Which is the best linguistic program in Valencia?

A fundamental principle of the European Schools is the teaching of mother tongue or dominant language as first language (L1).

The term ‘bilingual’ refers to an individual who uses two or more languages or dialects in his or her everyday life, regardless of the context of use. At an individual level, there is a distinction between a person's ability in two languages and their use of those two languages: A bilingual typically use their two languages with different people, in different context and for different purposes. In terms of ability in two languages, they can use the four basic dimensions: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

According to this definition Valencian people are bilingual.

Plurilingualism is the capacity of individuals to use more than one language in social communication whatever their command of those languages. This set of skills constitutes the complex but unique competence, in social communication, to use different languages for different purposes with different levels of command.  The language learner becomes plurilingual and develops interculturality.

Plurilingual education will refer to all activities, curricular or extra-curricular of whatever nature, from the earliest schooldays and throughout life.

The aim of plurilingualism and plurilingual education is not simultaneously teaching a range of languages, teaching through comparing different languages or teaching as many languages as possible. It is a competence that can be acquired and cannot be considered the privilege of a “gifted” elite.

Being plurilingual does not mean mastering a large number of languages to a high level, it consist in acquiring the ability to use more than one linguistic variety to degrees for different purposes (conversation, reading or writing, etc.) and this degree may change over time., considering the linguistic varieties as language in the family, at work, in official or everyday situations,…

In our autonomous region, our government implement for a bilingual and multilingual educational programs.

In fact, it is better that the child is able to express his/her feelings in one language than that she/he is unsure to use any language, but certainly, children who know more than one language have a greater potential for creativity , they are being able to see the world through different lenses, tend to be better in problem-solving which is cognitively demanding.

What is more language awareness gives the potential for enriched information processing,  knowing more than one language may help the brain sharpen its ability to focus.

 To sum up , multilingualism is reported as helping to nurture interpersonal communication awareness and skills and speaking more than one language may have cognitive benefits that extend from childhood into old age.

Therefore, our Autonomous offers an education system which is structured in bilingual, at the beginning and more recently in a multilingual  educational programs.

Our students are going to be able to use more than two languages (Valencian, Spanish and English) although some of them are able to use one more (French or German as a second foreign language)

A multilingual Educational Program is the way to manage it