Concerned to Plurilingualism I understand like the ability to use different languages, using that knowledge or skills to communicate with the others.

I live in Urretxu and the population here is about 6000 people. I am not sure of how many  The number of Basque speakers is about 3500, and most of them know very well the spoken and written skills. The others are Spanish speakers. The mother tongue of about 1500 people is Basque. 

It is very important to concrete the school language project in our case based on Basque language, and also Spanish and English, to know how  languages would be learnt-taught and the use they are going to do.

I think that it is very important  for us, as teachers, to know about our sociocultural context , to make a good job  at the school to respond all the needs. Because of the fact that we will have students with different nationalities and we will be forced to adapt most of the times our language to make the understanding easier. So we have to be aware of the importance of doing a good language project.

Oihane Mediavilla. 

Multilingualism means when a person or a community is able to express itself in several languages.

I live in Lekeitio, Lekeitio has 7500 inhabitants. Most or most of the population speaks Basque and the one who does not speak it understands it. It is true that in recent years the population has changed because of immigration, which is why different cultures and even languages coexist with Basque.

I think it is a very important aspect, since as I said although the languages with greater strength are the Basque and Spanish, together with English, in the last years are many girls and boys enrolled of different nationalities. For this reason I believe that in schools must be considered that in education today must have more cavity apart from official languages.

As a prospective teacher I think it is a topic related to our work and our day to day. That is why our duty as teachers is to educate and raise awareness that although the Basque language is predominate in this case, in the context in which we live speak more languages than ours and we must respect them. We must make them understand that even though we talk differently, we are all the same.

Ander Astoreka

Plurilingualism is a situation wherein a person who has competence in more than one language can switch between languages according to the circumstances at hand for the purpose of coping with a social matter.

I live in Ordizia. Most of the population understands Basque, children and young speak very good Basque, some adult too. In general I think that if you only speak Basque you can communicate and understand everything in Ordizia.

As we live in a town with different nationalities, we have different languages among us which we have to respect. With all this in mind, the teacher has to use good resources when she/he is organizing the School Language Project.

To finish, I think I need to know more about this topic to work on it better in the future. It is important to know better the students and their environment, to offer them a complete education and to create a good Language Project. 

·       Plurilingualism refers to a place or community where more than two languages are spoken. 

·       What are the features of our sociolinguistic context? In the Basque Country we can find a special sociolinguistic context. Nowadays we have two “official” languages: Basque and Spanish. Not long ago, basque was in a really important risk, because someone thought that people who spoke basque were less than the Spanish speakers. Nowadays, we are in a better situation, but we still have a lot to do. I live in Oiartzun and fortunately the main language most people use to communicate is basque. We an learn in basque, go to the doctor, to do the shopping… using only basque, but it isn’t like that in other towns or cities. 

·       How are these concepts related to the School Language Project?  Think that each sociolinguistic context need a different School Language Project which reflects our particular society. For example, in our case we have txo official languages, so have to educate and teach children taking into account that. They have to have similar skills in both languages. Apart of that, in nowadays society English also is a really important aspect, so this is also an other aspect to focus. 

·       Why do you need to deal with this type of content as a prospective teacher? How does it contribute to your professional profile and development? As a teacher, it is essential to know about our sociolinguistic context and the different situations about each children have respect the language: what is their mother or main language… In addition, taking into account that in our society English is more and more important, maybe in some years we will be speaking about plurilingualism, so we have to start thinking how to  deal with this situation. 

 

Plurilingualism, refers to people that it’s able to use several languages, having linguistic knowledge and skills to communicate with others in many different situations. 

 

Referring to the features of my sociolinguistic context, In Basque Country there are two official languages: Basque and Spanish. In Arrasate, my hometown, more that half population is Basque. Taking into account the kids, the 90% have the Basque ability but only the 49% uses Basque in the streets. 

 

Each school, has a different school language project. Depending where the school is located, which language is used in that area and which language is more relevant in the school, the language project would be different. At the same time, language project is related to curricular project. That means that depending the school, Basque and Spanish will be considered in the same level or not. 

 

I think is really important, to know which is the sociolinguistic context of the place where I live or the place where I am going to work, in order to respond the needs. A prospective teacher should know, among other things, which is the school language project, which language has importance and how to deal with it.