Language policy

THE BASIS OF THE FACULTY’S LANGUAGE POLICY

Bilingualism, multilingualism - these are both concepts we use more frequently with every passing day. Hardly anyone extols the virtues of monolingualism any more, and even bilingualism tends to fall short of the mark, with everyone striving to be multilingual.

But what kind of multilingualism do we want for our university? It is clear that we are not going to use Basque, Spanish and English for all our daily activities. So what shall we use each language for?

TEACHING

We want teaching to be carried out in all three languages. The educational designers of each degree must decide what role each language will play within the course’s syllabus. One of the Mondragon University’s strategic goals is to ensure that all its graduates attain a good level in all three of its working languages. In order to move closer to achieving this goal, slowly but surely each one of the university’s faculties will have to adapt. This is one side of the coin.

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

The other side of the coin requires us to specify the language in which we want to conduct our personal relationships. The answer to this question is clear: the language in which we want to conduct our personal relations at the Mondragon University and, needless to say, within the Faculty of Humanities and Education also, is Basque.

Basque is clearly the most common language of personal relations within the Faculty of Humanities and Education, as regards both oral and written communications. Since the vast majority of the teachers and all the students are Basque speakers, many view the faculty as a place in which Basque use is largely normalised. However, some shortfalls do exist and should not be ignored. In other words, even though Basque use is indeed fairly normalised in our faculty, there is still room for improvement; there are still certain areas and aspects on which we must focus, and we are eager to do so.

In order to achieve the goals outlined above, during the 2006-2007 academic year we set up the Basque Language Council and established the Basque Language Plan, with the aim of shaping and influencing the progress of the language, as regards both its use and its quality.