ELT and Bilingual Education in Argentina

Abstract

The English language has a long history and prestigious status in Argentina. Its presence as a foreign language is closely linked to the birth of the country as a nation. As a consequence, the teaching of English has always been widely encouraged in Argentina. Today, English is part of the curriculum of private and state-run schools. Within the private sector, there is a large number of bilingual schools, some of which were established as ethnic schools by the first English settlers in the 19th century. The success of the first bilingual schools has encouraged many other schools to copy, to varying degrees, their bilingual curriculum and thus create a large network of English-Spanish schools in the country. Education in Argentina has undergone extensive changes in the last decade. The new Federal Law of Education of 1996 has had a special impact on the teaching of foreign languages. Based on this law, English is now compulsory in all Argentine schools—a clear sign of the government’s recognition of the importance of mastering the world’s lingua franca. In this chapter, the implementation of the new education law and its impact on the teaching of English in public schools is discussed.