scholarly journals Bilingual Education in the Basque Country: Achievements and Challenges after Four Decades of Acquisition Planning

Author(s):  
Estibaliz Amorrortu
AILA Review ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 13-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasone Cenoz

This paper focuses on the use of Basque as the language of instruction. In the first part of the article the situation of Basque in the Basque Country is briefly described and the different possibilities regarding the language(s) of instruction are explained: model A with Spanish as the language of instruction and Basque as a subject; model B with both Basque and Spanish as languages of instruction and model D with Basque as the language of instruction and Spanish as a subject. Then, the results of research studies comparing these three models regarding achievement in Basque, Spanish and other areas of the curriculum are analysed. Finally the article considers the new challenges the Basque educational system is facing. One of these challenges is the need to go from bilingual education to multilingual education by teaching in a more effective way languages of wider communication. Another recent challenge is multiculturalism as a response to the increasing immigrant population which is a new phenomenon in the Basque educational system. The need for a more holistic approach towards multilingualism both in teaching and research is proposed so as to face these new challenges.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burhan Ozfidan ◽  
Lynn M. Burlbaw

The main target of the study is to examinethe bilingual education program in the Basque Country, and identify whether or not their bilingual education can be implemented in Turkey. In thisresearch study, we used a qualitative method including data collection through an open-ended survey and interview that illustrates the issues surrounding bilingual education in the Basque region. The survey and interviewencompassed30 participants from K-12 teachers and the scholars in the Basque Country. The participants’ answers from both survey and interviewwere gathered and analyzed. The researcher coded emergent themes in the survey and interview. According to results, the Basque region over the last decade has established a bilingual education model, which offers multiple options for the linguistic study of the Basque language, and this model is still a reputable ongoing bilingual education system. Since Turkey and Spain historically and politically have many similarities, the Basque bilingual model can be implemented in Turkey as well. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Burhan Ozfidan ◽  
Lynn Burlbaw

This study examines the bilingual education in Spain and in Canada, and discusses their historical backgrounds, current bilingual education programs in use, and teacher proficiency within their bilingual education programs. The purpose of this study is to examine these two countries’ bilingual education programs and find a way to implement a bilingual education program in Turkey. Because of innovative legal conditions and the establishment of special programs in Basque Country in Spain, the potential for increasing learners and speakers of the language is greater than ever before. Bilingual education models in the BAC have increased the number of well-educated young students and allowed them to have a better future. French is taught as a foreign language in Canada, and English is usually accepted as a first language, which has hindered the development of diverse types of immersion programs. Immersion programs have helped students learn other subjects and have also allowed them to acquire an additional language. This study presents a comparison of the situation of minority languages in Turkey with Canada and Spain offers many lessons. The purpose of this discussion is to establish the benefits and shortcomings of these bilingual education programs and the suitability of their models for minority groups living in Turkey. To provide an efficient education system, the differing needs of various areas should be considered. This can be demonstrated in examples drawn from Canada’s consideration of the French language and Spain’s consideration of the Basque language.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-75
Author(s):  
Maitena Etxebarria

The present research aims at describing and gaining knowledge about the lexical availability in Spanish in a sample of students of the Basque Country, categorized according to the model of bilingual education they have attended. The Basque Autonomous Community (henceforth BAC) establishes a frame of two official languages: Basque and Spanish. In order to fulfill this legal precept, one of the tasks of the public authorities of the Basque Country is well-defined: to assure the general knowledge of both languages, adopting the appropriate measures for such a purpose. The fact of both languages being co-official makes it necessary to analyze the situation of bilingual education from the moment it was established. This will permit us to know whether the bilingual school model our young population has attended influences the lexical variety in their speech production in Spanish; specifically, their production in social contexts. The measuring method used here is based on the common model for measuring lexical availability, that is, the words that first come to mind are the ones that are most available.


1997 ◽  
pp. 99-108
Author(s):  
M. Carmen Garmendia ◽  
Imanol Agote

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niina Nissilä ◽  
Siv Björklund

One-way immersion programs were originally designed to provide monolingual majority language speakers a good mastery of a second, foreign, heritage, or indigenous language. This article provides a brief overview of the design of one-way-immersion programs as part of bilingual education in Europe by presenting some of the immersion programs from the following contexts: Basque country, Catalonia, Finland, Ireland and Wales. The implementation of these programs in different European contexts is analysed by looking at different functions of the programs and demographic characteristics in their student populations. The article concludes with a discussion on perspectives about and challenges for one-way immersion programs in the future.


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