Resumen de Turning Knowledge of Basque into Use
Jasone Aldekoa, Nicolas Gardner
Once a minority language has been introduced to formal schooling, promoters are frequently dismayed by the continuing presence, even dominance, of the major language in the children's school life. In the Basque Autonomous Community (Spain) the regional Government, responsible for primary and secondary schooling, has adopted a series of measures over the past 20 years since the introduction of Basque in its schools alongside Spanish to counter this occurrence. This process has culminated in the creation of an overarching programme for the normalisation of the use of Basque in school by the name of Ulibarri which individual schools can opt into. After describing the context of Basque language revitalisation and the programme's antecedents, the authors offer a detailed picture of the motives, organisation and execution of the Ulibarri programme, together with an evaluation of results, in the belief that this programme with its mix of top-down and bottom-up language planning elements is an innovation of potential interest to other language loyalists worldwide.
