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Summary0.
Introduction
1. Results
1.1.
General results
1.2. Incidence of independent
variables
2. Conclusion
3. References
0. Introduction
Firstly,
however, we should point out that the organization of the treatment of the three languages
in this context has not been unitary or invariable over time. Currently in the Aranese
education system, all students between P3 (three years old) and the end of the First Cycle
of primary school (second year of primary school: between the ages of seven and eight) are
taught subjects in Occitan. In the Intermediate (third and forth years) and Upper cycles
(fifth and sixth years) of primary education (between eight-nine and eleven-twelve), all
three languages are equally present as vehicular languages and each subject is taught in a
different language (mathematics in Spanish, natural sciences in Catalan and social
sciences in Occitan; plastic arts is taught in French at this stage). This design is the
result of prioritising one of the three possibilities that arose at the end of the
eighties as regards the vehicular language between P3 and the end of the Initial Cycle
(Spanish, Catalan or Occitan) in favour of the territorys indigenous language.
At the
beginning of the nineties, there were three modes of education between P3 and the end of
the Initial Cycle of primary education in the Aranese education system, depending on the
chosen vehicular language: Occitan, Catalan or Spanish. Each line of education prioritised
reading and writing in that language and the other two languages were taught as subjects.
When education in Spanish was abolished, the line of education in Catalan consisted of
reading and writing in Catalan; writing in Spanish and Occitan entered the syllabus at the
end of the Initial Cycle of primary education. In the Occitan line of education, reading
and writing in both Catalan and Spanish entered the syllabus in the final year of the
Initial Cycle. Finally, the line of education in Catalan was abolished, leaving the design
as it is today.
Our research
evaluates knowledge of the three languages in the 1999-2000 academic year of students in
the Initial Cycle educated in Occitan or Catalan as vehicular languages (due to the
existence of two languages as vehicular languages), and students in the Intermediate or
Upper cycles educated in Occitan, Catalan or Spanish as vehicular languages (due to the
existence of the three lines of education). Tests are used at all three levels to obtain
progressive data, although the same group is not analysed at the three points, but rather
in three different groups at successive levels. This means that diachronic extrapolations,
although valid, need to take into consideration the differences between groups in terms of
independent variables.
Overall, the
data we have obtained show the interaction of two groups of factors in terms of the level
of linguistic competence obtained: on the one hand, individual or sociolinguistic factors
(intellectual quotient IQ, with the categories of high,
intermediate and low, socio-professional status SPS, with
the categories of high, intermediate and low, domestic
linguistic condition DLC: three monolingual groups, three bilingual groups, one
trilingual group), of which domestic linguistic condition is the most
significant; and on the other hand, the model applied by the school as regards the
treatment of each language in the syllabus, i.e. basically vehicular language VL- of
subjects between the ages of three and eight for each student, with the three
corresponding categories: Spanish, Catalan, Occitan.
The dependent
variable is linguistic competence in each language: PG in Occitan, Catalan or Spanish. The
tests are graded out of 100 and include, on the one hand (PG1), exercises in listening and
reading comprehension, writing, spelling, knowledge of vocabulary, morphology and syntax,
and on the other hand (PG2), speaking and reading aloud exercises. On average, the PG1
tests last around 90 minutes, and are given to all informants, whilst the PG2 tests
usually last around 15 minutes and are given to only 25% of informants. The data we have
provided are taken from the PG1 results (the PG2 results are not as valid in statistical
terms, but showed parallel contrasts to those of PG1).
The sample was
formed by 231 students from ten schools in the Vall. |