/publicaciones/indice_e.htm. Olaziregi, I. and Sierra J. (1986b) Galbahe E2 hizkuntza testa. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. On WWW at http://www.ej-gv.net/publicaciones/indice_e.htm. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1986) Galbahe C1 y C2. Castellano. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1989) EIFE 2: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1991) EIFE 3: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1992) HINE. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Statistics Canada (2004) Educational Matters. On WWW at http://www.statcan.ca/ english/freepub/81-004-XIE/200406/imm.htm. Swain, M. and Lapkin, S. (1982) Evaluating Bilingual Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. UNESCO (2003) Education in a Multilingual World. United Nations, Paris (France). On WWW at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001297/129728e.pdf.

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A Longitudinal Study of Academic Achievement in Spanish: The Effect of Linguistic Models K. Santiago, J.F. Lukas, L. Joaristi, L. Lizasoain and N. Moyano Department of Research Methods in Education, University of the Basque Country, FICE, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain This paper reports an evaluation carried out from 1999 to 2003 in 55 schools in the Basque Autonomous Community involving more than 10,000 secondary school students. The variables measured include achievement in Spanish, metacognitive skills, learning strategies and variables related to the students’ family environment. The measurements were made at three different times in the last year of primary, and second and fourth years of secondary school. The main aim of this research study is to conduct a longitudinal study of the students’ achievement using a measuring unit which can be used for the three measurements for all the students. The data reported in this paper focus on proficiency in the Spanish language. Data were analysed using a hierarchical linear model (HLM) with three levels: (1) the three students’ measures at three different points in time; (2) individual variables related to the students; and (3) the variables related to the schools. The paper presents a model of change in achievement in Spanish by examining the influence of background variables including socioeconomic status (SES) of the family and the school, gender, and type of school (private or public). The results indicate that there is a linear increase of scores in Spanish along the school grades. D model students with Basque as the language of instruction obtain lower results than the rest of the students. Other variables such as gender, SES (family and school) and metacognition also have a significant effect. doi: 10.2167/lcc342.0 Keywords: academic achievement, Basque, hierarchical model, secondary education, socioeconomic status

Introduction1 As democracy arrived in Spain in the 1970s, a new political map was shaped by the creation of autonomous regions, among them the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC). As a consequence, most decisions about Education were transferred from central government to the Basque Government. As we have already seen in Zalbide and Cenoz (this volume), apart from making the Spanish language official in the whole State, it was decided that in the BAC, its own language, Basque, would also have an official status. Although nearly everyone in the BAC masters the Spanish language, this was not always the case with Basque. Less than a quarter of the population was proficient in speaking Basque, and the proportion was even lower for writing in Basque. The main language of instruction was Spanish with the exception of some Basque medium schools, the ikastolas. 48

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Taking into account this situation, and because of the co-official character of both languages, Spanish and Basque, the Basque Government decided to introduce a bilingual system for compulsory education (at that time from 6 to 14 years old) where three linguistic models were offered: • Model A: All subjects are taught in Spanish and the Basque language is just a school subject. • Model B: Approximately half of the subjects are taught in Spanish and the other half in Basque. Literacy skills and mathematics are usually taught in Spanish and most of the other subjects in Basque. • Model D: All subjects are taught in Basque and Spanish is just a school subject. The idea was that Model B would disappear by the end of compulsory education and that Models A and D would be the only ones after the age of 14. Nowadays, three decades after the bilingual models were established, the debate about how appropriate they are for the needs of current society is still a controversial issue (see also Sierrra, this volume; Zalbide & Cenoz, this volume). There have been important changes in the educational systems both at the BAC level and in the Spanish state since the models were implemented. For example, the Spanish LOGSE Educational Law, which was passed in 1990, extended compulsory education up to the age of 16. This meant that in the BAC the three models were also extended until the end of compulsory education. This had implications for model B, as models A and D were the only models in post-compulsory education previously. In any case, before or after the LOGSE was approved, the main objective of the bilingual models was that the students would be proficient enough in Basque and Spanish so as to have one language or the other as the language of instruction in post-compulsory education. Nowadays, this goal is considered too ambitious and unrealistic but it can be understood in the context of the political expectations of three decades ago. During the 1980s, research studies were carried out and the results of the models were compared to Canadian immersion (Cummins, 1988; Genesee, 1987). A summary of the research conducted up to 2000 can be found in Etxeberria Balerdi (2001). Most of the studies carried out focused on proficiency in Basque. Most research studies have shown that while the students from model D achieve an acceptable level of Basque, students in model A acquire a very low level of proficiency. With the exception of model D students, it is impossible for most students to have Basque as the language of instruction in post compulsory education because of their lack of proficiency. In the case of students in model B, the results vary from one research study to another. All research studies place the level of Basque in model B between that of the students in model A and model D. Some researchers highlight that model B proficiency is close to model A, and others consider that it is closer to model D. Several studies have examined the possible influence of the different linguistic models on achievement in other subjects. That is, whether investing more time in learning the Basque language can have a negative impact on achievement in other school subjects such as mathematics or science. Research shows that when

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the most important intervening variables are controlled (e.g. intelligence and SES) there are no significant differences among students enrolled in the different linguistic models. At the same time, in the case of research studies in which students from the BAC have been compared to students from other autonomous regions in Spain, Basque students obtained higher scores in other subjects (see Etxeberria Balerdi, 2001; Sierra, this volume). Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out that most research studies comparing the different models carried out in the BAC have been cross-sectional and not longitudinal, that is, the data were collected at a specific time from one or different groups but not at different times from the same groups. The aim of the research study reported here is to examine the level of competence in the Spanish language of students enrolled in different linguistic models. We carried out a longitudinal study for four years to examine changes over time. In this particular case, we focused on reading comprehension because of its importance. As Luna and Caño (2005: 4) point out, reading is the base of the learning that takes place inside and outside the classrooms in most cultures. They add that to improve the development of reading comprehension is one of the main objectives of the educational system, because more complex and abstract knowledge can be built on it. This study is part of an evaluation programme started in the academic year 1999–2000 in the BAC. This evaluation is part of the Network of the School Evaluation (REDES). This network has carried out external evaluations in hundreds of Secondary Schools from different Autonomous Regions in the Spanish State since 1997. The evaluation model that is being used comes from the Context, Input, Process and Product (CIPP) model of evaluation and it is related to current research on school evaluation (Reynolds & Teddy, 2000). The aim of this evaluation is that schools taking part in the evaluation obtain objective, reliable and valid information about their development and their results so that they can take decisions and improve their own work and their students’ performance. The evaluation model uses analyses at the following four levels: • Input level: initial students’ results. • Context level: sociocultural and socioeconomic status (SES) of the students and the schools. • Process level: class and school processes (teachers). • Output level: curriculum areas (mathematics, Basque language, Spanish language, sciences, etc.) attitudes and values, learning strategies and metacognitive skills (students) and students’, families’ and teachers’ views about the school. The project was conducted by researchers from the Department of Research Methods in Education of the University of the Basque Country, in collaboration of IDEA (Institute of Evaluation and Education Counselling). The evaluation was planned for four courses. This article reports some of the findings of the evaluation. Additional info rmation about the evaluation and results obtained in other areas can be found in REDES (1999, 2000), Lukas et al. (2000, 2001), Santiago et al. (2003), Marchesi and Martin (2002) and Lizasoain et al. (2003).

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Methodology Objectives The objective of the study was to fit a mixed linear model to data on student achievement in Spanish reading, using six explanatory variables at three levels, the Type (model A, B, D) and SES of schools, the gender, SES and metacognitive skills of students, and the three occasions of testing, separated by two years, which are nested within students. Sample and testing Testing was carried out at the end of the Primary School in the sixth year (12 years old), in the second year of secondary school (14 years old) and in the fourth year of secondary school (16 years old). In order to start the evaluation process, the Basque Government Department of Education2 issued an invitation to all secondary schools in the BAC (public and private) to take part in the evaluation. From a total 346 schools at this level, 55 showed their interest in taking part in the evaluation and they were all accepted. The Department of Education also decided that all students in the three levels from the 55 schools would participate in the research study. Therefore it was not possible to choose the participants at random. However, taking into account the number of participants in the sample, or the type of school (public or private) the results can to a certain extent be representative of students and secondary schools in the BAC although the percentage of students in private schools was slightly higher in this sample than in the total of the BAC (Lukas et al., 2000). The characteristics of the sample can be seen in Tables 1–3. Table 1 includes the total number of students in the three years, both the participants in this study and the total number of the students in the same grades in secondary education. Tables 2 and 3 also show the number of students in the sample and in the total population in secondary schools but the figures are given for three different years and for public and private schools. The original proportions of the sample were quite close to the proportions of public and private schools for the whole population, but due to missing data the percentages of private school students is higher (see Table 3). The proportions are approximately 58% in private schools and 42% in public schools in compulsory secondary education (12–16 years of age) in the whole of the BAC. The proportion of students in the private system is among the highest in Spain along with Madrid and Barcelona. Finally, Table 4 gives the distribution of students in the sample by school year and linguistic models. Table 1 Distribution of the students by school year in the final sample and in the population Course

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Final sample

Population

6th primary school

2166

17,997

2nd secondary school

1913

22,288

4th secondary school

1384

22,713

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Table 2 Percentages of students in public and private schools in the sample and in the population Type of school

Sample (%)

Population (%)

Public schools

17 (30.9)

133 (38.4)

Private schools

38 (69.1)

213 (61.6)

Total

55

346

Table 3 Percentages of distribution of the students by school year in public and private schools in the sample and the population Course

Sample (%)

Population (%)

Public

Private

Public

Private

6th primary school

659 (30.4)

1507 (69.6)

7140 (39.7)

10,857 (60.3)

2nd secondary school

533 (27.9)

1380 (72.1)

9486 (42.6)

12,802 (57.4)

4th secondary school

411 (29.7)

973 (70.3)

9985 (44.0)

12,728 (56.0)

Table 4 Distribution of the students by school year and linguistic models. Model

6th primary school

2nd secondary school

4th secondary school

A

510 (23.5)

431 (22.5)

305 (22.0)

B

599 (27.7)

515 (26.9)

308 (22.3)

D

1057 (48.8)

967 (50.5)

771 (55.7)

Total

2166

1913

1384

Variables and measuring instruments Tests of reading comprehension The tests used to measure reading comprehension were, as in the case of the PISA project, focused on functional knowledge and on the skills needed for social interaction. Following Luna and Caño we understand reading comprehension as ‘the capacity to understand, use and elaborate a wide range of types of text so as to reach goals, develop knowledge, personal potential and participate in society’ (Luna & Caño, 2005: 4). It is through language that we can tell, narrate, describe and explain things. The tests used in this research focus on the comprehension of the texts through several dimensions (situations, purposes). They evaluate the students’ knowledge about the text, the way they are structured and some significant aspects of lexical semantics (González Nieto, 2002). All the tests used different types of text to assess different kinds of cognitive competence.

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‘Type of Text’ refers to the different ways in which written material can be presented. The types of texts used, which are included in the curriculum for the Language Area, are: • Narrative texts: they narrate happenings, tales, experiences, and so on, and chronological order is very important. In order to understand something that happens in the present it is basic to know what has happened before and then relate it to the present. • Expository texts: they explain things by means of links such as cause and effect, coexistence, and so on. Most textbooks are of this type. • Argumentative texts: we try to convince others or to give reasons to defend our position in front of the people. Some of them give scientific arguments. • Instructive texts: to give specific instructions or indications to follow actions. ‘Cognitive Competences’ refer to the type of reading activity, that is, to the strategies and skills acquired, which enable people to carry out specific tasks that can be evaluated. The competences evaluated in the tests are: • Comprehension 䊊 global comprehension of the text: it consists of identifying the author’s communicative intention and the main idea; 䊊 awareness of the type of text: it refers to the knowledge of the context, communicative function, structure and text genre; 䊊 inferences when reading a text: it is the capacity to find and get a specific piece of information or key expressions and to derive a logical conclusion; 䊊 reflection about the content of the text: it is the ability to relate the content of a text to previous knowledge and experience. • Knowledge about the form 䊊 the way the texts are structured: different parts, connectors to link them; 䊊 knowledge about morphology and lexicon: understanding the form and meaning of words; 䊊 knowledge about syntax and semantics: understanding the syntactic and semantics relations in the utterances; 䊊 spelling. • Sociolinguistic knowledge: it refers to sociolinguistic awareness and appropriateness. • Literary knowledge: it is about certain specific mechanisms used in literary texts. Taking the aim to measure these aspects of reading comprehension as a starting point, three tests were designed to measure reading comprehension in Spanish: one for 12-year-old students, another one for 14-year-old students and the last one for 16-year-old students. They are all multiple choice tests with four choices. These tests are known as Standard Tests of Result Indicators ( Jornet & Suarez, 1996). ‘Item Response Theory’ (IRT) was used to equate scores obtained in the tests carried out in different school grades (REDES, 2000), thus permitting differences between tests to be recorded on a common scale. The programme

