User:Blaster Bates/Coordinadora d'Associacions per la Llengua Catalana

The Coordinator of Associations for the Catalan Language (CAL) is a non-profit organization that aims to achieve full linguistic, national and cultural normalization in the Catalan-speaking countries by implementing projects undertaken from the social, cultural and political perspectives. Emerging from civil society and inheriting much of the legacy of the dissolved Crida a la Solidaritat (Call for Solidarity), CAL was founded on 23rd April, 1996, as a network of associations and individuals from all over Catalonia who wished to participate in the new project.

In 2016, CAL received the Creu de Sant Jordi (St George’s Cross) for its unstinting work over twenty years in promoting Catalan by supporting policies aimed at increasing the social use of the language, fostering its full normalization, and demanding recognition for linguistic unity throughout those areas in which Catalan is spoken. With a presence in every Catalan region, CAL encompasses a broad range of entities, groups and individuals, while its numerous campaigns and projects help to make Catalan language and culture more socially cohesive.

CAL'S objectives are to:


 * ensure that Catalan has an honourable future, while calling for active policies to encourage its use in society and enable it to become a fully normalized language,raise people’s awareness of these issues
 * put an end to the lack of appreciation of Catalan culture by presenting it to the world as a culture that is innovative, integrative and self-assured, and
 * demand recognition for the unity and officiality of Catalan throughout the Catalan-speaking countries, from Salses to Guardamar and from Fraga to Mahon.

Presence
CAL is organized geographically into local centres distributed across the Catalan-speaking countries in order to help visibilize its efforts at promoting Catalan language and culture on a local level. These centres are hugely important since they operate directly and intimately in all corners of the land and, in doing so, highlight the vitality and unity of the Catalan people. Each centre organizes its own Correllengua in the district, municipality or county it represents. They are also largely responsible for coordinating conversation groups under the Xerrem junts (Let’s chat) project and conduct numerous other campaigns, some of which are local and some are initiatives organized by the central CAL.

There are two types of local centres:

1. Centres with full rights, which are self-financed partly through quotas paid by their members, and

2. Collaborating centres, which operate on a more autonomous basis but are also coordinated by the central CAL.

There are currently 28 local centres, all of which are located in Catalonia: Alella, Argentona, Barcelona-Gràcia, Barcelona-Guinardó, Barcelona-Sants, Calella, Canet de Mar, Cardedeu, Castellar del Vallès, El Prat de Llobregat, Esplugues de Llobregat, Figueres, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Lluçanès, Mataró, Olesa de Montserrat, Pallejà, Sabadell, Sallent, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Sant Just Desvern, Santa Margarida de Montbui, Torrebesses, Torredembarra, Torrelles de Llobregat, Vacarisses, and Valls-Alt Camp.

Historical context
CAL was founded at a time when negotiations were taking place in Catalonia to introduce a new Language Policy law, which was eventually passed in January 1998. CAL believed that this law was over-compliant and under-ambitious. Just a year earlier, the Spanish Popular Party (PP) had won elections in the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands. In 1996, the PP, led by José María Aznar, had won the general election in Spain, while in the same year the French Council of State made moves to undermine the administrative use of regional or minority languages. These conditions did not suggest a particularly favourable political future for the normalization of the Catalan language.

In this context, a new civic movement was created both to pick up the baton from the Call for Solidarity after that organization’s dissolution in 1993 and to defend the Catalan language. CAL was thus founded by former members of the Call and other individuals who had grown concerned for the future of Catalan language and culture, and indeed for the future of Catalonia as a whole. These founding members aimed to create an organization that would be independent of any political party or trade union so that its strength would reside with civil society and its associations.

Over the years, other entities and individuals have joined CAL, collaborating to create and consolidate a robust, transversal project that is increasingly rooted in the network of its associations. The social use of Catalan (an issue incumbent upon society as a whole) and CAL’s intention to seek transversality have encouraged the organization to open its doors to anyone in the Catalan-speaking countries who wishes to help improve the current situation of the Catalan language.

