Today we learned about the notion of Plurilingualism. This is the belief, from the Catalan point of view, that people should be able to speak at least 3 or 4 languages. The model for this is the mother language and Castillian Spanish plus two other languages.
Could this ideology ever be embraced in Scotland?
How can we change attitudes towards languages in our society?
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Any notion of numbers of teachers in the schools who speak more than two languages? Are there differences between and amongst the sectors? Are teachers encouraged /supported in their learning of additional languages? Any enhancements offered? Would teachers be asked the number of languages spoken at an interview? Do the Catalans have programmes similar to MLPS/GLPS? Is this approach supported in teacher training?
ReplyDeleteTeachers in schools speak at least two languages fluently, Catalan and Spanish, with some teachers speaking up to 6 languages to varying degrees. In one primary school, a teacher told us that they learn how to sing happy birthday in the different languages in the classroom, so as to value the languages of all the children in the school. Teachers must have sat and passed an exam in Catalan to be able to be a teacher in a Catalan school. Other languages are taught in both sectors, for example in the secondary school they learn Castillian Spanish, English and French. There is an expectation that the teachers will have more than Catalan and Castillian Spanish, because the education system puts so much value in the different languages and cultures which are present in Catalonia.
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