Table 1 - Language currently spoken by the pupil with his/her parents, according to the language spoken between the parents when the pupils was small(4)

	When you were little, what language did your father and mother speak with one another?
Language wiht parents	Catalan	Equal	Spanish	Others
Catalan	90,6	29,7	4,9	2,2
More Catalan than Spanish	5,0	20,8	2,0
Mixed couples	1,6	12,9	6,7	2,2
Bilingual	1,1	17,8	3,6
More Spanish than Catalan	,5	5,9	5,9
Spanish	,7	12,9	75,5	15,2
Oth. languages and combinations	,5		1,5	80,4
TOTAL	100	100	100	100

2.5. Knowledge and general language usages

Concerning linguistic knowledge, we are focusing on the three languages with the greatest academic presence in the secondary school survey: Catalan, Spanish and English. Declared knowledge of Catalan and Spanish, as might be predicted, is much greater than of English. Declared knowledge of Catalan is noticeably above that of Spanish, although the number of pupils rating themselves with low scores in no case exceeds 5% of the total. Oral and written competences in each language are very similar, without an important distance, for example, between spoken and written knowledge of the language. In the case of Catalan and Spanish, oral competences are superior to written ones But, in English, written competence is superior to oral.

Table 2 – Average score in self-assessment of knowledge of Catalan, Spanish and English. Understanding, speaking, reading and writing. Socio-demographic and linguistic study at secondary schools in Catalonia, 2006

	Understanding	Speaking	Reading	Writing
català	9,70	9,10	9,10	8,63
Castellà	9,77	9,46	9,46	8,96
Anglès	6,01	6,01	5,40	5,89

In competence in Catalan, both initial Catalan-speakers and Spanish-speakers showed very high self-assessments. But some Spanish-speakers obtained considerably lower self-assessments of competence in the second language (L2) – Catalan. This fact is repeated, although it has to be said more moderately, in the case of the competence of Catalan-speakers in their second language – Spanish. Catalan-speakers' declared knowledge of their second language is therefore superior to that of Spanish-speakers. But this does not only apply to their second language. Initial Catalan-speakers also state that they have a better knowledge of the English language.

If we include other variables in the analysis, it can also be detected that the type of school – public or private forming part of the public system – is not an influential factor concerning knowledge of Catalan and Spanish. By contrast, it is concerning knowledge of English, as the declared values are higher in private schools forming part of the public system. As for the gender of pupils, girls declare noticeably higher averages than boys for writing in Spanish and English. Finally, the children of parents with higher education state that they have a greater knowledge of Catalan and English.

Concerning general language usage, the population is distributed in a balanced way into three groups: one third of the population always or almost always speak Catalan, another third speak both in Catalan and in other languages, and the remainder – just over a third – never or almost never speak Catalan. A basic factor for understanding the dynamics of the general usage of Catalan is the initial language. Thus, initial Catalan-speakers use their first language at least as much as other languages. We also observe that girls are more likely to position themselves as intermediate users of Catalan and Spanish, in contrast to boys, who usually place themselves as clear users of one language or the other. Despite the larger number of initial Catalan speakers at private schools forming part of the public system, this superiority is not translated into greater use of the language at these education centres.

2.6.Language and school context

The information obtained indicates that two thirds of teachers speak Catalan when they address the class. By contrast, teachers who never speak it represent a tenth of the total. A considerable presence of Catalan is also perceived in the written materials received by pupils. Despite this use of Catalan by teachers in class, Spanish has a place in the classroom that cannot be ignored when pupils address teachers: 24.1% use Catalan little or never and 11.4% speak to teachers in both Catalan and Spanish. By contrast, in written production, such as exams, Catalan has a very important presence: four out of five students always use Catalan. The productive use of Catalan, as in activities and teaching materials, is notably higher in public schools than in private schools forming part of the public system.

Habitually, in all academic linguistic usages, three-quarters of initial Catalan-speakers always maintain their initial language, while the initial Spanish-speakers who never use Spanish, not even with teachers outside lessons, do not usually amount to more than a quarter. Only in out-of-school activities does the initial language become a factor of maximum importance for distinguishing linguistic usages: three-quarters of initial Catalan-speakers use their first language in these activities and the proportion of Spanish-speakers who use theirs reaches 57.9%. In school usages outside the classroom, it seems that the only interactions in which the high presence of Catalan is maintained are those with teachers: both inside and outside the classroom, Catalan is used in similar proportions with teachers. The use of Catalan is not the same with administrative and services staff, where Spanish has a greater presence.

2.7. Language with friends

As for language usages with friends, it is observed that the presence of Spanish increases substantially: half the pupils (49.2%) never speak Catalan with their friends from school, as opposed to one third who always speak Catalan (32.9%) with friends from school.