Policies Promoting the Use of Catalan in Oral Communications and to Improve Attitudes towards the Language

Abstract

The first section of this article introduces the problem of usage norms that are detrimental to Catalan in interpersonal relations between Castilian and Catalan speakers. It goes on to describe the main campaigns promoting the use of Catalan in these inter-group relations, from El català és cosa de tots (Catalonia, 1981) to Integra’m, Integra’l (Minorca, 2005-2006), including on the way other Catalan, Balearic and Valencian campaigns. To conclude, it points to, on the one hand, the limits of these campaigns within a liberal democratic framework and, on the other, the difficulties in assessing their effects on everyday competences, usages and attitudes.