A brief CV

Laura Lozano-Martínez is a PhD student of English language and literature (UNED) and is working on the final phase of her doctoral thesis on bilingual upbringing by non-native parents. She currently works as a CLIL primary school teacher of English and French, as Head Teacher of the Primary school and Coordinator of the Bilingual Programme. Laura started out as a Spanish Language Assistant in England in 2003 and returned to Spain in 2005 to become an English, French, and Spanish teacher. She completed her degree in English Studies in 2013 followed by a Master in Planification and Language Policy of English in Europe, focussing on the Evaluation of Bilingual Programmes, a topic on which she has published various articles in specialized magazines such as RaeL and ELIA. Laura has also participated as a speaker on the subject of bilingualism in various international congresses organised by institutions such as the Universidad de Salamanca, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the UNED or the University of Warsaw. On a personal level, she has introduced English as a foreign language to her two children, who are now also being exposed to the French language. She has always been interested in studying any subject related to language acquisition, language learning and the teaching of foreign languages, including Spanish Sign Language and German. Nowadays, her studies are predominantly focused on family language planning.

Raising bilingual children without English being their parents’ first language

In recent decades, the proliferation of bilingual education programs in Spain, mainly with English as the target language, has become evident (Lozano-Martínez, 2017). Although the linguistic wealth of our country includes and should make visible bilingual programs that include other languages ​​(in addition to or instead of English), such as Basque, Catalan, French or German. However, the omnipresence of English and the importance associated with that language is undeniable generating movements in society, in the educational system and in families. Bilingual (and multilingual) education is a controversial topic in our country as some educational centers have withdrawn from bilingual programs, and their reasons must be analyzed. At the same time, families accompany their children in the constant changes in educational laws and programs. The vast majority want to ensure the best possible future for their children (Lozano-Martínez, 2019), which implies learning English to complete their training. Thus, some families decide to introduce this language into upbringing without being their mother tongue or main language (Lozano-Martínez, 2019), which again generates controversy due to the main fact that they are not native English speakers. However, although it is complex to determine real figures for this practice, these are not anecdotal cases, but there is a growing movement of families who use English with their children. These families develop strategies and face challenges, widespread myths and even prejudices that must be analyzed (Lozano-Martínez, 2019), objective of the doctoral thesis on which this presentation is based, which also includes some conceptual clarifications necessary to avoid Confusion in society and certain unfounded myths that prevent a correct orientation and progress in bilingual upbringing by non-natives about which we still find few references, among which, for example, Saunders (1983) (1988) and Jernigan (2015) stand out.