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BILOG-MG was used, and standard scores (Z-scores) were converted into the international metric scale of academic performance with a mean of 250 and a standard deviation of 50. Metacognitive skills and learning strategies Apart from the tests in the Spanish language, tests to measure metacognitive skills and learning strategies were also completed by the students. These tests were specifically designed for this research study. The test to measure metacognitive skills tries to find out to which extent students reflect about their own learning process. This test was divided into four theoretical parts: (1) awareness of their own knowledge, (2) metacomprehension, (3) verifying the results and (4) awareness of the strategies that had been used. The learning strategies were evaluated by using a Likert scale with five options. Five factors were obtained after carrying out a principal components analysis: (1) control of strategies, (2) elaboration and organisation of the information, (3) reflection about their own work, (4) relating information already known and new content and (5) memorisation. In this case there was no need to standardise the scores because the measuring instrument is the same for the three years. The variable scores go from 0 to 50. Socioeconomic status (SES) Socioeconomic status generally refers to level of economic income, education level, cultural level and prestige and job level (Dutton & Levine, 1989; Mueller & Parcel, 1981; Willms, 2003). In our case, it was decided to measure the family’s socioeconomic status by using a questionnaire that students had to complete in class. Taking into account the age of the students it was possible to get information directly from the students about themselves and their families. The questionnaire includes items about the parents’ economic status, job information and educational background such as father’s and mother’s education, father’s and mother’s jobs, the number of bathrooms in the house and the number of cars in the family. Three variables included information about New Technologies and cultural goods: to have a computer at home, how often they buy the newspaper and the number of books in the family house. The basic score for each individual in SES is obtained by applying the weighting established for that specific variable to the answer given to each of the items in the questionnaire. These weightings are the result of the factorial weights obtained for each variable in the factor analysis that REDES carried out when designing the instrument (Tiana, 2002). This index ranges for the whole sample between a minimum of 57.8 and a maximum of 146.5. The range was divided into quartiles, and it is these four categories that are used in the analyses to follow. This procedure is a usual recoding scheme for this variable and has been used by several researchers such as D’Angiulli et al. (2004) and Howley and Howley (2004). This new variable was called SESF. The school socioeconomic status was the average SES of students in that school (De Fraine et al., 2002; Rumberger & Palardy, 2005; Willms, 2006; Willms & Raudenbush, 1989). It ranged from a minimum of 85 to a maximum of 124 with an average of 100. As it was the case with SESF, the socioeconomic status of the schools (which we have called SESC) was recoded into its quartiles.

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Statistical analysis: Multilevel modelling The analytic tool used to analyse the data from this longitudinal study was a three-level hierarchical linear model, using the modules HLM3 and HMLM2 from the programme HLM (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). In a two-level hierarchical linear model for longitudinal data, Level 1 is defined as the level of repeated measures and Level 2 the individual level. That is, the repeated measures observed in each individual in different periods of time (Level 1) are nested in the individual level (Level 2). So, at Level 1 the development or change of each person is shown in the individual development which depends on a unique set of parameters. These parameters are at the same time the dependent variables of the model for Level 2, where they can be predicted from individual level or personal characteristics of the students. Finally, a third level can be included to model differences between schools, which are also differences between linguistic models when schools are grouped according to models. For Level 1 the covariates are the School Year and the score in Skills, since it varies in the different years and it is a grand mean centred model. For Level 2, the student, the covariates are the family’s socioeconomic status (SESF), centred on the grand mean, since the value 0 is meaningless and the values rank from 1 to 4. Another covariate is the students’ Gender with the binary codification: 0  boy; 1  girl. Finally, at Level 3, the school level, linguistic model, A, B or D, is considered as the most important independent variable, since the aim of the research study is to analyse the difference in the Spanish language among the three models. Model A was used as the reference category. The covariates are the school socioeconomic status (SESC), also grand mean centred since its values rank between 1 and 4, and School Type coded 0  public; 1  private. The final model, following the HLM notation (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) can be seen in the Appendix.

Results When the resulting mixed model was fitted to the data, the coefficients shown in formula (1) were obtained. LANGUAGE  233.92
8.71 (YEAR) – 11.09 (MODEL_D)
0.41 (SKILLS)
4.46 (SESF)
13.51 (GENDER)
8.43 (SESC)

(1)

The LANGUAGE score of 233.92 is the average score for the entire sample, identical for all students and arbitrarily set at the average score at the end of Primary School for those students who are male, enrolled in models A or B, with an average score in metacognitive skills, with an intermediate SES (family-level), and attending schools with an average SES. The other coefficients in (2) may now be interpreted as follows, by comparison with the average score for the reference group just described. They show the size and direction of the effects operating on the students’ achievement in Spanish comprehension.

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Not surprisingly, the effect of each additional year of schooling dominates the results. Each year is worth an additional 8.71 points, yielding an average score of 233.92
2 (8.71) or 251.34 in second year of secondary school, that is, after two additional years schooling, and a score of 233.92
4 (8.71) or 268.76 points in the fourth year of secondary school. These scores are further modified as follows: • female students get 13.51 additional points; • model D students get 11.09 points less; • students with higher Metacognitive Skills get an additional 4.1 points (for every 10-point increase in metacognition); • students with higher Metacognitive Skills get an additional 4.1 points (for every 10-point increase in metacognition, which has a range of 0–50); • higher SES has an impact on language achievement at both School Level (an additional 8.43 points, the equivalent of one year’s schooling) and a smaller effect at Family Level (an additional 4.46 points).

Discussion of the Results and Conclusions The results on gender are to be expected because this is the usual situation in Europe and in some other parts of the world. The results indicate that learning strategies and metacognitive skills are also important and related to the performance in the Spanish language test. There is no interaction between these variables and the linguistic models so their influence is the same for the three models. When analysing the effect of the socioeconomic status, both related to the family and the school, the results are interesting. This effect has been analysed in detail in Lizasoain et al. (2007). Here we can just point out that the contextual effect has been confirmed and that the effect of the school SES is higher than the family SES. The difference between a student who attends a low SES school (SESC  1) as compared to another one who attends a high SES school (SESC  4) is 25.29 points in the score of the Spanish language test, while this difference between extreme points is of 13.38 when low family SES (SESF  1) is compared to high family SES (SESF  4). In all cases high SES is linked to higher scores. The linguistic model variable, which is the most important in this research study indicates that students in Model D obtained, on average, 11 points less in their scores than students in the other two models. This finding is remarkable because so far other studies have always shown that D model students obtain better results in Basque than other models but that there are no significant differences between the models in Spanish (see Sierra, this volume). The results of this study provide empirical evidence to prove that this is not always the case because students in model D got worse scores in the Spanish language tests than the students in the other models. The longitudinal design of this research study allows us to observe that the lower scores of model D are obtained at the different times of measurement. Therefore, a first conclusion is that it seems necessary to work more specifically on the learning of Spanish with model D students. It would be interesting to conduct further research studies so as to see if this difference is even bigger in those contexts where the Basque language is used more often in everyday life

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in the different social domains. Obviously, the conclusion of this research study has to be considered as related to the special characteristics of the sample and future research is necessary to clarify this issue. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to K. Santiago, Department of Research Methods in Education, University of the Basque Country, FICE, Tolosa Hiribidea 70, Donostia-San Sebastian, E-20008, Spain ([email protected]). Notes 1. This research was funded by the research projects ‘Evaluation of the Secondary School in the BAC, a longitudinal study with an elaboration and a validation of a multilevel model of the academic achievement’, project UPV0218.230-H-15288; ‘A longitudinal study about the metacognitive skills and about the learning strategies of students in Compulsory Secondary School and post compulsory’, project UPV 00218.230-H-15886/2004, and from funds for the research group UPV-EHU GIU05/17. 2. The model obtained was the optimum model according to the AIC criterion. All the variables have entered the model except for the type of school which is not relevant according to the the AIC criterion. Interactions are not relevant either.

References Cummins, J. (1988) Research and theory in bilingual education: The Basque situation in international perspective. In II. Euskal Mundu Biltzarra (pp. 197–210). Gasteiz: Basque Government. D’Angiulli, A., Siegel, L.S. and Hertzman, C. (2004) Schooling, socioeconomic context and literacy development. Educational Psychology 24, 867–883. De Fraine, B., Van Damme, J. and Onghena, P. (2002) Accountability of schools and teachers: What should be taken into account? European Educational Research Journal 1, 403–428. Dutton, D.B. and Levine, S. (1989) Overview, methodological critique, and reformulation. In J.P. Bunker, D.S. Gomby and B.H. Kehrer (eds) Pathways to Health (pp. 29–69). Menlo Park, CA: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Etxeberria Balerdi, F. (2001) Elebitasuna eta Hezkuntza Euskararen Herrian. Donostia: Ibaeta Pedagogía. Genesee, F. (1987) Learning Through Two Languages: Studies of Immersion and Bilingual Education. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House. González Nieto, L. (2002) El aprendizaje de la lengua. In A. Marchesi y E. Martín (eds) Evaluación de la Educación secundaria. Fotografía de una etapa polémica (pp. 179–196). Madrid: SM. Howley, C.B. and Howley, A.A. (2004) School size and the influence of socioeconomic status on student achievement: Confronting the threat of size bias in national data sets. Education Policy Analysis Archives 12 (52). On WWW at http://epaa.asu.edu/ epaa/v12n52/. Accessed 14.9.07. Jornet, J. and Suárez, J.M. (1996) Pruebas estandarizadas y evaluación del rendimiento: Usos y características métricas. Revista de Investigación Educativa 14, 141–163. Lizasoain, L., Joaristi, L., Santiago, C., Lukas, J.F., Moyano, N., Sedano, M. and Munárriz, B. (2003) El uso de las técnicas de segmentación en la evaluación del rendimiento en lenguas. Un estudio en la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca. Revista de Investigación Educativa 21, 93–111. Lizasoain, L., Joaristi, L., Lukas, J.F. and Santiago, C. (2007) El efecto contextual del nivel socioeconómico sobre el rendimiento académico en la educación secundaria obligatoria en la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca (España). Estudio diferencial del nivel socioeconómico familiar y el del centro escolar. Education Policy Analysis Archives 15 (8). On WWW at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/. Accessed 16.9.07.

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Lukas, J.F., Santiago, C., Munárriz, B., Moyano, N. and Sedano, M. (2000) Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoko ikastetxeen kanpo-ebaluazioa. Tantak 24, 39–63. Lukas, J.F., Santiago, C., Joaristi, L. and Lizasoain, L. (2001) Usos de la evaluación en profesores/as de la ESO de la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca. In Actas del X Congreso Nacional de Modelos de Investigación Educativa (pp. 427–433). La Coruña: AIDIPE. Luna, F. and Caño, A. (2005) Proyecto PISA. Ejemplos de Ítems de Lectura. Bilbao: ISEI-IVEI. Marchesi, A. and Martín, E. (eds) (2002) Evaluación de la Educación Secundaria. Fotografía de una Etapa Polémica. Madrid: SM. Mueller, C.W. and Parcel, T.L. (1981) Measures of socioeconomic status: Alternatives and recommendations. Child Development 52, 13–30. Raudenbush, S.W. and Bryk, A.S. (2002) Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (2nd edn). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. REDES equipo (1999) Una red de evaluación de centros de Educación Secundaria. Infancia y Aprendizaje 85, 59–73. REDES equipo (2000) Variables predictoras de la calidad de la educación secundaria. Revista de Educación 323, 395–420. Reynolds, D. and Teddie, C. (2000) The processes of School Effectiveness. In C. Teddie and D. Reynolds (eds) The International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research (pp. 134–159). London: Falmer Press. Rumberger, R.W. and Palardy, G.J. (2005) Does segregation still matter? The impact of student composition on academic achievement in high school. Teachers College Record, 107, 1999–2045. Santiago, C., Lucas, J.F., Sedano, M., Lizasoain, L., Moyano, N. and Joaristi, L. (2003) Estrategias de aprendizaje, habilidades metacognitivas y rendimiento académico. In L. Buendía (ed.) Actas del XI Congreso Nacional de Modelos de Investigación Educativa (pp. 1091–1098). Granada: Grupo Editorial Universitario. Tiana, A. (2002) El contexto sociocultural en la evaluación de los centros educativos. In A. Marchesi and E. Martín (eds) Evaluación de la Educación Secundaria. Fotografía de una Etapa Polémica (pp. 61–76). Madrid: SM. Willms, J.D. (2003) Ten Hypotheses about Socioeconomic Gradients and Community Differences in Children’s Developmental Outcomes. Final Report. Applied Research Branch. Strategic Policy. Human Resources Development. Canada. On WWW at http://www. hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/sp-ps/arb-dgra. Accessed 14.9.07. Willms, J.D. (2006) Learning Divides: Ten Policy Questions About the Performance and Equity of Schools and Schooling Systems. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Willms, J.D. and Raudenbush, S.W. (1989) A longitudinal hierarchical linear model for estimating school effects and their stability. Journal of Educational Measurement 26, 209–232.

