Abstract (eng)
Barcelona is a particularly interesting case for the study of the challenge associated with bilingualism (even multilingualism) because of it’s patrimony of Catalan and linguistic diversity. Together with politics this patrimony has entailed. One city but two languages – this often goes along with language- as well as political conflicts as it could be seen in the case of Barcelona. The aim of this work is to visualize the language situation in Catalonians bilingual capital city, Barcelona, where Catalan and Spanish are official languages. More in detail this work focuses on the achievement of bilingual language skills of children in Barcelona and how they master their speaking, reading and writing after secondary modern school in their daily and professional lives. Therefore a questionnaire was established, sent to students and graduates of university of Barcelona and examined afterwards. The main questions were:
How do children achieve bi-literacy skills?
Do children who learn a second already at an early age benefit from the achievement of literacy in their L2?
Does the L1 (first language achieved) influence the L2?
How do children in Barcelona master their skills in both languages?
Do students who have Catalan as mother tongue and those who have Spanish as mother tongue have the same level in their L2 (second language learnt)
Catalan counts as a minority language which was oppressed during years because of Franco’s regime. Therefore school system is seen as on of them main power to maintain and transmit Catalan – considered Catalonia’s “own language”. In 1983 immersion schools, invented and developed in Canada, first came to Catalonia in order to safe their own language (“lengua propia”). Until now the catalonian government, La Generalitat de Catalunya, maintains its school system, named Catalan Immersion Program. The catalonian government guarantees that pupils after secondary modern school achieve perfect language skills in both languages.
As a result, Catalonian inhabitants don’t show a lack in Spanish, as often supposed. On the contrary, they even show a higher level in Spanish compared to pupils from the entire Spain. This is pointed out by recent studies that have been made as well as the participants themselves are confirming that in their answers of the study integrated in this thesis. Barcelona is described as bilingual ambience where people are born in, so contact to both languages, Spanish and Catalan, is automatically given. Children are familiar with both languages up from their early childhood. So the importance of culture and identity can be expressed by that. Nevertheless all participants emphasize particularly that they master language skills in both languages indistinctly according to whom speech is dedicated, even though L1-catalan- and L1-spanish-speakers tend to their L1 when they are talking to their families.
In professional the presence of Spanish and other languages (especially English and German) can be pointed. This can be interpreted as result of globalisation and Europe multilingualism. The importance of English in professional lives can be pointed out. English is considered to be European’s global language as well as Spanish is often considered to be Catalonia’s global language. Furthermore, it can be observed waves of immigration which are producing a challenge for Catalonia how to confront a diverse citizenr y and establish varying combinations of a multilingual repertoire at the level of institution and to transmit Catalonia’s own language.
Public schools in Barcelona are based on immersions program where Catalan is the vehicular language. Spanish is integrated in classes. This immersion program is positive valued by Catalonian citizens. The study presented leads to the normative conclusion that Catalan inhabitants are bilingual from early childhood. Immersions school guaranty that pupils achieve adequate biliteracy skills when finishing second modern school. Mentioned as a problem of learning Catalan and Spanish, the participants mentioned mixing both languages as well as orthographic skills regarding Catalan cause certain problems for all of them regardless of whether they were L1-catalan or L1- Spanish speakers.
Barcelona is a particular example for a bilingual, even more becoming a multilingual city, where the government and its citizens show a big effort to maintain their language. In general, keeping in mind multilingualism in Europe, adequate bilingual skills can be valued as a great plus, both regarding culture, frankness, tolerance and widing one’s horizont and future success.