Twenty years on, CAL encompasses a host of individuals and entities distributed across the entire Catalan-speaking countries, though with greater weight in Catalonia and Northern Catalonia, where prevailing circumstances have made it possible to conduct more activities and consolidate more active local centres. Nevertheless, CAL remains committed to becoming fully implemented across the Catalan-speaking countries by encouraging every entity and organization to get involved and collaborate with each other..

CAL's main projects
CAL organizes and undertakes a wide range of projects to achieve its objectives and fulfil its purpose. Currently, the most significant of these are Correllengua, Xerrem junts, the Joan Coromines awards, and Empentallengua. It also periodically publishes a magazine called Escletxa.

Correllengua
Since 1996 Correllengua has been working to extend the use of Catalan and promote the popular culture of Catalan-speaking countries in an enjoyable, participatory and transversal way. CAL is the main promoter of this activity, which is held every year across much of the Catalan-speaking region, especially in Catalonia and Northern Catalonia. It has become one of the initiatives with the greatest levels of participation in the Catalan-speaking countries.

The wide and varied leisure, artistic and folkloric activities and the numerous debates and forums where information and opinions are exchanged are linked symbolically by the Flame of Canigó, which is carried through each participating municipality. At first, the number of participating municipalities was no more than twelve; in 2011, however, over 300 municipalities took part throughout the Catalan-speaking countries. CAL now coordinates almost 200 Correllengües in Catalonia, Northern Catalonia and La Franja (Aragonese Strip). For the last ten years, CAL has inaugurated Correllengua by paying tribute to an emblematic figure from the world of Catalan culture (such as Manuel de Pedrolo, Salvador Espriu, Pere IV, Lluís Maria Xirinacs, Miquel Martí Pol, Maria-Mercè Marçal, Ovidi Montllor and Montserrat Roig) and holding inaugural events in the municipalities that are characteristic of the emblematic figure concerned. In collaboration with the northern-Catalonian Fédération pour la défense de la langue et de la culture catalanes, CAL also organizes Correllengua’s closing ceremony, which takes place each year in Perpignan.

Correllengua is now recognized as an activity with roots that are firmly established throughout the Catalan-speaking countries. The word Correllengua has even forged an identity of its own since it now appears in the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, whose 2011 digital edition defines Correllengua as: “A series of events and demonstrations held in support of the Catalan language”. This definition is accompanied by a text which explains that the history of Correllengua is inextricably linked to CAL. Correllengua’s capacity to enhance the language and culture of Catalonia is undoubtedly what has made it essential to incorporate this term into the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.

Xerrem junts (Let's chat)
Let's chat is a tool that organizes meetings between people who have never had any contact with the Catalan language or who have had some contact but have difficulties understanding or expressing themselves and Catalan-speaking volunteers trained by CAL who devote some of their free time to helping others speak Catalan. The means by which this is done is conversation, fundamental to the acquisition of any language.

The project is an associative one, which involves networking between institutions and people and highlights concepts such as social cohesion and tproviding refuge for others. The teaching methodology is oral based and, for this reason, it is suitable for groups of people who cannot resort to other learning systems that necessarily require them to be able to read and write.

Xerrem junts has three main aims: to improve the use of the Catalan language in society, for a wide variety of people to communicate regularly over time – the source of social cohesion and public participation – and to understand and love the country thanks to an understanding of the local neighbourhood and the city.

Al projecte xerrem junts de la CAL s’hi pot incorporar un ventall molt ampli de persones amb nivells diversos de domini de la llengua: des de l’extrem de persones que mai no han estat en contacte amb el català ni tampoc tenen formació instrumental bàsica, fins al de persones amb estudis que no tenen el català com a llengua pròpia, però que el dominen mitjanament. Els primers són atesos amb una metodologia activa de comprensió oral (metodologia Junts) i els segons, amb pràctica intensiva de conversa (metodologia Xerrem).

