image credit: dominio de las lenguas, via Público (click to view full size image)

If you’ve been reading us for a while, I’m sure you know that we try to avoid political discussions about bilingualism and the minority languages spoken in Spain. This is primarily because we believe that there is plenty of evidence to support the fact that a bilingual upbringing has loads of benefits, regardless of which combination of languages you choose to teach your children. One of the most recent studies on the subject demonstrates some of the many cognitive advantages bilingual children and adults have over their monolingual peers. Click here for more in-depth information on the benefits of bilingualism. So we strongly encourage parents to raise their children bilingually, whether that means English/Spanish, Arabic/French, Polish/Chinese or whatever language combination you feel motivated to share with your children.

That said, a interesting article in the Spanish daily newspaper Publico recently caught my eye. Under the headline “La recuperación de las lenguas aún es un reto” (Language Recovery is Still a Challenge), the article uses pictographs and numerical data to show the evolution of each of Spain’s minority languages over the last 30 years in those regions where each language is spoken. It’s especially interesting to see the challenges each region has faced over the years and the impact that social and political support for these minority languages has had on the recovery of each language.

The main (non-political) conclusion we can gain from these statistics is that it takes work for children to learn any language that is not the primary community language. Children first need to be exposed to a language and then they need to feel a motivation to communicate in that language. Just as those communities who have supported the use of their minority languages and worked for more opportunities for children to find a practical use for those languages have seen a growth in the percentage of the population that is truly bilingual, any family that makes the choice to raise their children bilingually will see greater results if they take active steps to both expose children to the language and create real opportunities for them to use the language on a daily basis. Best of luck to those of you who are fighting to give your children the wonderful gift of bilingualism!