A summary of the news for November.
Fryske Akademy unveils plans for academic Master on Multilingualism
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EUNoM Projectleader |
“The relationship between universities / research on multilingualism and globalisation and regionalisation, the new language policy and research agenda of the European Union and multilingualism of institutions for higher education themselves. Those were the main themes of the second EUNoM symposium, held in Ljouwert / Leeuwarden (The Netherlands) on 18 and 19 November 2010. It was the second symposium in a series of six of the European EUNoM network. Besides lectures, there was plenty of room for discussion, which led to interesting conclusions, insights and also to new questions. Miquel Strubell pointed out that the importance of language as a phenomenon (not necessarily multilingualism) is much greater nowadays, in the current knowledge economy.
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Alastair Walker |
Alastair Walker emphasized that Higher education can train people to convince others, namely parents, functionaries, politicians, education authorities, teachers) of the importance of (the implementation of) multilingualism. Jeroen Darquennes (Namur / Namur, Belgium), outlined the opportunities for multilingualism as a research theme within the eighth EU Framework Programme (2014-2019): within the social sciences aimed at achieving the Lisbon goals. A striking fact was mentioned by René Jorna: not English, Chinese or Spanish is biggest language in the world, but JAVA and HTML. Heidi Rontu described the process of developing a language policy and an implementation strategy for that policy for the bilingual Swedish-Finnish Aalto University. Discussions in smaller groups provided more food for thought. One of the recurring issues was the need for clear definitions, for instance: "What exactly do we mean with the term multilingualism?"
International interest Master Multilingualism Fryslân
One of the presentations was by René Jorna, head of the Social Science Department of the Fryske Akademy, who explained the plans for an academic Master on Multilingualism. It is a Master of two years as part of the UCF (University Campus Fryslân). UCF is an internationally oriented University Knowledge Centre in Fryslân, organised as a network university where research partners in Fryslân offer Master and PhD opportunities within fields that are important within Fryslân such as water technology, multilingualism, quality of life, tourism and renewable energy. Examples from Scotland, Finland and Switzerland can be used to shape the master course of multilingualism of the UCF: curricula, choice of modules and content, and visibility of the languages within the universities’ landscape. Immediately after the announcement of the Master on Multilingualism, Scotland, Wales, and Barcelona showed interest in international collaboration for this master course.
After an introductory semester in Leeuwarden, the student can choose digital modules from home, in the area of language planning and language, second language learning, language testing, language and cultural history, language philosophy, and methodology. The second year is mainly for research training and the thesis. Meanwhile, the students return to Leeuwarden for a few weeks each year for winter and summer schools. The power of the Master is the combination of both an international and a regional approach.
Potential partners for participation in the development and implementation of the Master come from Catalonia, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. When the provincial council of Fryslân and the municipality of Leeuwarden agree to the UCF plans, training may begin in September 2011.
Language Rich Europe, a project funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union (KA2 Languages, Network), has kicked off on the first of November. The network consists of lead partner the British Council and 22 partners, including the Fryske Akademy/ Mercator Research Centre. The other partners are: Migration Policy Group (Brussels), European Union National Institutes for Culture Brussels, Sofia University, University of Hamburg, Goethe Intitut (Munich), Riiklik Eksami- ja Kvalifikatsioonikeskus (Tallinn), South East European Research Centre (Thessaloniki), Instituto Cervantes (Madrid), Lithuanian Social Research Institute (Vilnius), Lietuviu kalbos komisija (Vilnius), Research Institute for Linguistics,Hung. Academy of Science (Budapest), Tilburg University, EDUCULT, Denken+Handeln im Kulturbereich (Vienna), Institute for Quality in Education (Warsaw), Instituto de Linguística Teórica e Computacional (Lisbon), Instituto Camoes (Lisbon), Centre Education 2000+ (Bucharest), EuroEd Foundation (Iasi), CILT, the National Centre for Languages (London), Welsh Language Board (Cardiff) and the Det Danske Kulturinstitut (Kopenhagen).
