Multilingisme i Adquisici de langls com a tercera llengua
First of all they could choose what language they wanted to answer the
interview. The Catalan was the most chosen. The people are feeling safer when
they use their mother language, and few people risk with the English even if
they can do it.
ANSWERS
ENGLISH
8%
SPANISH
25%
CATALAN
67%
The fisrt question is How many languages do you speak? Quantes lleges
parles? Cuantos idiomas hablas?. The 60% of people are considered a
plurilingual person but when you ask them when they use the English, they
answer at school. This 60 % is the young people from 9 to twenties and the 40
% is the people from thirties. To conclude, the young people thinks that they
speak three languages, however they only use two languages in their lifes.
HOW MANY LANGUAGES DO YOU
SPEAK?
MONOLINGUAL
BILINGUAL
0%
40%
60%
PLURILINGUAL
Multilingisme i Adquisici de langls com a tercera llengua
The second question is Can you read, write or understand a conversation in
other languages? Pots llegir, escriure o entendre una conversa en alguna altra
llengua? Puedes leer, escribir o entender una conversacin en algn otro
idioma? In this question I separate the answers between bilingual and
plurilingual people. Then I would like to contrast it. You can see that the 70 % of
bilingual people thinks that they know some things about other language, but
the 75 % of plurilingual people asserts that they know things about a second
foreign language. When I did the interviews the second groups seemed more
sure than the first group.
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
NO, I CAN'T
A LITLLE BIT
Plurilingual
YES, I CAN'T
Bilingual
The third question is Which languages had/do you learn at school? Quines
llenges vas estudiar a lescola? Qu idiomas has estudiado en el colegio? In
this question have separated the answers in three groups for ages: A 9-25 ; B
25-45; C 45-60. The results reflex the different times of the education in
Catalonia. But in the group A are different options depends of the age. The
children who are in Primary only learn one foreign language, and the teenagers
who are, or they recently have been, in Secondary or High School study two
foreign languages.
120
100
80
9-30
60
30-50
40
50-70
20
0
SPANISH
CATALAN, SPANISH CATALAN, SPANISH CATALAN, SPANISH,
AND FRENCH
AND ENGLISH
ENGLISH AND OTHER
LANGUAGE
Multilingisme i Adquisici de langls com a tercera llengua
The fourth question is What is the most important to improve in a new
language? Que creus que s el ms important per aprendre un nou idioma?
Qu crees que es lo ms importante para aprender un Nuevo idioma? The
majority thinks that the speaking is the most important. In addition, they said
that if you go abroad, you can improve more because you have the need to
speak and understand.
the most important to improve
vocabulary
18%
motivation
9%
listening
9%
speaking
64%
And the last question is What language/languages do you think that is/are the
most important at the present time? Why? Quina/es llengua/ges creus que
s/sn la/les ms important/s actualment? Per qu? Qu idioma/s crees que
es/son el/los ms importante/s actualmente? Por qu? All people said that
English is the most important but the majority said two or three languages. The
majority talked about the Chinese because they think that China is a great world
power. Curiously, only some children have said the Spanish.
THE MOST IMPORTANT
LANGUAGE
CHINESE
23%
GERMANY
12%
SPANISH
6%
ENGLISH
59%
Multilingisme i Adquisici de langls com a tercera llengua
In conclusion, I think that these results show what society thinks and the
evolution of education in Catalonia. The society is aware that English is the
futures language.
The adults believe that they do not need to study English but they think that
their children have to learn it in order to make their future and for this reason.
A lot of people forget the communicative view. But the problem is that their
children think the same. They are growing with this language view I HAVE TO
LEARN ENGLISH TO FIND WORK IN THE FUTURE.
Finally, you can see that the teaching of foreign language in this country is
improving. Bit by bit, the society will change their standpoint and they will grow
as plurilingual persons.