The Junts methodology involves a series of horizontal relationships between Catalan speakers and people who do not understand Catalan. The project involves volunteers on both sides who work exclusively on the oral skill. They use visual material of mini conversations that help users acquire the skill of understanding and oral expression at a basic level in their interpersonal and social relationships. The spoken language can also be acquired in social gatherings in which cohesion is as important as the acquisition of the language. Hence, the project is not one of formal learning but rather adopts a more linguistic, cultural and personal approach.

The CAL is aware that the linguistic objective of the project is limited to participants developing their listening skill and producing extremely basic sentences, which, despite being of some importance, is clearly insufficient in terms of a varied and active language competence (listening, reading, speaking and writing). For this reason, users are given information about all the educational possibilities provided by public institutions and the volunteers encourage all those people who could benefit from formal learning to enrol in courses for beginners.

The project consists of 25 sessions (one for each of the 20 units and one to review every five units) led by two or three facilitators. The aim is for the learners to acquire a basic understanding of spoken Catalan and the ability to use simple expressions and sentences in their social relationships. In terms of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the units are at the beginning of the A1 level and are designed as an introduction to the language for those who do not speak Catalan.

By attempting to create a learning environment in which people not only feel comfortable but also learn, the Catalan language clearly becomes a cohesive factor. So, if some learners do not manage to achieve the goal of managing to communicate at a basic level in everyday situations, they probably also feel that the language is not an obstacle to taking part in Catalan environments. And those who do achieve this goal move on to take part in the Xerrem groups

The Xerrem method brings together, once a week, a group of people who want to improve their spoken Catalan with one or two people who speak it well. For some hours a week for an unspecified period, the xerraires (the people who attend are known as chatters) speak with one another and in groups of three of four, asking and answering questions. The questions are structured in levels. At first, the responses required are short and simple but as the participants make progress, the level increases and they need greater linguistic mastery. The groups are led by facilitators (people who speak the language and who are prepared to help people who wish to speak it and understand the nature of the country) who help the chatters to improve their command of the spoken language and advise them on opportunities to learn and use the language. They are not teachers; they play the role of fellow citizens who speak the language well and can tell them how to say certain things. The conversations revolve around the typical topics of social relationships so the chatters are constantly exposed to communicative situations that they will encounter in the street, the bar, the doctor’s waiting room, a shop and many other places. They are situations in which conversation has the only objective of polite and pleasant interaction between people. In these situations, the people who are being introduced to a new language find new opportunities for acquiring and consolidating their oral skills. The Xerrem groups, then, reflect and practise street relations so that the new speakers can return to the street with their new knowledge.

The Joan Coromines Awards
Since 2002 the CAL has given the Joan Coromines Awards to recognise the individuals and organisations that have excelled for their commitment to the normalisation of the Catalan language, Catalan culture and the Catalan nation. At the same time, they aspire to encourage ongoing work to achieve freedom and the full recognition of the national identity.

Over the years, a wide range of personalities from the world of culture and language have received the award. The bishop Antoni Deig, Joan Laporta, Vicent Torrent, Eliseu Climent, Najat El Hachmi, Salvador Cardús, Isabel-Clara Simó, Francesc Ferrer i Gironès, Miquel Martí i Pol, el poeta alguerès Antoni Canu, Carles Capdevila, Víctor Alexandre, Patricia Gabancho, Màrius Serra and Dagoll Dagom are some examples.

The Empentallengua
The Empentallengua is a new linguistic and cultural project that organises a wide variety of small activities which the institutions, organisations and groups that work on language issues can carry out in their local neighbourhood, town and/or region.

The project arose out of the desire to spread initiatives for language promotion, make them available to the local agents responsible for language and cultural issues, and provide them with the tools necessary to implement them throughout Catalonia.