A summary of the news for October.
MELT closing conference on early language transmission
Four days of Liet International in Friûl in Italy
New project “Teacher Training for the Multilingual Classroom (TTMC)”
East Frisians visit the Mercator Research Centre
The MELT (Multilingual Early Language Transmission) project for the pre-school period (a result of the NPLD and funded by the EU in the LLP during two years) celebrated its success during a conference in Brussels on Thursday 6 October, 2011. The four partners presented the project results: a Brochure for parents, and a Guide for Practitioners, which are available in four editions and eight languages: Breton-French, Frisian-Dutch, Swedish-Finnish, Welsh-English. Furthermore, a Research Paper was made on the actual literature on multilingual language acquisition. All publications are available on www.meltproject.eu.
At the conference, two international experts presented scientific findings, their ideas on multilingual upbringing during the early years as well as their comments on the MELT project: prof. Annick De Houwer underscored the importance of early language acquisition, the chances and challenges of multilingual immersion, including the “silent period” of second language learners. Prof. Gunilla Holm discussed the education and qualification of practitioners. She also presented the recently established Bachelor Study for pre-school Education at the University of Helsingfors/ Helsinki, Finland.
Opening addresses were given by Mrs Lena Louarn, vice-president of the Conseil regional de Bretagne and Mrs Jannewietske De Vries, executive of the province of Fryslân. Both politicians stressed the strong relationship between the flourishing of the regional culture and the upbringing in the regional language. Mrs Kinga Gal MEP, co-chair of the Intergroup for Traditional Cultures and Languages of the European Parliament, stressed the importance of Linguistic Diversity for the EU Agenda 2020. She invited the project leader Alex Riemersma to present the MELT project and its results at the meeting of the Intergroup on 15 December, 2011.
The MELT project authorities (Commissioner, Member European Parliament, vice-president of Brittany, Commissioner of Friesland) have asked for valorisation and follow-up activities in a MELT-to-MOVE project, especially focusing on dissemination of the MELT product and the training of pre-school teachers.
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Twelve bands and lots of talent at the 8th edition of minority language song contest
In Friuli, in the northeast of Italy, Liet International will last four days from Thursday 17 until Sunday 20 November. Both on 17 and 18 November a Waiting for Liet International evening will be organised, with presentations and live performances of several contestants participating in Liet International 2011. On Sunday even an After Liet International evening will be organised.
Other activities during the Liet International weekend will be a conference about Minority languages and music education, organised by Friulian language organisation ARLeF. Besides several local speakers, also Mr Alexey Kozhemyakov, head of the secretariat of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe, and Mrs Ana Elorza, a music teacher using the Basque language and philologist, will address the audience. There will also be an exhibition of the French photographer Sandro Weltin. Sandro Weltin attended and carefully documented all editions of Liet International since 2008 at the request of the Council of Europe. A selection of some of his most interesting pictures will be exhibited in Udine. Check out the whole programme with all the activities.
The main event of course remains Liet International itself on Saturday 19 November in Teatro Giovanni da Udine. After seven editions in Friesland, Swedish Lapland and Brittany in France, it is the very first time that Liet International takes place in Italy. Going to Friuli makes sense for Liet International, because Friulian artists and policy makers were involved in the development of Liet International since the very first edition in 2002. In Udine Liet International is organised by Cooperativa Il Campo in collaboration with radio station Onde Furlane, ARLeF and Foundation Liet International in Friesland.
This year Liet International will feature twelve finalists, one more than last year. The complete line-up of Liet International 2011:
The line-up is a combination of bands who qualified by winning in a song contest in their own country and bands which were selected by an international and independent selecting committee. Six bands qualified by winning a song contest, the other half was selected. It was the first time that the jury selected two finalists from the Russian federation. The large number of entries in minority languages from the Russian federation and the quality of those entries justifies this decision.
The main goal of Liet International is to promote contemporary music in minority languages and minority languages themselves. Since 2002 Liet International has become one of the largest and most successful events in the field of promoting minority languages. Since 2008 Liet International enjoys the support and the official patronage of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The festival usually attracts a lot of interest from the media. TV channels like BBC, CNN, SVT, NRK, Omrop Fryslân and many others regularly paid attention or even broadcasted Liet International. The next edition of Liet International will be broadcasted live on the radio and the internet by Radio Onde Furlane. The event will also be recorded by Italian television. More information about Liet International on their website.
The ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) in Graz has granted a three year project called “Teacher Training for the Multilingual Classroom (TTMC)”. Project leader is the Mercator Research Centre in Ljouwert/Leeuwarden (Netherlands) in cooperation with the teacher training institutes in Fryslân. Project partners are the University of Vic (Catalonia, Spain), the Saint David’s University of Carmarthen in conjunction with Bangor University (Wales, UK) and the National Institute for Irish-medium education in Dungarvan (Ireland). Associate partners are the Mondragon University in the Basque Country (Spain) and the Bukowska-Ulatowska Teachers’ Professional Education Centre in Gdansk (Poland).
The general aim of the project is the improvement of multilingual education by better coordination of competencies, mutual recognition of qualifications and development of guidance instruments.
Basic information shall be provided through description of actual provisions and qualifications for teaching of regional/minority languages.
The project has four concrete goals:
Fifteen years ago seven schools were engaged in the development of trilingual primary education in Friesland, the Netherlands, nowadays there are over forty. This development inspires also the East Frisians in Germany. A group of twelve teachers of primary education in East Friesland, especially from the Aurich area, has made a study tour to Friesland on the 12th of October. The group was led by Cornelia Nath of the Plattdeutsch Buro of the Ostfriesische Landschaft in Aurich. In the morning some trilingual schools were visited (for instance De Tsjelke in Holwert and It Holdersnêst in Harkema) and in the afternoon a visit to the Mercator Research Centre of the Fryske Akademy was on the program. In the morning some practical issues of trilingual schools were discussed, like study materials, the separation of languages based on subject and/or teacher, and the planning of learning content and methods. In the afternoon theoretical aspects of multilingual education and issues of attitude and information were discussed. The content-based approach of trilingual primary education in Friesland is an example for Plattdeutsch in East Friesland.
The government of Lower Saxony in Hannover has officially given permission to teach Plattdeutsch not only as subject, but also to use it as language of instruction in other subjects (except for maths). After a long period of Plattdeutsch in nursery schools only (for children in the age of 4-6) the step towards primary school education is now finally being made. This partly because of the European Treaty for Regional and Minority Language, which has been signed by Germany being the treaty partner for Plattdeutsch. Lower Saxony is responsible for the implementation. The schools in East Friesland are very interested in the methods of multilingual education, for instance goals, allocation of time on the different languages, methods, and especially how students can learn two or three languages simultaneously and learn to use them in everyday life. For the future there are good opportunities for cooperation, including the area of teacher training, which will be provided by the University of Oldenburg for Plattdeutsch in East Friesland.
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the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union.
