22/04/2013 00:00
TW
0

Palma.—Integrated treatment of languages is the name applied to the act by which the Balearic Government aims to ensure that pupils understand and can express themselves in the two official languages of the islands - Catalan and Castellano - and one foreign language, preferably English, writes Andrew Ede.

The government is seeking to establish a balance in the teaching of the two official languages, without giving preference to or causing detriment to either, while also seeking to improve employment opportunities (as well as social interaction) through the knowledge of a foreign language.

The government's spokesperson, Rafael Bosch, says that approval for the act from the government's council lays down the possibility, where there is no specific preference for a teaching language, for classes to be taught in one of Catalan, Castellano or English.

Children at nursery schools will, from now on, have lessons in one of the official languages while also beginning to learn English from the age of three. At primary level, children will be taught in both official languages and receive foreign-language education.

By the time that pupils are in secondary education, they will be being taught in each of three languages. In order to implement the provisions of the act, 1'315 teachers are undergoing their own language training and a hundred more teachers will be taken on - an investment, Bosch stresses, for the subsequent education of the islands' schoolchildren.

Opposition parties have reacted negatively to the approval of the act. Cristina Rita of PSIB-PSOE has described it as being a deception on behalf of the government. Parents, she says, will be under the impression that their children will be learning English “when in fact what they will do is know less of all three languages”. Antoni Alorda of MÉS per Mallorca (the Majorcan socialists grouping) has called the act irresponsible and President Bauzá “the Catalan language's public enemy number one”. The act, it should be noted, would guarantee that, at a minimum, 50% of teaching hours will be in Catalan.

Meanwhile, the main teaching union, STEI-i, has called for the act to be withdrawn. While it is in favour of the greater emphasis being placed on foreign-language teaching, it argues that there are insufficient numbers of teachers who trained to levels that would guarantee success through teaching in a foreign language.