The academic institution has honoured Pascual Granell ─teacher, multilingual languages scholar and writer─ during the course of an act that took place in the Paranymph of the historic building La Nau. The Principal Esteban Morcillo interceded during the session, as well as Professor Maria Conca, who was responsible for reading the ‘laudatio’. Also attended Jaume Fullana, General Director of Educative Policy; Ruben Trenzano, General Director of Language Policy and Multilingualism Management; Maria Elena Ferrando, Autonomic Secretary of Social Services and Ramon Ferrer, Director of the Valencian Academy of Language (AVL).

Vicent Pascual Granell appreciates the efforts made by institutions, Escola Valenciana, the Associations Federation of Mothers and Fathers, the Educational Workers of the Valencian Country Labor Union, the universities and specially by “those combative, thrilled teachers that have become the incentives of revitalisation and normalisation of the Valencian language in the field of education”. He also complains that, despite all, the situation of the Valencian teaching in the 21st Century in the education system “is very dramatic”.

He also reminded some numbers: only a 30, 3% of the student body in compulsory schools complete their education entirely in Valencian; when it comes to students of public funded centres that receive education in Valencian, only the 7% are students from concerted schools. The incorporation of Valencian in territories where Spanish is the prevailing language is only testimonial.

The University of Valencia’s Medal Honouree has told in detail which are, in his view, the lines of work that must be urgently launched.

To read the whole speech of Vicent Pascual Granell click here.

Professor Maria Conca had previously read the laudatio and reminded the professional and personal trajectory of Pascual Granell. Honorary Professor from the Department of Catalan Language emphasized “the enormous work developed by Vicent Pascual in the field of language planning for the Valencian education system”. “And he has done with efficiency and courage in all different politic contexts ─some of them even adverse─ that we experienced in the Valencian Country in the last four decades”.

The whole ‘laudatio’ can be read at: http://www.uv.es/rectorat/discursos/honoris/jorgenson/Laudatio_Jorgenson_ING.pdf

In his turn, Principal Esteban Morcillo has underlined “the intense work in the field of multilingualism that Vicent Pascual has developed and still works on”. The Principal stated: “The future has always been uncertain, even more in the present times we live. But it is also true that it relies on us to build a better future. To contribute into making a better educated and informed society, fairer and more solidary. To dream about a better future is nothing other than what persistent and committed people have been doing over time and the University of Valencia has recognised their trajectories. Vicent Pascual is one of them and today all os us recognise their work with this honour.

To read the whole speech of the Principal click here.

Vicent Pascual Granell (Silla, 1944) works as a teacher, multilingual languages scholar and writer, and he is a numeracy member of the Philological Section of the IEC.

The training of Vicent Pascual stands out for its marked autodidact character. He started his teaching career in Torrent and continued in Algemesí and Tavernes de la Valldigna. From his experience in classrooms, he had become a pioneer when it comes to develop educational material, schedules, multilingual dictionaries and curricular materials in terms of teaching Valencian and teaching in Valencian.

From 1990 he started his task on the elaboration and application of a multilingual model of education, especially in the Valencian education system. In this field he published books, schedule documents and different articles in specialised journals.

He has worked as a consultant in the CEFIRE in Alzira and consultant of multilingual programmes in the Service of Education in Valencian of the Valencian Government.

He wrote four youth novels including ‘El guardià de l’anell’ and he is currently working on a book about assimilated behaviours on languages and contents.