Introduction
Baker ( 2001) states that bilingual education should not be regarded as a modern phenomenon. The fact is that in one way or another it has existed for many centuries and its historical roots have been linked to immigration, political upheavals, the defence of human rights, the fight for equality of educational opportunities, and so on.
This is particularly relevant in Spain. The end of Franco's regime (1939–1975) led to the 1978 Constitution, which, apart from being the basis of a return to democracy, acknowledged all the minority languages spoken in Spain that had traditionally played second fiddle or none at all. However, it has to be remembered that the Magna Carta currently in force embodies a language policy in which Spanish is the only official language for the State as a whole.
With this background in mind, in the following pages we will describe the foundations on which Spanish language policy is based and how they affect the education system. The paper starts by...
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Acknowledgements
This study was possible thanks to a grant awarded by the Dirección General de Investigación of the Ministry of Education of Spain, through the project number SEJ2005-08944-C02-01/EDUC and number SEJ2005-08944-C02-02/EDUC.
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Huguet, Á., Lasagabaster, D., Vila, I. (2008). Bilingual Education in Spain: Present Realities and Future Challenges. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_127
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_127
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