‘They speak Arabic to make teachers angry’: high-school teachers’ (de)legitimization of heritage languages in Catalonia

Abstract

This study explores high-school teachers’ discourse on heritage language use regarding their students of immigrant background in Catalonia, Spain, where both Catalan and Spanish are official languages. For this purpose, 10 high-school teachers from 5 schools with a high ratio of foreign students were interviewed. These interviews were analysed using membership categorization analysis. The results show that the perceived appropriateness of heritage language use depends on whether the students are integrated enough in the eyes of locals. Additionally, heritage language use in public is judged from the perspective of a Catalan listener and is deemed disrespectful. This is particularly salient in students of Moroccan background, where language maintenance is associated with overly strict adherence to Islam. The need for training teachers on how to properly address the linguistic and cultural diversity of their classrooms is discussed.