The study poses the following questions:

A total of 1,017 pupils in the sixth year of primary education at state and grant-maintained schools in Mataró and 245 at schools in el Baix Cinca and la Llitera (Aragonese border area) (4) took part in the study. The average age of those participating was 12. The breakdown by gender in Mataró was 506 boys (50.5%) and 495 girls (49.5%); in the Aragonese border area it was 126 boys (51.9%) and 117 girls (48.1%).

To obtain data a sociolinguistic questionnaire was distributed in which questions were asked about the variables being studied, as well as others not dealt with here (for example, media consumption, motivation, etc.). Table 2 includes a sample item for each of the variables studied and the source from which the questions or items have been taken.

Table 2. Sociolinguistic variables, examples of items and source of items

For each variable indices are obtained from one or more items. For example, in the case of language of identity, the index was obtained from a single item (shown in Table 2), while the index for the language spoken with the respondent's parents is based on two items (language spoken with the father and language spoken with the mother).

The definitions of the variables language used with parents and language of identity were the same as those used for EULC 03. The term own language was not used, as this concept has often been used in a more political and institutional sense. The language of identity is, therefore, taken to be the language which the respondent considers to be "his (or her) language".

The variable language used with parents was based on two items in the questionnaire (Table 3). Answers to these two items were coded as shown in the third column of Table 3, the categories "Catalan" and "Spanish" referring to the almost exclusive use of the languages with both parents, while the category "Catalan and Spanish" referred to various possible situations.