Appendix Final model: Level 1: LANGUAGEtij  0ij
1ij COURSEtij
2ij SKILLStij
etij Level 2: 0ij  00j
01j SESFij
02j GENDERij
r0ij 1ij  10j 2ij  20j
r2ij Level 3: 00j  000
001 SESCj
002 MODEL_Dj
u00j 01j  010 02j  020 10j  100
u10j 20j   200
u20j

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Measuring Student Language Use in the School Context Iñaki Martínez de Luna Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences, University of the Basque Country, Leioa (Bizkaia), Spain Pablo Suberbiola Soziolinguistika Klusterra, Martin Ugalde Kultur Parkea, Andoain (Gipuzkoa), Spain After the experience of many years of teaching in two or three languages, the Basque speech community needs to know not merely how much students achieve in each language and what level of proficiency they attain but also which language they use, how often they use each language, and the relationship between language use and other variables. This paper reports on a study, the ‘Arrue Programme’ conducted during the 2005–2006 academic year on student language use in the school context and the factors affecting it. Participants were students between the ages of 10 and 11 who were in the sixth grade of primary education in 50 schools in different areas of the Basque Autonomous Community. The data include the observation of language use by 1325 students both in the playground and inside the classroom. In addition, data on other student variables were collected through questionnaires and written work. The two sets of data are used to suggest a model of the principal background and situational variables that determine the varieties of language use that we observed. doi: 10.2167/lcc343.0 Keywords: language use, Basque, social domains, social networks

Predicting Language Use: A Theoretical Model In order to analyse the links between student language use and the characteristics of the students, we assumed that the survival of a language depends on its use, specifically on the use that is made of it in order to fulfill a community’s social functions (Martínez de Luna, 2001). On an operational level, the survival of a language and its use amount to the same thing. Taking this a step further, it follows that a number of conditions need to exist on three levels to ensure survival (or use), one individual level (the student level in this case) and two social levels, the micro- and macrosocial levels (Figure 1). Individual level In a language contact situation, certain favourable conditions, like competence and motivation, are needed on an individual level to ensure that a specific language is chosen by the speaker. Nowadays, there is broad acceptance of the interaction or relationship between three language elements; competence, motivation and use (see Sánchez Carrión, 1991: 35–64). Minimum competence in the language in question is necessary, but not sufficient. The level of competence that speakers need in the threatened language cannot be given in absolute terms. It needs to be as good if not better than the competence they have in the 59

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Figure 1 Conditions for the survival of a language

other language in the contact situation. If not, the chances are that when people communicate, they will spontaneously – consciously or otherwise – select the language in which they can express themselves more easily. Furthermore, speakers need to have a positive attitude to language and motivation to use it. The value they place on the language may be pragmatic, symbolic, integrative or other. If motivation in favour of the language is of more than one type, then the impulse the person will feel towards the language will be greater, with respect to either using or learning the language. Undoubtedly there are minimum conditions that must be met to ensure that the threatened language is used, but for the overview that this model is going to offer us, the most relevant ones are relative competence and motivation. Micro level: Situations and social networks This is the ‘social situation’, as specified by Fishman (1972), and has three ingredients: • the implementation of the rights and duties of a particular role relationship; • in the place (locale) most appropriate or most typical for that relationship; • at the time societally defined as appropriate for that relationship (Fishman, 1972: 39). The social situation is realised in everyday life, through those networks of relationships we gradually build up, so that we can fulfill the social functions we regard as usual: at home or in the family, in our sphere of work, among friends, when we are interacting with our partners in leisure activities, and so on. For example: when the members of a family perform their usual roles (children, parents and so forth) during mealtimes; when classmates and teachers in a classroom perform their roles; when they engage in their everyday relationships as buyers of bread at the baker’s, and so on.

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On a sociolinguistic level, we are talking about our close network of relationships, or about our community relationships perhaps, and the fact that we share one, or more, languages with the people we are interacting with. In addition to motivation with respect to the language itself, in order to use it one would also need: (1) the presence in the networks of other people who share the same language; (2) the speakers to identify the other speakers as speakers of that language, that is, they need to know that their interlocutors are able to speak in that language; (3) in the case of any single group, it would also be necessary for the members capable of speaking in that language to be in a majority (Amonarriz, 1991: 40–41). Only when these conditions exist will it be possible to maintain a network of relations to operate in a certain language in a specific social situation. Nevertheless, it has to be pointed out that it is not enough that there is a large number of speakers that fulfill the aforementioned conditions. It is more a question of consolidating these networks. To put it another way, these speakers need to constitute a network of relationships that is sufficiently interwoven and solid to enable their own speech community to exist. Macro level: Social domains and social representations When referring to the macro level in society, we will be using the term ‘social domain’, as defined by Fishman (1972). The large-scale aggregative regularities that obtain between varieties and societally recognized functions are examined via the construct termed domain . . . The domains are particularly useful constructs for the macrolevel (i.e. community-wide) functional description of societally patterned variation in ‘talk’ within large and complex diglossic speech communities . . . in education, in the family, in employment, in religion . . . domains are as real as the very social institutions of a speech community and indeed they show a marked paralleling with such major social institutions. (Barker, 1947 in Fishman, 1972: 43–45) So when we speak of a social domain, we are referring to something that is more abstract, general and objective and goes beyond the immediate environment of the individual. For example, daily work relationships corresponds to the sphere of work domain; a class to the educational system domain; the showing of a film to the culture and leisure domain; a radio programme to the mass media domain; and so on. The same happens with any other daily situation as well: each one of these is simply one of the main components of a broader domain. Furthermore, we are putting an additional element into this macro level: that of the ‘social representation’ of a language. This image largely coincides with the concept of ‘subjective ethnolinguistic vitality’ developed by Landry and Allard (1994), Harwood et al. (1994) among others. It is of interest here because it raises the question how a society rates and perceives a language. It is evident that the attitude that each member of that society has towards the language is associated both with its image and its social prestige, and that these ideas belong at different levels of analysis.

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When there is a lower legal or social status at the domain level for any language (less importance or legal prohibition, or absence of the language in the landscape, and so on) or, on the other hand, when the social representations with respect to it are adverse (lack of social prestige, social norms opposed to it, and so on), bilingual people may opt for the other language in contact, in favour of the language that is valued in the immediate environment. And that can happen very easily, even though people may have a positive attitude towards the weaker language: As the environment (in general) does not encourage integrative-pragmatic motivation (. . .), the Basque language revival process is only linked to symbolic motivation; and that support alone amounts to very little for the language that one is trying to revive. (Martínez de Luna & Jausoro, 1998: 132) So, while a language lacks legitimacy or favourable conditions in the various social domains, and while the social representations are unsuitable, its acceptable use – if such a thing exists at all – will be restricted to three situations, which are in no way reassuring: (1) diglossic situations, with few social functions for the language (2) forms of use based on voluntarism, that is, requiring a constant special effort on the part of its supporters, because it is working against the inertia of a social norm that tends towards the majority language; (3) insecure forms of use by various social and public groups that can be cut off or restricted at any moment because of the excessive difficulties they pose and that additional costs associated with them. A language that finds itself in these circumstances is left with very few options. Interaction between the three levels It has to be pointed out that close, lively interaction exists between the microand macrosocial levels, and likewise between these two and the individual level; in other words the three levels are linked and influence each other: . . . domains and social situations reveal the links that exist between the microlevel and macrolevel sociology of language. The members of diglossic speech communities can come to have certain views concerning their varieties or languages, because these varieties are associated (in behavior and attitude) with particular domains. (Fishman, 1972: 46) Nevertheless, even though interaction takes place among the three levels, it has to be admitted that the interaction is not unrestricted nor does it always operate in a deterministic way. In spite of unfavourable conditions historically in many domains, lesser-used language communities have sometimes maintained a good level of linguistic competence, positive attitudes and networks of use, as Erize indicated in his research on the history of the Basque language in Navarre: Basque has survived because it has been built upon a structured society or community: in it, being a Basque speaker was regarded as a value, it had

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prestige and Basque language behavior tended to be developed and transmitted. (Erize, 1997: 24) The Basque speech community of Navarre did not have . . . any political or social framework built upon it or upon its language. (Erize, 1997: 36)

Conditions Linked to Basque Use Measuring Basque use in the playground and processing the data Basque use by students in the playground is the dependent variable that we took as the main object of study. Information on the use of Basque was gathered by direct observation, and the data analysed using the quantitative methods described below. In order to build a model of student language in the playground, several earlier studies were taken into account. Firstly, the EIFE research (Sierra & Olaziregi, 1989) conducted by the Basque Government Department of Education constituted an important reference when specifying what kind of explanation we were aiming to produce. Secondly, with respect to the method for measuring use, we based ourselves on the experience gained at the SEI Association (Altuna, 2003) and the Sociolinguistics Cluster (Soziolinguistika Klusterra, 2007). Furthermore, we took into account research conducted to measure and quantify playground use in the Catalan case (Vila & Galindo, 2006), and work published by Professor J.A. Fishman and his associates in the early 1970s (Fishman et al., 1971; Fishman, 1972). Data on language use were gathered by having teachers observe the students in the playground. The observation was direct and the data were collected in such a way that they could be analysed on an individual level. The students knew that the teacher was present but did not know, at least not in theory, that he or she was collecting data on their language use. In the course of these observations we recorded whether the students were using Basque or Spanish amongst themselves while they were speaking. If it was not clear in which language they were speaking (either because they could not be heard properly or because they were mixing the two languages) no data were recorded. Neither were data recorded when students were speaking a language other than Basque or Spanish. We did not analyse ‘the type of language’ students were using, only who was speaking, to whom, and in what language. The number of conversations in Basque observed for a particular student was expressed as a percentage of all of their observed conversations. As we based ourselves on the data collected through observation, subjects with zero observation were left out of the study. Among the students studied (1325) 88.7% had three or more observations and 75.2% had five or more observations. In addition to data on their use of Basque in the playground, student data on 151 other variables was also recorded (variables on linguistic competence and the sociolinguistic context: school, family, friends, neighbours, leisure activities). These were reduced to 25 indicators, recording aspects of the students’ background that might be considered relevant to their language behaviour.

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Table 1 Individual indicators and use of Basque Variables

R

R2

Change statistics R2− change

Significant F change

(1) Relative ease with Basque

0.574

0.330

0.330

0.000

(2) Competence in writing in Basque

0.634

0.402

0.072

0.000

(3) Habit of speaking in Basque in the classroom

0.656

0.430

0.028

0.000

(4) First language

0.673

0.453

0.023

0.000

(5) Motivation with respect to Basque

0.680

0.462

0.009

0.000

(6) Being an active Basque/Spanish speaker

0.685

0.469

0.007

0.000

Individual level Following the theoretical approach seven indicators were used at the individual level and six entered the multiple regression analysis at a significant level (Stepwise Type). The indicator that did not reach significance and was excluded from the multiple regression analysis was school achievement. These six individual indicators explained 46.9% of the variance use of Basque in the playground (Table 1). The simple (bivariate) correlations of these variables with the dependent variable were relative ease with Basque (r  0.574), competence in writing in Basque (r  0.489), first language (r  0.487), habit of speaking Basque in the classroom (r  0.439), being an active Basque or Spanish speaker (r  0.389), and motivation with respect to Basque (r  0.374). Micro level: Situations and social networks Eleven indicators were used for the microsocial level and seven entered the multiple regression analysis at a significant level (Stepwise). These seven microsocial indicators explained 73% of the variance in use of Basque (Table 2). The simple (bivariate) correlations of these seven microsocial indicators or variables with the dependent variable were group Basque use in the playground (r  0.830), Basque use with siblings (r  0.620, language in the home (r  0.578), student use of audio-visual resources in Basque (r  0.510), Basque atmosphere of school (r  0.501), group Basque use inside the classroom (r  0.425), school planning and activities in favor of Basque (r  0.345). The four indicators that did not enter the equation were the following: speaking in Basque with local friends, leisure time in Basque, parents’ competence in Basque and local friends being able to speak Basque.

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Table 2 Microsocial indicators and use of Basque Variables

R

R2

Change statistics R2− change

Significant F change

(1) Group Basque use in the playground

0.830

0.689

0.689

0.000

(2) Basque use with siblings

0.846

0.716

0.027

0.000

(3) Student use of audio-visual resources in Basque

0.849

0.721

0.005

0.000

(4) Basque atmosphere of school

0.852

0.725

0.004

0.000

(5) Language in the home

0.853

0.728

0.003

0.000

(6) School planning and activities in favour of Basque

0.854

0.729

0.001

0.014

(7) Group Basque use inside the classroom

0.855

0.730

0.001

0.028

Table 3 Macrosocial indicators and use of Basque Variables

R

R2

Change statistics R2− change

Significant F change

(1) Basqueness of the student’s hometown

0.582

0.339

0.339

0.000

(2) School’s bilingual teaching model and teaching staff

0.683

0.467

0.129

0.000

(3) Subjective ethnolinguistic vitality I: family

0.707

0.500

0.033

0.000

(4) People admired by students

0.716

0.512

0.012

0.000

(5) Subjective ethnolinguistic vitality II: society

0.717

0.515

0.003

0.006

(6) Student’s gender (understood as habits of use according to gender)

0.719

0.517

0.002

0.013

Macro level: Social domains and social representation At the macro social level seven indicators were analysed and six of them entered the multiple regression analysis at a significant level. These six macrosocial indicators accounted for 51.7% of the variance in use of Basque (Table 3).

