Between Oral Tradition and Academic Standard: Perceptions of Guaraní Ability and Literacy Amongst Language Learners in Paraguay

Spanish and Guaraní share official status in Paraguay, yet their coexistence in daily life is marked by distinct roles and patterns of use. This study explores how the formal teaching of Guaraní in Paraguayan schools influences learners’ perceptions of language ability and literacy. Combining survey data with nine semi-structured interviews, the research adopts a sequential explanatory mixed methods design grounded in interpretivist principles. Findings reveal a tension between participants’ everyday use of Guaraní and the standardised version - Guaraní académico - encountered in schools. Comparisons to academic norms were connected to lower levels of self-perceived competence, intensified by conceptualisations of Guaraní as a symbol of national identity and the sense of obligation to speak ‘correctly’. Although Guaraní literacy was used infrequently outside of the classroom, it was generally valued as complementary to the oral tradition. Desire for language maintenance therefore remains strong, even as the standardisation of Guaraní in education shifts the benchmarks for competence and fluency. This case study is context-specific and not generalisable, aiming instead to shed light on the potential lived impacts of language standardisation. The findings highlight the need for language policy in education to account for locally relevant dimensions of use, and to support culturally embedded forms of fluency. Further research is needed to explore how minority languages can be taught in ways that empower rather than alienate their speakers.