Resumen de Language Attitudes of School Children in two Catalan/Spanish Bilingual Communities

Agrave ngel Huguet, Enric Llurda

• Catalonia and Aragon are two autonomous communities of Spain with different linguistic situations. Whereas Catalonia is officially bilingual and most people can speak both Catalan and Spanish, Aragon is officially monolingual, and only two well-defined geographic areas can be considered bilingual. One of these areas is a relatively narrow strip of land that runs along the border between Aragon and Catalonia, where Catalan is spoken in addition to Spanish. This area is home to about 5% of the population of Aragon and, therefore, the local language does not enjoy the same recognition and official support as in Catalonia. A questionnaire on the attitudes of school children on both sides of the border was conducted to detect (1) any attitudinal differences towards Catalan and Spanish between the two communities; and (2) any attitudinal effect of attending optional Catalan classes on the Aragonese side. Responses are classified into three possible categories: unfavourable, neutral and favourable. Results show that unfavourable attitudes to any language are almost non-existent on both sides but differences appear when neutral and favourable attitudes are considered.