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Figure 2 Explanatory capacity of the theoretical model and its dimensions regarding student Basque use in the playground The simple (bivariate) correlations of these six variables with the dependent variable were Basqueness of the student’s hometown (r  0.582), school’s bilingual teaching model and teaching staff (r  0.552), subjective ethnolinguistic vitality I: family (r  0.522), subjective ethnolinguistic vitality II: society (r  0.332), people admired by the students (r  0.329), student’s gender (understood as habits of use according to gender) (r  0.079). The two indicators that did not enter the multiple regression were student’s and parents’ birthplace. A combined view of the individual, microsocial and macrosocial levels The analysis of indicators and variables is divided into three levels, in accordance with the theoretical model. Taken together, the three levels explain 76.1% of the use of Basque in the playground (Figure 2). Among the three levels, the variables of the student’s network of close relations, those of the microsocial one, are the ones that mostly account for student Basque use in the playground (73.0%). The macrosocial level – social domain and social representations – account for 51.7% and the students’ language characteristics, the individual level, account for 46.9%. These three levels of analysis have in fact many links between them, and also what they explain regarding use is to a great extent shared. That is why when analysing the 25 indicators and variables used in the theoretical model together, only 76.1% of student use in the playground is explained, and no more.

Conclusions The influence of the sociolinguistic situations and conditions linked to the close social networks (micro level in our model) in the use of Basque by students in the playground reported in this research study confirms previous research. It is consistent with theoretical proposals made by scholars like Fishman (Fishman, 1972: 39) and it also confirms empirical research conducted

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in the Basque Country by Erize (1997). Erize proved the influence of the microsocial level in the vitality and survival of Basque in a specific town of Navarre. These scholars do not refer to specific age groups as it is the case in the current study but our results are consistent with their conclusions because they confirm that the ‘social situation’, that is, the close social networks and other sociolinguistic conditions of the immediate context are also decisive in the students’ linguistic behaviour. The sociolinguistic development of the Basque Autonomous Community in the last decades is also a very good example to confirm the influence of the microsocial level. Twenty-five years after a new legal framework allowed the Basque language to be co-official along with Spanish in the BAC (Law for the Normalisation of the Use of the Basque Language 10/1982) the Basque language is a minority language as compared to Spanish. The distribution of social functions among the two languages in contact clearly favours Spanish in most cases. An example of the limitation in use is that ‘in 1991 13.8% of the inhabitants of the BAC used Spanish at home and in 2001 the percentage was 13.64%’ (Eustat, 2006: 233). This situation persists in spite of the measures taken to promote the use of the Basque language as a result of the passing of the Law. The use of Basque has spread to social dimensions (macrosocial level in the model), particularly to the domains of education and public administration but to a lesser extent to the media, the ICTs, the labour market and other economic activities. The changes at the macrosocial level have allowed for the generalised transmission of Basque to new generations though the educational system. In 1981, only 17.99% of the population between two and 19 were competent in Basque and in 2001 the percentage reached 57.79% of the population (Eustat, 2006: 223). That is, there has been an important increase in competence in Basque although most speakers of Basque as a second language are more competent in Spanish. There is an improvement in competence in Basque but the relative competence (the individual level) of Basque vis-à-vis Spanish is much lower. In general, it seems that the linguistic policy developed in the BAC for the recovery of Basque has resulted in an improvement of the social and demolinguistic conditions of the Basque language: On the whole, the language planning policies implemented by the BAC have had a beneficial impact on the recovery of the Basque language in that region of the Basque Country. This experience and ‘know-how’ can be further adapted to the special circumstances prevailing in Navarre and the Northern Basque Country. . . (Bourhis, 2003: 4) It is clear that the improvement of the conditions of the Basque language at the macrosocial and individual level are necessary conditions for its recovery but the progress made is not useful unless progress is also made at the same time in the situations and social networks in which the languages are used in everyday life. The findings of this research study also confirm the need to do so because the microsocial level can explain to a larger extent than the other levels the use of Basque by students in the playground. It is not a question of ignoring or minimising the influence that the conditions associated with the other two levels of our model – the individual and

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macrosocial levels – have as predictors of language use. At the same time, it is necessary to highlight the most crucial level and to work at this microsocial level in order to recover the minority language. Of course, this level interacts with the individual and social levels as it can be seen in the model proposed in this article. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Iñaki Martínez de Luna, Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences, University of the Basque Country, Leioa (Bizkaia), 48940, Spain ([email protected]). References Altuna, O. (2003) Euskararen neurketa ikastetxeko eremu informaletan. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Amonarriz, K. (1991) Euskararen erabilpenaren kale neurketen inguruko gogoetak. Bat Soziolinguistika aldizkaria 3–4, 39–50. Bourhis, R. (2003) Foreword. In Viceconsejería de Política Lingüística: The Continuity of Basque III. Sociolinguistic Survey of the Basque Country. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Erize, X. (1997) Nafarroako euskararen historia soziolinguistikoa 1863–1936. Soziolinguistika historikoa eta hizkuntza gutxituen bizitza. Pamplona-Iruña: Gobierno de Navarra. Eustat (2006) Informe socioeconómico de la C. A. de Euskadi 2006. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Eustat. Fishman, J.A., Cooper, R.L. and Ma, R. (1971) Bilingualism in the Barrio. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University. Fishman, J.A. (1972) The Sociology of Language: An Interdisciplinary Social Science Approach to Language in Society. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Harwood, J., Giles, H. and Bourhis, R.Y. (1994) The genesis of vitality theory: Historical patterns and discoursal dimensions. In R. Landry and R. Allard (eds) International Journal of the Sociology of Language 108, 167–206 (special issue). Landry, R. and Allard, R. (ed.) (1994) Ethnolinguistic vitality. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 108 (special issue). Martínez de Luna, I. (2001) Euskal herriko gaztetxoen hizkuntz egoera aztertzeko eredu orokorraren proposamena. Bat Soziolinguistika Aldizkaria 40, 47–66. Martínez de Luna, I. and Jausoro, N. (1998) Euskararekiko motibazio sinbolikoak. In J. Intxausti (ed.) Euskararen Aldeko Motibazioak (pp. 69–136). Leioa: Universidad del País Vasco. Sánchez Carrión, J.M. (Txepetx) (1991) Un futuro para nuestro pasado. Claves de la recuperación del euskera y teoría social de las lenguas. Donostia-San Sebastián, José María Sánchez Carrión. Sierra, J. and Olaziregi, I. (1989) EIFE 2: Influence of Factors on the Learning of Basque. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. Soziolinguistika Klusterra (2007) Soziolinguistika Klusterra. 2006eko memoria. Andoain: Soziolinguistika Klusterra. On www at http://www.soziolinguistika.org/en. Accessed 20.10.07. Vila i Moreno, F.X. and Galindo, M. (2006) Els usos lingüístics en l’educació primaria a Catalunya: Situació, tendències i perspectives. In El coneixement de llengües a Catalunya. Quaderns d’avaluació 6 (pp. 95–113). Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament d’Educació i Universitats.

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Basque, Spanish and Immigrant Minority Languages in Basque Schools Felix Etxeberria Department of Theory and History of Education, University of the Basque Country, FICE, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain Kristina Elosegi Department of Basque Philology, University of the Basque Country, FICE, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain In the Basque Country there has been a very strong growth in the number of pupils of immigrant origin, the main groups being from Latin America, Europe, Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. The schooling of these pupils does not follow the same pattern as that of autochthonous pupils, as the immigrants tend to concentrate in state sector schools or in private schools serving students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This negative selection is compounded by the tendency of these pupils to concentrate in schools following the Spanish language model; the process of ghettoisation of the community of immigrant pupils is a current and future risk. Further, the Spanish model does not enable the learning of Basque, and a lack of fluency in the latter can hinder the integration of young immigrants into the labour market and society generally. As regards mother tongues, despite the apparent chaos of languages and cultures in our classrooms, two languages stand out on account of the number of speakers involved, Portuguese and Moroccan, and call for specific programmes. While the type of programme required for Portuguese is reasonably clear, in the case of the Arabic language some basic issues about its future are still unresolved. doi: 10.2167/lcc344.0 Keywords: immigrant schoolchildren, public and private schools, pupil selection, concentration and ghettoisation, linguistic models, immigrant minority language

Immigrant Students: Development Over the Years The growth of the immigrant population and pupils in schools has been constant in the Basque Country as in other Autonomous Communities within the Spanish state (Figure 1). In just six years it has gone from 2094 pupils to 13,599 (Agirreazaldegi & Olasagasti, 2006). Compared to other territories, the proportion of immigrant pupils remains small. According to the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (MEC), for the 2003–2004 school year, the figure for pupils of immigrant origin was 13% in Madrid, 10% in Navarre, 9% in Catalonia and only 3% in the Basque Country. But the proportion in the Basque Country continues to grow and everything points to it continuing thus in the future.

Countries of Origin and Languages Immigrants living in the Basque Autonomous Community come from different areas as shown in Figure 2. The largest group comes from Latin America 69

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Figure 1 Immigrant pupil numbers in the Basque Country, 1999–2000 to 2005–2006 Source: The Department of Education, Universities & Research of the Basque Government, 2006.

Figure 2 Origins of immigrant pupils in the Basque Country (2005) Source: The Basque Government Department of Education, Universities & Research, 2004.

Figure 3 Main groups of immigrant pupils in the Basque Country, by country of origin Source: The Basque Government Department of Education, Universities & Research, 2004.

(48%), almost half of the total number of immigrant pupils. The next largest group comes from the European Union (not including Spain), followed by the United States (19%), Africa (17%) and, finally, Eastern Europe (9%) and Asia (5%). Countries of origin are shown in more detail in Figure 3.

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Mother tongues of immigrant pupils in Basque schools Thus, Latin America (basically, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela) accounts for 63% of the total number of immigrant pupils. This is followed by Morocco at 12% and by Portugal together with Brazil (13%). Romania makes up 7% and China 5%. The main mother tongues of immigrants in our schools are Spanish (63%), Portuguese (13%), Arabic (Berber) (12%), Romanian (7%) and Chinese (5%). Of the five main languages, the most common by far is Spanish (63%). Taking into account that Spanish is a language known by all students of Latin American origin, and that it is also widespread in the Basque Autonomous Community, it can safely be said that the main mother tongue of immigrant students, Spanish, has a sufficient presence in the Basque education system to meet the language demands of a large part of the immigrant student population as a whole (with the exception of some different forms of the Spanish language spoken in the South American continent). The other four immigrant languages with significant representation present a special situation. If we make a selection on an overall economic basis (teaching, curriculum, financing, teachers, etc.), there are two languages each of which represents more than 10% of the total immigrant pupil population and which, therefore, should perhaps have a greater presence in the classroom as a mother tongue: Portuguese (for all Portuguese-speakers from Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola and Cape Verde), and Arabic (or Berber) of the Moroccan community. Chinese and Romanian, both below 10% of the total immigrant pupil population could, in principle, receive some other kind of help in the schools, as we shall see later.

Immigrant Pupils in Public and Private School in the Basque Autonomous Community Due to diverse circumstances – family, financial, social, cultural – the immigrant pupil population tends to concentrate in specific geographical centres or zones, in specific cities, and in certain neighbourhoods within these, such as the Old Quarter or the suburbs. This concentration of persons has its positive side and its negative aspects. On the positive side, it enables immigrants to live together and to help each other to reconstruct something similar to their place of origin. On the negative side, concentrations of pupils tend to ghettoise and marginalise the immigrant population with respect to the rest, besides overloading the work of teaching staff, multiplying school problems and, in some cases, causing the children of autochthonous families to change schools. When this happens, the concentration effect increases, making the school enter what is often an irreversible process of marginalisation and segregation, and even to the point where the school is closed down. The concentration of immigrant pupils is considered by many professionals in education to have a negative effect on good schooling (Ombudsperson, 2003). Immigrant pupils in the Basque Country are different from autochthonous pupils in several respects that have implications for their progress through the school system. As a result, they encounter negative filters that lead to the concentration of pupils of foreign origin in schools of a particular type, using a particular language model. In the following section we will describe in greater detail how this happens.

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Figure 4 Immigrant pupils and type of school Source: The Basque Government.

