International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism
Editor: Colin Baker, University of Wales, Bangor
Review Editor: Aneta Pavlenko, Temple University, Philadelpia
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Volume: 5 Number: 6 Page: 318–338
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The Languages of the Valencian Educational System: The Results of Two Decades of Language Policy
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José Luis Blas Arroyo
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For some decades now, as a consequence of changes in the politics of Spain, the compulsory education system in the autonomous Spanish region known as the Comunidad Valenciana has offered a varied
programme of bilingual education: Spanish and Valenciano, an autochthonous variety of Catalan, alternate according to various curricular programmes as the main teaching languages. This paper examines
the objectives of each of these programmes, as well as data which serve to evaluate the results generated by the application of the said programmes, i.e. history, enrolment details, geographic distribution,
infrastructure, teacher training, etc. All these variables coexist within a very specific sociolinguistic context, which is unlike that of other bilingual regions of Spain. The existence of two clearly
differentiated linguistic regions, tied in with the progressive abandonment of Valenciano over the last few centuries, is reflected in the lack of uniformity in the state of bilingual education in
this region. Nevertheless, even the strongest critics concede that there has been a qualitative advance away from a monolingual model to the present situation where the teaching of Valenciano and
teaching in Valenciano have an undeniable presence.
© Multilingual Matters 2002
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