Catalan language promotion in Barcelona has launched an ambitious new strategy targeting young residents through their leisure activities.
The city council and Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC) have initiated their first monitoring commission for this joint project, which forms part of an agreement signed last June between both institutions.
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Catalan Language Promotion Through Youth Activities
The programme specifically aims to intervene in more than 15 sports clubs, 200 teams and over 3,000 young participants. Furthermore, it seeks to strengthen Catalan as the primary language in leisure and sporting activities. The project includes methodological monitoring by sociolinguistic specialists who will evaluate results systematically.
Mayor Jaume Collboni attended the launch meeting at Sarrià Library alongside IEC president Teresa Cabré and the council’s commissioner for Catalan Social Use, Marta Salicrú. Project leader Vicent Climent explained that a pilot scheme has already commenced in various sports and leisure venues across Sants-Montjuïc district.
The initiative focuses on making Catalan an attractive, visible and participatory experience for young people. Consequently, play and sport become powerful tools for language normalisation. The methodology being applied, known as IEC 360° Method, treats language promotion as public policy requiring continuous adjustment based on outcomes.
Quarterly activities are currently running in several youth spaces including Espai 04, La Báscula Youth Space, Chemistry Space and La Clau Adolescent Space. Meanwhile, annual interventions will soon expand to additional sports clubs and teams across the city. Linguistic plans are also being developed for three specific clubs alongside interventions in digital sports and video gaming spaces.
Commissioner Salicrú emphasised that promoting Catalan language among Barcelona’s youth requires approaching it through normality and daily life. The strategy encourages young people to use Catalan in familiar leisure activities like sports and playground games. This comprehensive approach will ultimately produce guidance documents for implementing the method in other city districts and municipalities.
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