First level of selection: Autochthonous and immigrant Of pupils in the Basque Country, 48.6% attended public schools in 2005–2006, and 51.4% attended private schools (EUSTAT, 2005). The figures for the Spanish State are 68% public and 32% private (MEC, 2005). On the other hand, 69% of foreign students attend public schools and 31% private schools. (ISEI-IVEI, 2005). The average throughout Spain is 81% public and 19% private, for the 2004–2005 school year (MEC, 2005). Thus, in the case of the Basque Country, 51% of all pupils attend private schools while the percentage of foreign pupils attending these schools is 31% (Figure 4). In Spain as a whole, the distribution is even more unbalanced, given that immigrant pupils in private centres make up only 19%. This imbalance in the distribution of immigrant pupils in the two sectors is probably due to economic reasons. This is the first filter, channelling most immigrant pupils to public sector schools. Second level of selection: Poor immigrant and well-off immigrants Amongst immigrant pupils there also exist the poor and the rich. Amongst the least well off are those from Latin America, from the Maghreb (North Africa) and from Eastern Europe. Amongst the better off are those from the old Europe of the 15 most developed members of the EU. In Figure 5, corresponding to the Basque Country, we can see that pupils from the Maghreb, Latin America and Central or Eastern Europe mostly attend public sector schools, while those from the European Union tend to enrol in private schools. Thus, within the overall numbers of immigrant pupils who attend private schools (31% of the total of immigrant pupils), the distribution between those originating from rich countries and those hailing from poor ones is also unbalanced. Those foreign pupils who come from the European Union mostly attend private schools (75%), while in the case of foreign origin pupils, only 33% from Latin America, 13% from the Maghreb and 35% from Eastern Europe attend private schools. Most poor foreign pupils attend public sector schools and only minority private schools (Ombudsperson, 2003: 399). Thus immigrants are selectively placed: those with a higher socioeconomic and cultural level (European Union countries) attend private schools, including centres specifically aimed at their languages (English, German, French Schools), while public sector schools, which enrol most foreign pupils, have a heavier representation from lower socioeconomic groups (Maghrebis,

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Figure 5 Origin of immigrant pupil and type of school Source: The Ombudsperson (2003).

Portuguese, Brazilians, Latin Americans, Asians and Africans). In other words, a second selection is carried out, with better off foreigners attending private schools in greater proportion, while poorer immigrants mostly attend public sector schools. Third level of selection: Private school for the poor immigrant and private school for the well-off immigrant Not all private schools are the same or even similar. There are three types of private schools in the Basque context. Firstly, there are those attended by the children of middle and upper class families, implying concomitant selection of an economic nature. Then there are other schools that enrol pupils from less well off families. They are more inclusive and are not located in excessively marginalised areas and take in immigrant pupils in a relatively low proportion. Finally, religious schools which, due to a number of circumstances, (immigrant concentration, autochthonous families moving out, additional free services, etc.) take in immigrant pupils, ethnic minorities or pupils from economically needy families in a considerable proportion. In brief, there are ‘quality’ private schools and ‘charity’ private schools. But this phenomenon is not exclusive to the private sector; it can also happen in public sector schools. In some of these there is a concentration of pupils with more socioeconomic difficulties, while in others, also in the public sector, a greater selection of pupils takes place. The not so well off immigrant pupils attend public or private sector schools in less favoured areas, or with a high concentration of immigrant population, creating or intensifying a dynamic of ghettoisation and marginalisation. In Figure 6 we can see that children from families from the European Union attend schools that are private or under foreign ownership, while children from families from South America and North Africa mostly attend public sector schools or foreign-owned private schools. The reasons why autochthonous and immigrant pupils choose a particular type of school are many. Some pupils from Latin America and Eastern Europe

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Figure 6 Foreign pupils according to origin and type of school Source: MEC, 2005. attend schools for economic and religious reasons. These religious schools take them in without the financial demands required by other private schools and, moreover, they receive religious education, an aspect that can be valued more by groups from Latin America and from Central and Eastern Europe. The tendency amongst Moroccan pupils is more for public sector schools, probably to avoid contact with the Catholic religion. Thus the most numerous group of immigrant pupils in the Basque Country – Latin Americans – mainly attend public sector schools, and the few who attend private schools do so mostly in religious schools with a charitable commitment to poorer families. Thus, we have the third level of selection of immigrant pupils in schools in the Basque Country.

Immigrant Pupils and Linguistic Models As with type of school (public sector or state-assisted/officially approved private schools), immigrant pupils also have a marked tendency to choose a particular language model in our schools. Of the three current linguistic models in our educational system, Spanish (A), Mixed (B) and Basque (D), immigrant pupils mostly choose Model A, namely the one that has a greater proportion of the Spanish language in its curriculum. It is logical to think the preferential choice of Model A is due mainly to linguistic and cultural factors. It is the easiest option, particularly for those who think they have already done sufficient work in learning one of the official host languages and who have no wish to ‘make life complicated’ by learning two languages, Basque and Spanish. Looking at the graph of language models in Figure 7, we see how pupils overall and immigrant pupils in particular attend schools in the Basque Country. There is a phenomenon of inversion in the percentages of immigrant pupils and the total number of pupils in the data; we can see that immigrant pupils attend Model A schools in a proportion that is double that of the pupils in Basque schools overall. In the same way, only 22.8% of immigrant pupils attend Model D schools, while more than 51% of the total attend this model of school. Figure 8 shows that the percentage of immigrant pupils is growing very slowly in Model D, although Model A continues to be the choice of the majority. So, this type of

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Figure 7 Total number of pupils, immigrant pupils and language models Source: The Basque Government Department of Education, Universities & Research.

Figure 8 Immigrant pupils and language model Source: The Basque Government Department of Education, Universities & Research.

pupil tends to concentrate in public sector schools and in Model A, where teaching is mostly in Spanish. As the Basque School Council has pointed out, pupils who face more difficulties tend to concentrate in public sector schools and in Model A (Basque School Council, 2005). Therefore those pupils with the lowest socioeconomic level who come from immigrant families run the risk of attending schools where marginalisation and ghettoisation are a reality. However, we know with sufficient certainty that pupils attending Model A schools do not reach a minimum linguistic competence in the Basque language; neither do many who attend Model B schools. After at least 13 years of schooling in the Basque language, the majority of these students did not manage to pass the B2 level, a test equivalent to the Cambridge ‘First Certificate’ in English. This means that they are not fluent in Basque, according to the evaluation conducted by ISEI-IVEI in 2005 (see also Sierra, this volume). When considering the overall school population, it is interesting to analyse the degree of success in the case of immigrant pupils in Model A and B schools. Apart from having socioeconomic difficulties to begin with, a majority of them end up not being fluent in Basque and thus have even greater future difficulties in social and labour market integration. So why is there a greater concentration of immigrant pupils in Spanish-medium language model schools? There is no

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one single explanation and, besides, certain variables have greater impact in some places and less in others. There are many factors in play at once. In some cases the wishes of the family predominate, in others a lack of knowledge. Sometimes it is the interest of the school itself that prevails over other factors, because it may have too few pupils on its roll or too many. There always seems to be multiple reasons why immigrant pupils end up in mostly Spanish-medium schools (Zapata, 2006). Thus in the process of schooling of immigrant pupils in the Basque Country there exists a double process of selection which leads this group into a situation of greater marginalisation compared to other students. This selection or application of choice by immigrant pupils takes place as a consequence of a complex process of specific itineraries in which the responsibility of the educational system and that of the families themselves are divided unequally. On the one hand, it is the type of schools that the majority attend – public sector schools – which establishes a clear separation between autochthonous and immigrant pupils. The latter attend public sector schools or private ones that have the worst socioeconomic conditions. On the other, the linguistic model that the majority enrol in is Spanish (Model A), which intensifies the process of cultural and social marginalisation, initiating, as it does, an itinerary in which they will not become sufficiently fluent in the Basque language in the future and will make their social and labour market integration that much more difficult.

Research on Immigrants: Results and Achievements The host languages – majority and/or regional – are important because they are a key instrument for integration (European Parliament, 1998). Linguistic deficits have a determining influence at crucial moments, such as the beginning of secondary education or passing from the basic cycle to professional education. It seems beyond all doubt that the influence of linguistic competence in the language used in the school is a determining factor in school results, as underpinned in the 2003 PISA report (OCDE, 2004; Schleicher, 2005). According to this study, there exist significant differences between the results of autochthonous and immigrant pupils and those first-generation immigrant pupils, not born in the host country. In France, for example, the average score in mathematics was 520 points for autochthonous pupils, 472 points (48) for first-generation immigrant pupils, and 448 points (72) for non-native pupils. Lack of competence in the language in which subjects are being taught to immigrant pupils is a prime obstacle to success in school (Stanat, 2005). Analysis of the PISA results indicates that it is vital to guarantee that immigrant pupils are provided with the opportunity to reach suitable competence in the language of instruction. In the case of Germany also, the lack of linguistic competence in German represents the greatest obstacle for immigrant children in transition between primary and secondary school. Thus, it is important to redouble efforts aimed at helping these pupils reach competence in the language in which their subjects are being taught.

The Study A study on immigrants was carried out at 10 schools in Gipuzkoa, public and private, with pupils of different ages (Etxeberria & Elosegi, 2007). The sample

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involved two grades: the sixth and the second grade of primary school. The total number of pupils in the sixth year of primary school (12–13 years old) was 160 of which 128 were born in the Basque Country and 31 outside the Basque Country. Most of those not born in the Basque Country were of Latin American origin, mainly from Ecuador and Colombia. A large number of these immigrant origin pupils have been living in the Basque Country for about three years. The few scond grade (eight-year-old pupils) of immigrant origin that we were able to study were tested for Oral Expression, their results being very similar to those of autochthonous pupils. Pupils from the sixth grade of primary education undertook the various tests in the classroom as a large group, except in the case of the oral expression test which was carried out individually and in a separate room. This test was recorded on video and transcribed for analysis. The tests included the following: (1) Basque language • Oral comprehension. Listening to a recording and answering a questionnaire about the content. • Written comprehension. Reading a text in Basque and answering a questionnaire about its content. • Written expression; narrate, in writing, a story presented in seven pictures. • Oral expresion; orally narrate a story presented in seven pictures. (2) Questionnaire about self-esteem and expectations. (3) Questionnaire about levels of satisfaction (4) Questionnaire about motivation regarding the Basque language. Results Pupils attending a Basque school from a very early age (2–3 years old) In this case, we found pupils in the second year of primary school, at eight years of age, who show a knowledge of Basque similar to the rest of their classmates.When immigrant pupils attend school like the rest of their classmates – starting at the age of two or three – and in the most intensive linguistic model in Basque (Model D), the results in the speaking test are similar to those obtained by autochthonous pupils. These results provide evidence to confirm the ideas expressed informally by many teachers. Late-entry pupils When autochthonous and immigrant pupils enrol in the school at a later age, at primary school level, such as is the case of our study in which the majority started their schooling in Basque at the age of 9–10 years, the results differ from those obtained by autochthonous pupils. Specifically, as follows. Immigrant pupils obtain lower scores in: • Knowledge of Basque. • Self-esteem. • Motivation to learn Basque. Autochthonous and immigrant pupils score similarly in: • Expectations level. • Degree of satisfaction with the school and with subjects.

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These results present a more problematic picture when analysing late-entry schooling of immigrant pupils, the data indicating that these pupils’ degree of competence in the Basque language will probably limit them in the learning of other subjects on the curriculum. Besides, the lower level of self-esteem manifested can give rise to greater difficulties in school progress as well as in personal and social integration.

What Are Schools Doing to Integrate Immigrants? Special Programmes and Achievements As with other schoolchildren, the teaching of the mother tongue and host languages is fundamental components for any school programme that hopes to achieve social integration and linguistic competence for its immigrant pupils. Teaching of Basque and Spanish to foreign pupils What has to be considered primarily is the double nature of the problem of host language teaching: foreign pupils who start a school year in a class at an early age and those who join after the school year has started or when they are older. In the first case, the usual situation for autochthonous pupils, the difficulties are less. But, when the incorporation is at primary or secondary levels, the problems are more complicated. In general, the starting point has been that learning the Spanish language does not present any great problem for most foreign learners, on the basis that the presence of the language in society is such that there is hardly anyone who does not know Spanish. The teaching programmes for Spanish as a second language are still necessary, especially when the pupil joins the class outside the normal school year timetable. Language and education policy in the Basque Country Over the past few years those responsible for educational policy in the Basque Country have been thinking about and analysing the situation of immigrant pupils in schools. We have spent many years trying to define the phenomenon and, at last, it would appear that we have some basic documentation, guidelines and agreements. In particular, in 2003 the Basque Government (http:// www.hekuntza.net) published its Guidelines that laid down the bases for the school education of immigrant pupils joining a class after the academic year has begun. These guidelines for the education of late-entry immigrant children include the following points: (1) Schools receiving public funds (public sector schools as well as private schools that receive public funds) have to maintain a balance between each other regarding the schooling of immigrant pupils. (In 2003 the proportion of immigrant pupils receiving education at public sector schools was about 75%.) (2) Efforts have to be made to boost the process of language normalisation for immigrant children to be educated in the two majority model options (B and D) in the Basque Country. The majority (65%) of these pupils is currently at Model A schools, and it is well known that there are considerable

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difficulties for learning the Basque language well within this model. The percentage of the overall Basque school-age population receiving education at Model A schools is 8%, and decreasing every year. (3) Guidelines for a primary diagnosis for the education of immigrant pupils are provided, as well as strategies to be taken on by the school and resources that should be used, always with the aim of achieving optimum integration of the immigrant pupils. Also in 2003, a plan to boost the learning of Basque for late-entry immigrant children was put into place. This is reflected in the Instructions from the Basque Country Vice-Minister for Education to public sector Primary and Secondary schools regarding ‘Language Reinforcement Projects’ for late-entry immigrant children. These instructions were used, with adaptations, as a basis for policy in the 2005–2006 academic year. The object of the current instructions is the regulation of projects at those public sector schools that are developing programmes for immigrant pupils recently entering the education system, who have important gaps in communication skills, and who need language support, fundamentally in Basque, for the 2005–2006 academic year. During the 2005–2006 academic year, more than 300 schools from both the public sector and the grant-aided private sector have had their projects approved for the schooling of late-entry immigrant children. In 2004, the same Department of Education published three documents that have special interest: (1) The Basque education system. This brief text explains to immigrant families the main features of the Basque educational system, edited in nine languages (Basque, Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, Arabic and Chinese). Those interested can find out information about the language models of the schools in the Basque Country and their distribution. (2) Plan for the integration of immigrant pupils. This includes principles and guidelines for the education of immigrant pupils: integration, equality, interculturality and quality. (3) Guidelines for drawing up the Reception Plan for immigrant pupils. In this, the final document from the Department of Education, we have a tool that enables us to respond to a question of great importance – organisation in a school in which these new situations are arising. Using this text, plans can be drawn up in all schools to suitably respond to foreign pupils who wish to be educated in classrooms in the Basque Country. There is another series of documents published by the Basque Government (also in English) that enable the putting into operation of programmes aimed at the immigrant pupil in the classroom (Basque Government, Departament of Education, Universities and Research. http://www.hezkuntza.net) In fact, the declaration of principles and the publication of documents seem to be more advanced than the provision of the means and the resources needed to resolve the multiple problems presented by teaching languages and, in general, the inclusion of immigrant pupils in classrooms in the Basque Country.

