An Educational Project Based on the YouTuber Phenomenon for the Development of a Minority Language

Abstract

In the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), the “Basic Law on the normalization of the use of Basque” (law 10/1982, of 24 November) establishes that Basque citizens have the right to express themselves in either of the two official languages (Basque and Spanish), and to receive instructions in both languages. Therefore, the Faculties of Education must train future teachers to be able to teach and communicate in the Basque language. However, data from the last VI sociolinguistic survey (2016) tell us that 33.9% of the population aged 16 and over living in the BAC is Basque-speaking, but balanced bilinguals who express themselves with the same fluency in both Basque and Spanish make up only 29.3% of Basque speakers. In a study on linguistic customs in the academic field carried out on a group of future primary education teachers, it was observed that although Basque is the language they will teach in the schools of the BAC, it is not their main language of communication. Given this situation, it was deemed necessary to introduce the use of technology to promote the use of Basque. To this end, a project was designed and implemented, involving the intensive use of the social network YouTube. This paper presents the results of the data generated in this didactic experiment at the university level.