Acceso usuarios
Miguel Blázquez Carretero
According to the Anuario del español en el mundo 2018 (Instituto Cervantes 2019), more than 580 million people around the globe are Spanishspeaking, 483 million of whom are native speakers. In other words, Spanish speakers constitute close to 8 per cent of the world population. With around 22 million learners, Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) is currently competing against Mandarin Chinese and French as the second most studied Second Language (L2) in the world. This is particularly discernible in countries like the USA, where Spanish ranks as the most studied global language across all levels of education. Although second language acquisition, subsumed within the broader field of Applied Linguistics is already firmly cemented within Anglo-Saxon scholarship, the discipline is only beginning to gain traction in the Hispanic world. This is evidenced by the simple fact that the Instituto Cervantes, the official institution tasked with the promotion of the Spanish language and culture worldwide, was only founded in 1991 vis-à-vis Bristish Council, the cultural powerhouse which has been globally promoting the English language and culture since 1934. However, the recent growth of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, combined with the profusion of scholarly literature revolving SFL, produced both in Spain and abroad, suggests a clear movement from what was a mere professional enterprise towards an emerging academic field.