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Mother tongue of immigrants We have mentioned above that the language spoken by the majority of immigrants (60%) is Spanish, one of the two official languages in the Basque Country and, as such, is taught in the classroom, thereby not giving rise to any special problem for pupils from Latin America. As regards the languages of the rest of the immigrants (Portuguese, Arab, Romanian, Chinese, etc.), there are hardly any programmes that help these languages. After Spanish, Portuguese and Arab (Berber) are the two minority languages most employed by immigrant pupils. Almost as a token, there do exist specific programmes for the study of these two languages in Basque schools. With the aim of meeting the demands of pupils of Moroccan origin, two courses within the Arab Language and Moroccan Culture Programme have been launched in the town of Eibar (in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa), in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque province of Araba and also the administrative capital of the Basque Country. The courses are given by two teachers and the total number of pupils attending the two locations is 122 (MEC, http:// www.mec.es/cide). As regards the Portuguese Language and Culture Programme, this also has two teachers and the classes are given in Pasaia (Gipuzkoa) and in the Gipuzkoan provincial capital of Donostia-San Sebastian and in Bilbao (the capital of the Basque province of Bizkaia), with a total number of 231 pupils. (1) Portuguese Language and Culture Programme The Portuguese Language and Culture Programme (PLCP) arose from the 1977 European Directive on the school education of immigrant children. It started in the Castilian city of Leon in 1988–1989 with 103 Portuguese pupils with the aim of carrying it through in an intercultural context. The Intercultural Unit at the MEC was responsible for its implementation, together with the Departments of Assistance and Diversity and of Compensatory Education of the local Autonomous Communities and the Provincial Education Authorities. Portuguese language and culture are taught as part of an integrated system, in the sense that they form part of the curricular programmes of the Spanish educational system (from infant education to primary level), and the Portuguese teachers are part of the teaching staff at the schools, with the same rights and obligations as the Spanish teachers. In secondary education, Portuguese is taught as an option, under the exclusive responsibility of the Spanish state and as one foreign language among others in the Spanish secondary school curriculum. Here, the teachers are Spanish, with degrees in Portuguese. The organisation and functioning of the LCP programme are set out by the regulations approved in 1996. It is one of the few examples of true intercultural education insofar as the pupils participating are of both Portuguese and Spanish origins, in a proportion of approximately three Spanish pupils for each pupil of Portuguese origin (Etxeberria, 2002). In Spain, during the 2001–2002 school year, there were 5806 pupils of Spanish origin in PLCP, 1831 pupils of Portuguese origin and 768 pupils or other origins (Cape Verde, etc.) adding up

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to a total of 8405 pupils. During the 2003–2004 school year, 54 teachers and 12,609 pupils participated in the programme throughout the Spanish State (Antunes, 2003). The PLCP has had other similar experiences in Germany, Andorra, Belgium, France, Holland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, with a total of 429 teachers and more than 53,000 pupils throughout Europe (Antunes, 2003). The general aims of the programme are: (1) To encourage the integration into the school community of those children of Portuguese origin or who are Portuguese speakers. (2) To enhance the integration of Portuguese residents into their local communities. (3) To maintain and develop the linguistic and cultural contacts of pupils of Portuguese origin or who are Portuguese speaking and provide these references to the rest of the pupils and to the educational community on general. According to the needs and resources of each individual school, different models of organisation are established: • Integrated classes: the classroom teacher and the programme teacher together draw up a teaching curriculum and develop it in the same classroom. • Simultaneous classes: the same programme curriculum is taught at the same time, but in different classrooms and languages. • Complementary classes: These are extramural activities to which the pupils attend voluntarily. Teachers of Portuguese origin are paid by the Portuguese Government. At the same time, the Autonomous Communities within the Spanish State that have these educational programmes facilitate the incorporation of these teachers into the teaching staffs, and provide some funding and help with the publication of various teaching materials for use in the classroom. Both the Spanish and the Portuguese teaching staff have yearly seminars where they exchange experiences and make assessments of the programme. The Portuguese Language and Culture Programme (PLCP) has been in operation now in the Basque Country for 13 years and there is an Agreement between the Basque Government and the Portuguese Embassy. The Language and Culture of Origin (LCO) are developed as part of this specific programme in the case of Portuguese, Brazilian, Angolan, Mozambican and Cape Verdian people to a larger extent than in the case of other immigrants. (2) The Arab Language and Moroccan Culture Programme In 1980 a Cultural Cooperation Agreement between Spain and the Kingdom of Morocco was signed, setting out the bases for the Arab Language Teaching and Moroccan Culture Programme, aimed at pupils of this nationality being educated at Spanish public-sector schools. According to this Agreement, Spain facilitates the access to the schools and classrooms needed to provide these subjects, with the approval of the relevant authorities. At the same time, Morocco provides the necessary teaching staff and takes responsibility for their remuneration.

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Monitoring of the progress of the programme is the responsibility of a mixed, Spanish-Moroccan group of experts, in collaboration with the Spanish Centre for Educational Research and Documentation (CIDE). The aims of the programme are as follows: • The teaching of the Arab language and Moroccan culture to Moroccan pupils attending public sector schools in Spain. • The integration of these pupils into the Spanish educational system. • The encouragement of intercultural education. Organisation of classes within the Arab Language Teaching and Moroccan Culture Programme has two models: Model A: • aimed at those schools with few Moroccan pupils; • the classes are taught extramurally, outside the school curriculum; • a Moroccan teacher attends several schools in a peripatetic manner. Model B: • aimed at those schools with a large intake of Moroccan pupils; • the classes are taught within the school curriculum; • a Moroccan teacher usually attends one school only. The mixed group of experts holds their annual monitoring meetings and also they have yearly course and seminars for Moroccan teachers who teach the programme and other seminars for both Spanish and Moroccan teachers together. Approximately 1500 Moroccan pupils receive education through this programme, provided by 16 Moroccan teachers distributed between Madrid, Catalonia, Seville, the Basque Country, Algeciras and the Canary Islands. The debate around the Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture Programme If we compare this programme with the Portuguese one, we see that there are important differences and serious obstacles in implementing such a project. First, it is necessary to define and limit what the language of origin is. We do not know with exactitude if the family language is the official classical Arabic, or Dariya (colloquial Arabic) or the Berber language. Classical Arabic is the official language of Morocco, but it is mostly for reading and writing and is not spoken as an everyday language. In the majority of families Dariya is spoken, or Berber (Amazigh), a marginalised tongue in Morocco when it is not persecuted. Despite everything, within the Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture Programme, promoted by the Moroccan Government, it is the Arabic language which has the official role in the school. So, the first thing to clarify is, when talking about the maternal language of the children, the Arabic language is not the language spoken in the home by the majority of the children of Moroccan origin and we have to resolve these doubts regarding what language we should be teaching at the schools (Francé & Mijares, 1999). The Maghrebian community also has a say in this debate.

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Second, it will be necessary to draw up a collaboration agreement, similar to the Portuguese one, which has all the required information and data, in order to overcome the obscurantism existing with regard to the functioning of the programme and the drawbacks being observed in the progress of the same, depending largely on the joint relations at any time between the Spanish and Moroccan Governments. Third, it is necessary to talk about the two models within the programme, A and B. In the Moroccan programme there are two teaching models: Model A, extramurally, outside the school curriculum, and Model B, within the school timetable. In Madrid and Cáceres, the classes are carried out with Model B (within the school curriculum), although within the optional hour of religion; in the rest of Spain, the Arabic language classes are given within Model A, extramurally and outside the school curriculum (Mijares & Broeder, 2004). We believe this is not a suitable teaching model for the integration of and understanding between different cultures. Fourth, the participation of pupils of autochthonous origin has to be taken into account. In the Moroccan programme, unlike the Portuguese one, there are very few autochthonous pupils who attend the classes of Arabic. Thus, we have another obstacle to intercultural integration and signs of segregated schooling and ghettoisation can be observed. Also, according to some experts, the Moroccan programme represents a certain form of control over Moroccan families and may be being used for the political and religious monitoring of immigrants. Finally, and no less important for that, the theme of religion has to be studied. Islam has considerable influence amongst Maghrebi families and it has strong links with the Arabic language. The activities organised in the mosques often have a double function – religious and linguistic and it is not always possible for those who are familiar with nonconfessional educational systems to draw a line between them. Thus, regarding Language and Culture of Origin, the Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture Programme (PLACM in its initials in Spanish) presents a number of problems. Until we know what the appropriate language to be taught in the school is, and until the political and religious circumstances surrounding these teaching programmes are clarified, then the programmes are not going to be authentically intercultural, in the sense that Moroccans and autochthonous pupils can share the same courses. Clearly these are matters that have to be debated and clarified before the long-term development of the programme can be planned.

Main Challenges for the Future In spite of many declarations of intent, it is clear that there are difficulties in providing education in Basque for immigrant pupils, and the tendency of immigrant pupils to attend Model A schools makes the task almost impossible. The problem is not confined to Basque, the autochthonous official language, but also affects the emigrants’ own languages of origin. Only Portuguese and Moroccan have received recognition, and support for them still remains at tokenistic levels. The main challenge that the Basque school has in relation to immigrant pupils is to bring together these three basic aspects in the education of pupils of foreign origin: the learning of the Basque language, the learning of

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the language of origin and school success that facilitates subsequent social and work inclusion. A particularly worrying phenomenon is the incipient manifestation of conflict with pupils of immigrant origin, which could be an indication of deeper failures in the process of integration in school and society. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Felix Etxeberria, Department of Theory and History of Education, University of the Basque Country, FICE, Tolosa Hiribidea 70, Donostia-San Sebastian, E-20128 Spain ([email protected]). References Agirreazaldegi, A. and Olasagasti (2006) EAEko ikasle etorkinentzako Arreta-Plana. Jakin 154, 31–44 (special issue edited by F. Etxeberria). Antunes, M.F. (2003) El Programa de Lengua y Cultura Portuguesa. Madrid: Embajada de Portugal. Unpublished document. Basque Government (2003) Programa para la atención del alumnado immigrante. Departamento de Educación, Universidad e Investigación. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Basque Government. On WWW at http://www.hezkuntza.net. Accessed January 2007. Basque Government (2006) Departamento de Educación, Universidad e Investigación. Vitoria-Gasteiz: On WWW at http://www.hezkuntza.net. Accessed January 2007. Basque School Council (2005) Informe sobre la situació de la enseñanza en la CAPV. VitoriaGasteiz: Basque School Council. Etxeberria, F. (2002) Sociedad multicultural y educación. Donostia: Ibaeta Pedagogía. Etxeberria, F. and Elosegi, K. (2007) Enseñanza de lenguas con inmigrantes. Investigación financiada por la Universidad del País Vasco. Unpublished research report ISEI-IVEI (2005) Level B2 in Basque at the end of obligatory education. On WWW at http://www.isei-ivei.net/eng/pubeng/B2_ENGLISH1.pdf. Accessed January 2007. European Parliament (1998) Étude sur l’éducation: l’Enseignement des immigrés dans l’Union Européene. Luxemburgo. EUSTAT (2005) Estadísticas sobre enseñanza. Gasteiz: EUSTAT. On WWW at http:// www.eustat.net. Accessed January 2007. Francé, A. and Mijares, L. (1999) Lengua y cultura de origen. Niños marroquies en la escuela española. Madrid: Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo. MEC (2005) Estadisticas Educación. Madrid: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. On WWW at http://www.mec.es/cide. Accessed January 2007. Mijares, L. and Broeder, P. (2004) Ciudades plurilingües: Una encuesta sobre usos lingüísticos en las escuelas de Madrid. Estudios de Sociolingüística 5, 299–321. OCDE (2004) Informe PISA 2003. On WWW at http://www.pisa.oecd.org. Accessed January 2007. Ombudsperson-Defensor del Pueblo (2003) La escolarización del alumnado de origen inmigrante en España: Análisis descriptivo y estudio empírico. Madrid. On WWW at http:// www.defensordelpueblo.es. Accessed January 2007. Schleicher, A. (2005) La mejora de la calidad y de la equidad en la educación: Retos y respuestas políticas. In Políticas educativos de éxito: análisis a partir de los informes PISA. XX Semana Monográfica de la educación. Madrid: Fundación Santillana. Stanat, P. (2005) La influencia del origen inmigrante en el rendimiento de los alumnos: Resultados de las investigaciones nacionales e internacionales. In Políticas educativos de éxito: análisis a partir de los informes PISA. XX Semana Monográfica de la educación. Madrid: Fundación Santillana. Zapata, M. (2006) Etorkinak eta hizkuntza ereduak. Jakin 154, 57–66 (special issue edited by F. Etxeberria).

