The Castilian and Asturian languages in schools

This paper presents the situation of both the Asturian and Spanish languages in schools and the consequences that derive from it. Thus, our study describes the diglossia situation from Asturias, where Asturian is a language for informal contexts, while the Castilian is the dominant language, which is associated with formal situations. Moreover, the Asturian language was not accepted in education until 1984, when it was introduced as an optional subject, a fact that contributed in a very significant way to the diglossia situation. Our research looks especially at the work of Riaño and San Fabián Maroto (1996) and highlights the importance of education in shaping the linguistic attitudes in Asturias. This way, we want to demonstrate that a greater presence of Asturian language in schools is necessary in order to change the situation of diglossia from Asturias