Attitudes of Seconary Education teachers towards Aragonese language

Abstract

Aragonese is one of the most endangered languages ​​in Europe. Current legislation stablishes that the introduction and treatment of this language in schools and high schools in Huesca depends on the will of each center. Therefore, and given the interest of the institutions in recent years towards the preservation of the linguistic heritage of this territory, it is relevant to research the attitudes of teachers to develop policies in favor of the minority language. With this aim, it was carried out an exploratory research under survey design with 162 Secondary Education teachers. The results show a neutral attitude with a favorable tendency towards Aragonese. Nevertheless, this attitude is not reflected in real actions developed in the classroom to promote its preservation. It is also perceived a weak commitment to its normalization in the education. Some factors linked to better attitudes towards Aragonese are those related to the contact with this language at a personal and social level. Moreover, the linguistic profile and the previous experience of teachers in bilingual educational contexts also report statistically significant differences.