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Promoting the Minority Language Through Integrated Plurilingual Language Planning: The Case of the Ikastolas Itziar Elorza and Inmaculada Muñoa Ikastolen Elkartea, Donostia, Spain 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. doi: 10.2167/lcc345.0 Keywords: plurilingualism, curriculum, Basque, language planning

Introduction Society in the 21st century is multilingual. In modern-day society, in the century of globalisation, where communicative resources, personal mobility and international relations are on the increase, it is impossible to maintain and revitalise a minority language such as Basque by considering it to be the only language of a society. The future of Basque speakers is, therefore, multilingual. If Basque is to survive, it must become the dominant language in its linguistic area, but Basque speakers also need to be able to speak other languages, since otherwise Basque itself will be in danger. As a result, our main aim must be to combine both elements: on the one hand, to attain the maximum degree of development that Basque requires in its linguistic area and, on the other, to ensure that Basque speakers are able to learn and use other languages. The people who live in the Basque Country will need to start out with an active commitment to the normalisation of Basque and to consider it their main language. They also need to acquire extensive knowledge of the corresponding state’s official language with which Basque is in contact and to be able to use this language properly. They also need to acquire a broad knowledge of English, as the dominant language of international communication. Finally, it is vital for the cultural cohesion of the communities on both sides of state borders that individuals learn the official language of the other state, at least to a basic 85

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functional level. The school system must ensure that people learn and use all these languages, meaning that the teaching process must be regulated to ensure that this aim is fulfilled. The aim of this paper is to describe the multilingual language project developed by the Ikastola1 network in order to implement and manage multilingual education, without compromising their role in reversing language shift towards Spanish or French in Basque society. The Ikastolas have developed an Integrated Language Curriculum for language teaching, based on the Linguistic Interdependence Principle (Cummins, 1979), and are now facing the challenge of creating a global framework, the School Language Project, which considers all the different fields of use of language within the school context (i.e. classroom management, break times, administration, school-family relations, etc.) as active factors in both the development of the multilingual communicative competence of the students, and the promotion of the Basque language within its society. The School Language Project will therefore guide the schools’ language planning policies in order for these aims to be achieved.

The Ikastola Network: Background Information on the Linguistic Planning of the Ikastolas The Ikastolas were created in the 1960s in order to ensure quality mothertongue education to Basque speaking children. The result was that Spanish and French speaking families began to enrol their children in the Ikastolas, turning them into immersion programmes to ‘Basquise’ Spanish or French speaking children. In addition, the Ikastolas aimed to reverse language shift in Basque society, which meant that they played a very active role in promoting and strengthening Basque language and cultural activities in their local environment. However, it soon became apparent that expanding the use of language beyond the school context was an aim not easily achieved. Students attained a good level of academic language but there was no generalisation or transfer of that language into informal contexts outside or even within the school itself. Thus the use of Basque language in society did not grow proportionately with the numbers of new Basque speakers created by the school system, the Ikastolas in particular. In order to bridge that gap, in 1980 the Ikastola network created ‘Euskaraz Bizi’ (Live in Basque), a programme to promote the use of Basque in informal contexts, which consisted of motivational campaigns, extracurricular and leisure activities and so on. Shortly afterwards, in 1990, the Ikastolas felt the need to review and widen their linguistic objectives so that multilingualism, and not so much bilingualism, was the new aim. This was based on an analysis of the needs and social conditions of each of the languages taught at the Ikastolas (i.e. Basque, Spanish/French, English), to be followed by new initiatives in curriculum design and implementation. Within this context, the ‘Eleanitz’ (multilingual) project was created in order to develop a multilingual school model with the Basque language as its main axis. The project’s main characteristics are the following: • An ‘integrative model’ for learners of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds was developed, by which Basque maintenance and immersion

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programmes were incorporated into a common curricular and didactic framework adapted to the specific needs of the different languages included (Garagorri, 1995). • Although Spanish was the L1 of many students, it was considered the L2 of the school and was introduced as a separate subject at the age of eight. It was co-ordinated with the Basque programme and shared some of its content. The teaching of Spanish was especially aimed at ensuring the correct development of a more formal academic register not present in the everyday usage of this language. • L3, in this case English, was introduced at the age of four in order to take advantage of the language learning capacity of these early years, as well as to increase the total amount of time offered to English throughout compulsory schooling without endangering the status of Basque as the main language of the school. English was considered an international lingua franca and was therefore approached from an instrumental perspective that could use natural functions within the learning context. This resulted in the adoption of a CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) perspective and the avoidance of Anglophone cultural elements when teaching English, very much in the line of the ‘Global English’ model subsequently described by Graddol (2006). By the year 2000, the Ikastola network felt the need to create a tool which would embrace all the different projects created up until then and give coherence to the treatment of all languages in all spheres of the school setting. This became known as ‘The School Language Project’. This project would provide the Ikastolas with a global framework within which the various approaches and methodologies used for language teaching could be unified, the effectiveness of the instrumental use of language across the curriculum improved. At the same time, appropriate links between language teaching and the social promotion of the minority language could be established. The objective of the framework was to break the traditional dichotomy between language learning and language use that had predominated in the different projects developed up to then, and replace it with new Communication and Discourse linguistic theories, leading to a usage-based perspective of language and a global vision of communicative competence integrating all grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, and strategic competences (Canale, 1983). In the following sections, we will first summarise the theoretical background of the Ikastolas plurilingual project and then move on to describe the main components of such a global framework for addressing language issues.

The Ikastolas’ Plurilingual Language Project: Theoretical Background View on education The Ikastolas’ language education policy was not an isolated construct, but developed alongside a more general view of education in which language learning is considered part of the general development of the child, ‘intimately

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linked with, constrained by and a contributor to cognitive and social development’ (Genesee, 1994: 4). Our general educational framework is also based on the constructivist theories of learning (Piaget, 1937, 1945, 1970; Piaget & Inhelder, 1975), and more specifically develops from the ‘social interactionism’ proposed by Vygotsky (1973) and Bruner (1983, 1984, 1986), who consider social interaction as the main driving force in the development of the young child. As a consequence, our educational proposals aim to develop a learner-centred teaching methodology that will favour the social construction of knowledge. This perspective brings language naturally into a central position in the social, cultural and personal development of the human being and, consequently, authors within this school of thought have attached great importance to the development of language. Their findings have been an important source for our language methodology, starting from Bruner’s concept of ‘format’ (Bruner, 1983: 10) in the first steps of language acquisition that has inspired our secondlanguage teaching proposals for the youngest learners. View on language and language pedagogy As a logical consequence of this perspective, the Ikastolas have opted for a communicative and discursive approach to language that looks at the communicative activity as a whole, considering language not from a purely linguistic viewpoint, but as a social practice that is to be understood using broader sociocommunicative criteria. This more integrative view of language calls for an interdisciplinary approach, giving a central place to applied linguistics. The findings and conclusions of this discipline are of great interest to educationalists, who ought to be free, as Bronckart (1985) argues, to choose the elements that best suit their teaching objectives from a variety of differing perspectives. Communication theories, discourse linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, sociopsychopedagogical research on bilingualism and plurilingualism, language pedagogy, EFL glotodidactics, and so on, have all been enriching sources of information when facing the very diverse fields of work in our Language Project. Within this eclectic positioning for a communicative approach to language, the main line of thought underpinning the Ikastolas’ view on language development belongs in the sociodiscursive interactionism proposed by Bronckart (1997) and others, which has led to the ‘Text Pedagogy’ developed at the University of Geneva. Text pedagogy bases the language curriculum on text genres, namely the linguistic products of the language acts produced in the different activities and interactions of the students in their own social environments. The primary aim of language teaching from this perspective would be ‘that various types of texts and communicative interactions can be appropriately and effectively used by the pupil within natural social contexts’ (van Dijk, 1981: 19). View on plurilingualism and plurilingual education Consequently with this sociodiscursive perspective, the Ikastolas have abandoned their initial view of an abstract ideal of bilingualism whose aim was a native-like mastery of both languages, to looking instead at bilingualism

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(and multilingualism) as a dynamic process reflecting the user’s communicative needs. The dynamic model of multilingualism proposed by Herdina and Jessner (2002) best states our position as it takes into consideration the significant effect of sociocultural conditions on language use and language development. Of course, in a minority language setting like ours, these ‘sociocultural considerations’ are linked to the processes of reversing language shift and to the normalisation of the language, where the school plays an essential role in ensuring a social environment that creates real communicative needs in the minority language. As a consequence, the Ikastolas have elaborated a proposal for a plurilingual educational system around the central axis of the minority language. In other words, languages are taught in a way that tries to ensure the adequate development of the different languages at the levels needed by Basque citizens of the 21st century, but always respects the central role of Basque as the main language in all spheres of use.

The Ikastolas’ Plurilingual Language Project Framework: Fields of Intervention on Language Development This holistic view of language led the Ikastolas to consider the whole of the school setting and the school community as participating in the linguistic development of the learner. It was therefore necessary to study and describe the diverse ‘intervention fields’ within it, each comprising different communicative situations, ranging from formal academic situations to informal intragroup situations, and also including formal institutional relations between the school itself and its own social environment. Each of the fields defined has specific sociolinguistic characteristics and opens up different areas for potential linguistic intervention. Thus the intervention, will not only affect the teaching–learning of languages per se, but also the use of those languages in curricular, extracurricular and institutional school life, and will also affect those school decisions and/or actions aimed at promoting the minority language in the school’s social surroundings. We consider that having such a global and wide perspective offers great advantages when implementing multilingual programmes that will not hinder the development of the minority language but rather help to foster it. We will now describe the various fields of intervention considered within the Ikastolas’ multilingual School Language Project. One possible classification would group those fields of intervention into, at least, two main fields: • The Pedagogical Field. This includes not only those aspects related to teaching and learning processes which affect language development, but also any extracurricular activity carried out outside the classroom with pedagogical aims. • The Institutional Field. This includes those aspects linked to school management and social relations aimed at promoting and securing the use of the minority language inside as well as outside the school setting. The pedagogical field can be further divided into two subfields. Firstly, the curricular subfield, which involves the language curricula per se and the role of language across the curriculum. This subfield would also include those aspects of classroom management aimed at fostering the linguistic quality of the various

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social networks (Milroy & Milroy, 1992) within the class. Secondly, the noncurricular subfield would include those activities which, although developed after school time, come under the jurisdiction of the school. The institutional field can also be divided into two subfields: a subfield related to school management and another one which involves the school’s relations to both the families and other institutions such as the municipal authorities, government, local cultural associations, and so on. The proposed framework is summarised in Figure 1. All these fields and subfields should be subject to intervention as they contribute to the development of the communicative competence required for students to be able to use language(s) effectively as a useful tool in their everyday life. In the case of minority language schools, the noncurricular and institutional fields become crucial since they have a direct effect on the creation or promotion of social spaces (outside the classroom) where the use of the minority language is guaranteed. As for the curricular field, minority language schools must also carefully consider the use of general educational methodologies that will make the most of the communicative environment provided by the teaching and learning process. In addition, it will be necessary to use language teaching methodologies that promote communication and language use in the classroom and school, since, in most cases, they cannot rely on the social environment to provide students with the full range of communicative tasks that is required for their linguistic development. Since its founding, the Ikastola network has designed and implemented several projects in these domains. The School Language Project provides the framework to locate each project in its corresponding field of intervention and, therefore, allows for a comprehensive diagnosis of the linguistic situation

Figure 1

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Fields of intervention in languages at school

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and a coherent, well co-ordinated and balanced linguistic planning, whose effects can be followed up and evaluated.2 We will now describe the main projects that the Ikastola network has been implementing in both the pedagogical and institutional fields of intervention in order to develop students’ multilingual competence, without endangering the development of the minority language.

