Linguistic education in a multilingual Spain

Abstract

Europe nowadays offers a situation of undeniable linguistic interest. Sometimes uneven, paradoxical too, the results in the educational field become blurred by defects easy to perceive by most scholars.
A large minority of Spaniards (40.89%) live in communities where a part of the population speaks at least two languages. There are practically no monolingual speakers of languages other than Castilian Spanish. Historically, Castilian develops as the result of a series of compromises among the varieties of Hispano-Latin. From the sociolinguistic point of view, it became the common language because its capacity of integrating and offering new solutions, made it acceptable to the majority.
The State action must be pondered considering that the common language is an international language which shares its European space with three languages of culture: Basque, Catalan, and Galician. Not being international languages puts the last three in a situation that requires a positive support. At the same time, however, it is necessary for the State to make sure that no Spaniard will be deprived of his or her right to access both national and international possibilities of information and education. That total access to global communication can only be reached through the common Spanish language. Therefore, the need of clear concepts in Education policy.