Multilingual education for European minority languages: The Basque Country and Friesland

Abstract

Over the last three decades, regional minority languages in Europe have regained increased recognition and support. Their revitalisation is partly due to their being taught in schools. Multilingualism has special characteristics for speakers of minority languages and it poses unique challenges for learning minority languages. This article looks at the cases of Basque and Frisian, comparing and contrasting their similarities and differences. The educational system in the Basque Autonomous Community underwent an important transformation, starting in 1979 from a situation where less than 5 per cent of all teachers were capable of teaching through Basque. Today this figure has changed to more than 80 per cent. An innovative approach was chosen for teaching the minority language, Basque, alongside the dominant language, Spanish, and the international language, English. The outcome is a substantial increase in the proficiency in the minority language among the younger age groups. The decline of the minority language has thus been successfully reversed and one of the major challenges now is to uphold a sustainable educational system. By contrast, the Frisian language has fared less well in the Netherlands, where developments over the last 30 years have been much slower and the results more modest. Here policy-making for education and for language is caught in a continuous debate between a weak provincial level and a powerful central state level. Overall, multilingualism as a resource for individuals is valued for ''bigger'' languages such as English, French and German, but not for a ''small'' language such as Frisian. Nevertheless, a few trilingual experiments have been carried out in some schools in Friesland in teaching Frisian, Dutch and English. These experiments may also be instructive for other cases of minority languages of a ''moderate strength''. In the cases of both Basque and Frisian multilingualism is generally perceived as an important resource.Keywords Basque in France and Spain Á Frisian in the Netherlands Á Educational language policies Á Models of language schooling Á Outcomes of bilingual education Á Trilingual education Résumé Enseignement multilingue en faveur des langues minoritaires en Europe : Pays basque et Frise -Depuis trois décennies, les langues minoritaires régionales en Europe bénéficient d'un regain de reconnaissance et de soutien. Leur reviviscence est due en partie à ce qu'elles sont enseignées dans les établissements scolaires. Le multilinguisme revêt des caractéristiques spécifiques pour les locuteurs des langues minoritaires, et pose des défis propres à l'apprentissage de ces langues. Les auteurs de cet article analysent les cas du Pays basque et de la Frise, en comparant et opposant leurs similitudes et différences. Le système éducatif de la Communauté autonome du Pays basque a connu une importante transformation amorcée en 1979, alors que moins de 5 pour cent du corps enseignant était en mesure d'exercer en langue basque. Aujourd'hui, ce chiffre est passé à plus de 80 pour cent. Une...

Professional development programmes for teachers moving from majority to minoritised language medium education: lessons from a comparative study

“…In 1983, some 80 % of children were educated in the Castilian-medium Model A schools and 20 % in Models B, D and X. By 2006, these percentages had been reversed, with the Basque-medium Model D the most popular choice; and it was projected that in school year 2013-14, 78 % of pupils would be in Model D (Zalbide and Cenoz 2008;Gorter and Cenoz 2011;Tomé 2013). …”

Trilingüismo escolar en edades tempranas. 20.000 palabras de viaje submarino.

“…La falta de apoyo de las élites vascas, de tradición literaria, el desprestigio social y administrativo y la prohibición sistemática provocaron ese declive (Exteberria, 2002). Actualmente su revitalización se debe en parte a que sea enseñada en las escuelas (Cenoz y Gorter, 2011).…”

The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education

“…However, over the past decade, some regional languages, such as Basque in France and Spain, have experienced resurgence, with an accompanying call for targeted teacher preparation for bilingual instruction (Gorter and Cenoz, 2011). In the EU, regional language revitalization and teacher education are influenced by the language policies of the EU and particularly of the Council of Europe through the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (Council of Europe, 1992).…”