Pedagogical Field Integrated Language Curriculum for language teaching and learning The languages that an individual acquires do not develop separately but rather in an integrated manner. There is a ‘common underlying proficiency’ that manages the contrast and comparison of languages and the permanent interaction between them (Cummins, 1979). Correctly fostering this common proficiency is essential if we want to build up an integrated and balanced multilingual competence. This is how it is put in the Common European Reference Framework for Languages: From this point of view, the purpose of learning languages changes completely. The aim is not to learn two or three languages in isolation from one other, by following the model provided by native speakers. On the contrary, the aim is to develop a basic linguistic repertoire in which all language skills can be expressed. (Council of Europe, 2001: 5) In this respect, in accordance with what is stated in the Common European Reference Framework for Languages, the Ikastola network is implementing a single curricular proposal for the teaching and learning of Basque, of the relevant contact language and of the languages used internationally, through the design of an integrated curriculum that includes the various languages to be studied. This brings together complementary facets of the learning processes, while contrasting the specific linguistic aspects of each language. At the same time it transfers, applies and generalises what has been learned in one language to the others. Bearing in mind that we have adopted a discourse-based approach to language, the methodological proposal and the contents of this curriculum are based on learning how to use language (any language) to communicate as well as to construct knowledge and represent experience. As a result, the main contents will be the various types of text in which the multiple social uses of any sphere of communication are embodied. In turn, the study of the system of the language (at a contextual or textual level as well as at sentence and word level) will start out from a reflection on these texts. Framework for the common curriculum Consequently with this integrated scheme, the definition of the general competencies3 required in the subject, the content blocks it contains and the selection criteria for the basic contents are the same for all the languages in the curriculum, all of which will ensure their complementary development. The achievement levels in the various languages are specified according to the definition of the specific competencies4 and above all in the way that they are defined by assessment criteria, which will always be based on a common descriptive scheme.

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Figure 2

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The integrated curriculum for languages

When it comes to proposing how to grade the languages, we have adhered to the Common European Reference Framework for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001). By the end of compulsory education, students will be required to reach the maximum level of an autonomous user, B2
in the European Reference Framework, not only in Basque but also in the contact language (Spanish or French). A lower Autonomous User level will be required in the third language, B1
. Finally an elementary, A2 Basic User level will be required for the other official contact language in the Basque Country (Figure 2). This integrated curriculum is being implemented through the didactic materials created by the Ikastola network for all levels of compulsory schooling and for all the four languages included.5 Timetable for languages The language planning that was required for this plurilingual scheme takes into account the sociocultural conditions in which each of the languages exists in the Basque environment. The scheme is centered on Basque as the main language for learning and communication in school, and gives each of the other languages different roles depending on factors such as their status, their presence in the local environment, the linguistic distance between languages, as well as the psychological and cognitive characteristics of learners at different stages of their educational processes. These different factors are behind decisions such as the early introduction of English before Spanish, or the small amount of time devoted to French. The latter is considered sufficient for attaining the projected levels of proficiency, using as required the metalinguistic awareness developed in the three

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Figure 3 Timetable for languages languages already acquired, the cognitive abilities of the older learners, the linguistic proximity to Spanish and the contact possibilities with the neighbouring French speaking community. The timetable proposed is shown in Figure 3. Basque and English: The findings of the Eleanitz-English project As mentioned previously in this paper, in 1991 the Ikastola network started the Eleanitz-English project in order to improve students’ communicative competence in English. The project covered all the aspects of the teaching of English in compulsory education (materials writing, teacher training, follow-up and evaluation). Its experimental stages (1991–2003) were evaluated annually by the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU). The evaluation aimed not only to measure the linguistic competence attained by students in English, but to also measure the effects that such an early introduction of the L3 (four years) might have on the development of Basque and Spanish linguistic competences, as well as on the general cognitive abilities of the learners. With these aims in mind, an evaluation plan was designed so that students’ linguistic competence in each language could be measured over a period of 10 years.6 As Figure 4 shows, the early introduction of English had no effect on the linguistic competences of either Basque or Spanish, nor on cognitive abilities, since both groups of students obtained very similar results. Figure 5 shows that students introduced to English at the age of four attained better results than their counterparts who began to study English at the age of eight. Language across the curriculum As has already been argued, teaching a language as a subject cannot provide for a thorough development of general communicative competence, which is

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Figure 4 Results for Basque, Spanish and cognitive abilities

Figure 5

English language results

especially true in the case of minority languages. The linguistic dimension associated with the whole of the teaching and learning process is also a crucial component in this development and, in this sense, all of the subject teachers must also consciously teach language. On the one hand, the whole of the classroom communicative environment needs to be planned in terms of language enhancement so as to make the most of the great opportunities it can offer to strengthen and develop linguistic production. On the other, every subject has its specific set of text genres and language skills that need to be explicitly integrated and taught as an important part of the subject curriculum. This is not only for

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Figure 6 Comprehensive planning: common cognitive-academic language skills

the sake of language education, but also for the sake of the subject itself, since language is the main tool to acquire the subject contents. Initiatives in this domain of intervention come in the form of a comprehensive project-based pedagogical proposal for preschool and primary, where each and every learning activity is also analysed and designed in linguistic terms. All cognitive-academic language skills and their corresponding text genres are therefore considered as learning objectives alongside the subjectspecific objectives. In Figure 6 we present an example of integrated content planning for Environmental Studies, in which linguistic-academic skills are considered a common content for the language subject as well as the subject content. In secondary education, a Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach has been adopted for the teaching of international languages, and the results of the research work done in this area have naturally been extended into Basque-medium teaching, as will be demonstrated below. Language across the curriculum: Findings from our SSLIC project (Social Science and Language Integrated Curriculum) In 2001, the Ikastola network began to implement the final stages of the Eleanitz-English project that consisted of teaching Social Sciences through English to 14–16 year-olds.7 At the end of that school year, the competence that

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these students had attained in Social Sciences was evaluated. In order to compare evaluation results, the same test was given to a control group consisting of students who had studied the same Social Sciences course but in Basque. In order to evaluate the effects that using English as a medium of instruction might have on the development of Basque competence, the test was done in Basque, even though this decision may have limited the overall performance of those students who had studied the subject through English. The test consisted of two sections: (1) A set of questions aimed at assessing the comprehension and assimilation of the most basic Social Science concepts. These questions did not require lengthy or substantial production on the part of the students. (2) An additional set of questions designed to assess the students’ ability to express in their own words, using the appropriate Social Science terminology and concepts, those subject areas studied during the school year. These questions required more substantial production on the part of the students. As Figure 7 shows, students who had studied Social Science through English had not only assimilated the basic subject contents (see the ‘basic’ columns) but they also obtained higher results in the more complex set of questions (see the ‘superior’ columns). The results also show that these students were also able to express in Basque the materials they had been studying through English, which indirectly shows that linguistic competence in Basque had not been negatively affected by the project. These results, along with those mentioned in the previous section, have interesting implications which go beyond the teaching of foreign languages. They are especially interesting for the teaching of minority languages such as

Figure 7

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Results for Social Sciences

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Basque and for their use as a medium of instruction. For a start, the results suggest that a multilingual curriculum can be implemented without limiting students’ competence in the minority language, since there are no apparent differences in the linguistic level of the Eleanitz-English and the control group. Moreover, using English as the medium of instruction for Social Science during the last two years of secondary education does not seem to affect students’ ability in using the minority language to express subject-related concepts. Secondly, the evaluation results also suggest that integrating subject content and language can benefit both the teaching of the minority language itself and its use as a medium of instruction for teaching other subjects. In the case of the Ikastolas, it also suggests that there is a need to work more deeply on the linguistic and cognitive needs of subject areas when these are taught through Basque. How else could we explain the fact that students studying Social Sciences through English obtained better results (especially in the more complex set of questions) than those studying the same materials through Basque? The answer seems to be in the methodology, the activity types and the style of classroom interaction developed for the implementation of this project. It should not be forgotten that, in a sociolinguistic situation like ours, Basque is a second language for many students. Teachers and material writers seem to forget this fact, especially in secondary schools, and tend to act as if Basque were the L1 of students, when the linguistic competence of some students is far below that level. Moreover, we think that integrating content and language will also be beneficial to those students whose L1 is Basque, since academic language (and each subject’s language) has very specific characteristics. Exposure to this kind of language outside school is quite limited, especially in the case of minority languages, since the sociolinguistic situation sometimes limits the exposure to the target language to the school setting. In both cases, the role that subject-teachers play in the development of students’ linguistic competence turns out to be crucial. Within the curricular design proposed by the Ikastola network, academic language is part of both Basque and Spanish language curricula, and identifying and working on those linguistic contents is seen as necessary for other subject areas. However, we do realise that the effort made by the language teachers will have limited effect if subject teachers do not build on that work and pay attention to the linguistic skills and contents required to be successful in their subject areas. That’s why the activity types, the methodology and the classroom interaction model developed for the teaching of Social Sciences through English are being incorporated into the new Social Science materials in Basque.

Noncurricular and Institutional Fields In the previous sections, we have seen that the implementation of a multilingual language curriculum does not necessarily compromise the learning of the minority language and how experiences in L2 and L3 teaching can be used to improve the teaching and learning processes of the minority language. From the point of view of a school which is hoping to Reverse Language Shift (RLS), offering quality education through the minority language is not enough. Quoting Fishman’s words, language study for RLS purposes ‘will fail unless the

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minority language has a society in which it can function, before school begins, outside of school, during the years of schooling and afterwards, when formal schooling is over and done with’ (Fishman, 2001: 470 – 471). Having reached similar conclusions, in 1980 the Ikastola network started the project ‘Euskaraz Bizi’ (Live in Basque) in order to create or identify Basque speaking situations outside the classroom that would offer the Ikastolas’ students opportunities for real communication through Basque. This project is currently aimed at implementing specific language planning policies in the noncurricular and institutional fields, and its location within the global framework offered by the School Language Project has given schools a tool to establish the appropriate links between language teaching and use at school, and the outside world. The noncurricular field As a result of those links, the noncurricular field has become crucial not only because it should provide social spaces where the presence of the minority language is guaranteed, but also because it is approached as a language learning environment where students can naturally acquire linguistic registers that are not, or cannot be taught in their entirety at school. These registers include the most informal and colloquial registers of the minority language as well as very specific registers related to out-of-school activities (sports, arts, etc.). This is especially important in those cases where the minority language is hardly present outside the school setting, and therefore not transmitted by the home– family–neighbourhood environment. In the case of the Ikastolas, this approach has shed some light on to why some students who have been educated through Basque do not use it in their everyday life, even in those situations where the presence of Basque is assured. In other words, why is it not enough to have, for instance, Basque speaking sports trainers to ensure that Basque is the main language used during those sports activities? Approaching these activities as language learning situations has opened additional lines of work complementary to the usual campaigns aimed at improving motivational and attitudinal factors. For instance, it has enabled the Ikastola network to start designing specific action plans that take into account students’ and trainers’ knowledge of the linguistic registers involved in those activities, as well as the set of strategies that the trainers need to develop to help (or even teach) students to communicate in Basque in such informal situations. This approach requires close co-ordination with those institutions involved in students’ leisure time, as the role of the school will have to go beyond ensuring that those activities are offered in Basque, and include keeping track of the training of the adults in charge of the students during such activities. Close coordination is also required within the school itself, since class-time is no longer the sole context for language learning and use. Schools must, therefore, take coordinated decisions on which linguistic contents will be worked through the official curricula and which will be worked on through noncurricular activities. The institutional field As for the institutional field, there are certain decisions that any school involved in Reverse Language Shift should take. Even if those decisions will not

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have an immediate effect on students’ use of Basque, they will be important in both guaranteeing that the social arena surrounding students is as Basque as possible and in expanding language-use possibilities. On the one hand, attention should be paid to the linguistic landscape (signs, posters, ads, etc.), as well as school documentation, files, regulations, meetings and so on. The language to be used in those areas should be determined, and decisions implemented. On the other hand, the main difficulties in using Basque inside and outside of the Educational Community (among students, teachers, families, etc.) should be identified, and ways to overcome those obstacles should be planned and provided for. In short, the school should be not only a reference in terms of language use, but also an institution that will foster and promote the social use of the language. This is the only way to ensure that the work done inside the school does not dissipate in the wider context of the outside world.

Conclusion The main aims of the Ikastolas are the development of good quality Basque medium education, and the revival and promotion of the Basque language and culture. None of these can be achieved in the world of today from a defensive position of competition with the surrounding majority language and/or with the international lingua franca. Rather, we need a broader vision of language planning and a more flexible and inclusive perspective. Starting from the assumption that Basque is the principal language in our community, we must consider the different languages as complementary agents in the development of a new multilingual proficiency. The resulting multilingual proficiency should enable Basque citizens of future generations to make the language choices best suited to their communicative needs, whilst maintaining a strong commitment to the preservation of their own language. The great challenge that such a model of multiligual education poses for our school system can only be met by devising a language policy that carefully considers all the possible communicative fields in the school environment and combines the efforts of the school community as a whole. The Ikastolas’ School Language Project represents an important step towards the fulfilment of such a policy, the results of which are already proving to be effective. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Itziar Elorza, Gipuzkoako Ikastolen Elkartea, Errotazar bidea, 124, E-20018, Spain ([email protected]). Notes 1. 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.). 2. 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.

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3. 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, 2002). 4. 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. 5. See the on-line catalogue at www.ikastola.net. 6. 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. (2003). 7. For a detailed description of SSLIC see Muñoa (2003) and Ball et al. (2004).

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