Language Rich Europe addresses the problem that in spite of initiatives by the EC and the Council of Europe to promote multilingualism and support linguistic diversity in Members States, results vary; the range of languages learnt is still narrow, inadequate resources are allocated to language learning in the context of increased mobility, and a greater common effort and exchange of knowledge is required to respond to the multilingual challenge. LRE will address this through:
1. Facilitating exchange of good practice in promoting intercultural dialogue and social inclusion through language teaching and learning
The diverse network formed, representing government, business, public services, the media and migrant associations will, through knowledge exchange in-country and across Europe, learn from each other and develop practical guidance on how to create more language learning friendly environments, increase linguistic diversity and enhance intercultural dialogue and social cohesion through language teaching and learning. Good practice will be captured on the interactive website and disseminated through wider networks.
2. Promoting European co-operation in developing language policies and practices across several education sectors and broader society
The project actively encourages policy cooperation at national and European level by creating a network of decision makers from various countries and sectors, offering them relevant data, organising knowledge sharing and networking events, creating an interactive online platform and a purpose-made contacts database for identifying relevant counterparts across Europe. It cuts across 3 LLP sectoral programmes as it aims to improve language education structures in schools, HE and adult learning.
3. Raising awareness in MS of EU and CoE recommendations on policies and practices for promoting language learning and linguistic diversity
LRE will develop an Index of Language Policies and Practices in Europe based on a comparative analysis of how countries perform against EU and CoE recommendations. Country essays will analyse the specific language environment, highlighting good practice, and describing challenges. National, regional, immigrant and foreign languages will be covered, and the index results will be available in 18 languages; 13 national, 3 regional (Catalan, Welsh, Frisian) and 2 immigrant languages (Arabic and Turkish).
The Mercator Research Centre is responsible for the data-collection in the Netherlands and the drafting of two reports: one for the Netherlands and one for Fryslân.
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The Dutch national inspectorate of Education has released a survey on the position and the actual functioning of Frisian in primary and secondary education as well as at schools for children with special needs. As a rule, the inspectorate carries out a survey every four years. The 2010 report does not show very much progress compared to the report of 2006. Frisian keeps a stable but marginal position in most of the schools with a minimum of one hour Frisian lessons per week and, in addition, one or two lessons with Frisian as a medium of instruction.
In general the quality of Frisian lessons needs to be improved, the qualified competencies of the teachers should be improved as well. The inspectorate recommends, that the school boards and directors of primary and secondary schools should take their responsibility towards the increase of the number of qualified teachers, the continuity of the teaching methods as well as the testing of the results on a regular base.
However, progress in terms of language command in Frisian could be assessed at the around 100 ‘Boppeslach’-schools and at the 38 official Trilingual schools. ‘Boppeslach’- schools are characterised as partly ‘Frisian medium’ for a full day or half a day per week, whereas Trilingual schools apply Dutch and Frisian as a subject and as a medium of instruction on an equal base throughout schooltime, with in addition English from class 5 (age group 9) both as a subject and as medium of instruction.
Expolingua Berlin, Germany’s international fair for languages and cultures, was brought to a successful end on Sunday November 21st. During the three-day fair at the Russisches Haus der Wissenschaft und Kultur, a total of 13 086 visitors got acquainted with the subject of language learning and teaching. 182 exhibitors from 26 countries presented their services, which included languages schools from Germany and abroad, language travel agencies, exchange organisations, cultural institutes and publishing houses.
This year, the fair’s guest language was Chinese. In a special area, visitors were able to discover how quick and easy it is to acquire a basic knowledge of the Chinese language, what is hidden behind the mysterious characters and that Chinese really is not that hard to learn. Eleven Confucius institutes were at the event under the umbrella of the Chinese organisation Hanban. In addition, the Chinesische Kulturzentrum Berlin, the International House Xi'an, Mandarin Home and the LSI Landesspracheninstitut Bochum informed visitors about the Chinese language and culture.
Taking place at the same time, a lecture programme involving around 100 contributions also attracted a great deal of interest. Experts gave information on subjects such as language holidays and stays abroad, as well as language tests and careers using foreign languages. The numerous mini language courses were particular crowd-pullers, during which visitors could try out Chinese, Finnish, Korean, Arabic and Spanish and various other languages.
The next Expolingua Berlin will once again take place in the Russisches Haus der Wissenschaft und Kultur in Berlin from October 28th to 30th 2011.
the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union.
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