CORRESPONDENCE CATALAN TEACHING (1932-1939) BY THE TECHNICAL EDUCATION EXTENSION OF THE GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA

Abstract

This article analyses the features of a structure of the republican Administration of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1932-1939) created to provide teachers with knowledge of standard Catalan, especially through distance learning. As a result of the linguistic policies of the Government of the Spanish Republic and the Generalitat de Catalunya, together with the official status given to Catalan by the 1932 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, this new service, part of the Technical Education Extension, aimed to provide language training to teachers who were required to use Catalan in their work in accordance with new republican legislation. In the context of minoritised language standardisation theory, the analysis of a study corpus consisting of unpublished files taken from public and private archives has helped bring to light previously unknown information and reconstruct the creation, structure, staff, recipients and functions of this unit, and the oppression suffered by its members from 1939 under the Franco regime. The study concludes that the new Catalan by Correspondence Education Service for Teachers was a measure planned by the political power, the Generalitat de Catalunya, aimed at providing knowledge of the Catalan language as a first step to teaching it.