Over the last decade, Spain in general -and particularly Catalonia- has become an important host country for immigrants. Therefore, a considerable amount of students of immigrant origin have entered our educational system, posing new challenges for the whole community. One of these, that probably most concerns teachers, refers to developing adequate levels of linguistic competence so that these students may follow the curriculum in a language which, more often than not, has very little in common with their mother tongue (L1). This situation may be worse in regions, such as Catalonia, where the educational system is articulated under the parameters of bilingual education. In this context, our work focuses on a sample of 121 boys and girls (93 non-immigrant and 28 immigrant students) in Compulsory Secondary Education attending a school in Catalonia. The main purpose of the study is to analyse the degree to which these students advance in their knowledge of Catalan and Spanish, taking as reference the length of stay in the host country. The data obtained depict a relatively slow and complex process that points at the need for serious reflection by all educational agents.©2011 Fundación Infancia y Aprendizaje, ISSN: 1135-6405.

Linguistic knowledge Length of stay Spanish Migrant Children Catalan

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