Rap music in minority languages in secondary education: a case study of Catalan rap

Abstract

This article explores hip hop music as a powerful tool for educational institutions to promote minority languages among teenagers living in multilingual contexts. It reports on an educational experience in secondary education that consisted of a series of rhyme workshops given by a guest hip hop artist in a secondary school in Catalonia, where two main languages (Spanish and Catalan) coexist in an unbalanced situation that favours Spanish for peer-communication. Drawing on two articulated pieces of fieldwork (the first one in the classroom and the second outside school with three students who were emergent rappers), the study shows a rift between language practices in the classroom and hip hop language practices in the teenagers’ lives. It also shows the powerful effect of bringing a professional musician into the classroom and how the school can have an impact on the language practices of the students outside school.