Modos de integración lingüística en el alumnado de origen inmigrante de Educación Secundaria

Laburpena

Beyond the initial interest in analyzing the acquisition of the language of host society (L2), the literature on social and educational integration of children of immigrant has been interested in knowing how such acquisition is combined with the retention of native language (Ll). Four types oflinguistic integration emerge from that combination: competent bilingualism, monolingual assimilation, monolingual segmentation and limited bilingualism. This paper is based on a case study which covers the students ofthe last stage of compulsory education in ali the public high schools ofMarbella (Spain). The aim is to analyze the proportions of immigrant students for every type of linguistic integration. Data from a survey addressed to ali students attending the last two years of compulsory education in this municipality (N=l.461) is used. More precisely, this paper exploits data from the subsample ofstudents coming from non-Spanish speaking countries (n=23 l). Results show that only 30% of the students in the analyzed sub sample falls within the competent bilingualism type, which enables better integration both_into the Spanish society and within the ethnic group. Monolingual assimilation is the most frequent type of integration (40%). Therefore, the margin of growth of bilingualism for these students of high bilingual potential is vast, both on the side of L2 proficiency and, specially, on L l. These results call for the need to implement new institutional strategies for the promotion of multilingualism among children of immigrants.