Volume: 21  Number: 1  Page: 5–20  doi:10.2167/lcc339.0

Bilingual Education in the Basque Autonomous Community: Achievements and Challenges

Mikel Zalbidea and Jasone Cenozb aDepartment of Education, Universities and Research, Basque Government, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain and bDepartment 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.

Keywords: Basque, bilingualism, bilingual education, Basque Autonomous Community

© 2008 M. Zalbide & J. Cenoz

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