Below is an article written by our Language Rich Project manager Aneta Quraishy about the Madrid launch, which took place on 7 June 2012. It also includes a link to an interview for Radio Nacional España 5, Radio Exterior in the program Otros Acentos.

Taking place at the European Commission building in Madrid Lenguas Riqueza del Europa (Language RIch Europe) launched in Spain. Key good news stories for Spain, where research focused on the three cities, Madrid, Valencia and Sevilla, lay in particular within the education domain. In the field of Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Spain came out very well positioned in comparison to the other participating 18 countries. Spanish bilingual schools (important to note that these are predominately English/Spanish) are beginning to serve as a model for other countries. You can listen to an interview Marta and I gave on Radio Nacional España 5, Radio Exterior in the program Otros Acentos.

Below are some key messages in Spanish and English:

…la posición de España, a la cabeza de los países analizados en integrar lengua y contenidos en Inglés en la Educación Primaria, por lo que nuestro sistema podría servir de modelo de otros países en el futuro. En Primaria además, España es pionera en vincular las lenguas ofertadas al Marco Común Europeo de Referencia de las Lenguas (MCERL). Según datos de la investigación, se destaca el apoyo del sistema educativo español en materia de idiomas en todos los niveles educativos desde Primaria hasta la Universidad, incluyendo también el respaldo al alumnado inmigrante. También se valoran positivamente iniciativas como la puesta en marcha del Plan Estratégico de Ciudadanía e Integración de 2007-2010 y el Plan Objetivos de la Educación para la década 2010-2020 que abogan el plurilingüismo y el impulso del aprendizaje de idiomas, la modernización e internacionalización de universidades y por un modelo de educación inclusiva, diversa e intercultural. También aparece como aspecto muy positivo el apoyo a las lenguas oficiales y regionales.

Areas for improvement include the fact that albeit European recommendations state that two foreign languages should be taught as compulsory, Spain only makes one language obligatory throughout its schooling system. This is however the reality in many European countries and UK children aged 14+ are not obliged to learn any foreign language for example.

Juan Pedro de Basterrechea, Instituto Cervantes, stressed how important it is not to make sweeping judgements with the study that is after all based only on three Spanish cities and rather that the study should be used to highlight interesting points, and serve as a way of raising the of the importance of multilingualism and language learning. We need to also look to the two regional profiles created of Catalonia and the Basque Country. Marta Genís, Universidad Antonio Nebrija, pointed out that in the Business domain, there is still room for improvement for Spanish companies where language learning is not given as much support as it should. She further highlighted that despite the benefits of subtitling; Spain continues to opt for dubbing both on TV and in the cinema.