LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE AND NEEDS

Today's debate is about the use of English as language for instruction in the whole academic field.  In the place where I live, Comunidad Valenciana, there is still a "war" concerning the use of Valencian or Spanish as language for instruction in the classroom. Apart from the convenience of one langue or another, we should take into account that for an individual person, a langue awakes also personal feelings.  Not everybody wants to learn foreign languages.  Not every student feel comfortable when he is asked to use another language, different from his mother tongue.  However, we as teachers know that a student using at least 2 foreign languages will have more laboral oportunities in the furure.  The ideal situation would be that any child should have, not one, but 3 or more mother tongues, so as to feel all them as natural.  But this rarely happens.

So, what to do in the academic scenery?  I think, foreign languages should be taught from the beginning (3/4 years pupils).  However, input should be done little by little, progressivly.  Thus, in any school of the Comunidad Valenciana, Spanish, Valencian and English should share input from the beginning, being the programms designed to offer English, Valencian or Spanish as predominat languages for instruction according to students interests in the Secondary stage.