The language policy of Catalan schools, where Catalan is the only language of instruction, and the influence of language ideologies have been a focus of discussion in Catalonia. Over the last decades, an upward political movement calling for the independence of Catalonia from Spain has added more political and linguistic tensions in education. Several studies have demonstrated that Catalan monolingual practices generate negative attitudes towards the language of instruction and limitations to multilingual pupils. The massive national and international immigration waves and multilingual proficiency call for translingual practices and the creation of multilingual learning environments where learners can freely use their whole linguistic repertoire. Notwithstanding the acknowledgement of plurilingual practices in the language policy document and political saliency of this debate, many schools still follow Catalan monolingual practices and language ideologies are widely present. Up to date, no research in Catalan schools has documented the role of languages in the learning environment and language practices that contain (un)visible reflections of policies and ideologies.

This research addresses the gap by examining the role that language ideologies and policies play in the learning environment and language practices through the school community’s perceptions of a Catalan primary school, focusing on the design, language representation and use. It adopts ethnographic methods, involving classroom observations and audio-recorded walking interviews to participants around the school. Nexus analysis is utilised to examine the interplay among perceptions, practices and representations. Preliminary findings reveal that participants view Catalan as the norm and Spanish is positioned in an inferior category, hardly present in the school. The participants also highlighted the lack of materials in other languages and the separation of language use in different rooms. This research develops a framework for interventions that foster practices that value learners’ multilingual abilities.