Other
Spanish
ID: <
10670/1.bfwdph>
Abstract
Foreign languages have had a significant presence in formal education in Argentina. This article will present the Argentine state’s linguistic policies regarding foreign languages in the education system in the period 1904-1941 through an analysis of the reform projects of the system. As regards education, the focus will be on secondary schools: it is in this level, and in national schools specifically, where the teaching of certain foreign languages took place. The selected period begins in 1904, when a specific teacher training institution for foreign languages was created in charge of the federal state: the Escuela de Profesores en Lenguas Vivas. This analysis ends in 1941, the year when the curricula were modified and it was decided that, given that the simultaneous learning of foreign languages was one of the biggest criticisms made to national schools, only two languages were to be taught and one after the other. This change in the curricula increased the presence of English and caused a decrease in the teaching of French in the system, since it became mandatory to study English in one of the two levels proposed.