Teaching Spanish without material resources. The case of the Saharawi refugees
Abstract
The Spanish language is the second language for the Saharawi people living in the Tinduf desert (Argelia). Their forefathers learnt it in the XV century when the Canary Islands were incorporated to the Kingdom of Castile and the first commercial exchanges with the Western Sahara coast began. In 1975 a war forced them to flee to this place and to organize themselves into a refugee camp. They have been living there ever after that time, waiting for the celebration of a referendum on self-determination that was promised by the UN on December 14th 1973 (General Assembly. ONU,1973).
The use of the Spanish language guarantees their survival because they can communicate with the Spanish humanitarian workers from the NGOs that visit them: helping them to stand the wait, giving them food, improving infrastructures, giving them health care etc. They can use Spanish both in writing and in speaking. In order to know the resources they use, we undertook a statistical study about the opinion of the instructors who teach Spanish as a second language from the 3rd year of Primary (8 years old). This investigation describes the environment where they live and the teaching and learning resources that are available at schools. The results obtained are discussed and proposals to improve this situation are made.
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