Category Archives: diversity

International Conference on Endangered Languages in Europe

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The Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation (CIDLeS) invites scholars working on endangered languages in Europe and on Language Documentation to attend the International Conference on Endangered Languages in Europe. The conference will be held on October 17-18th, 2013 at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation (CIDLeS), Minde, Portugal.

The conference aims to:

  • Provide an interdisciplinary forum in which scholars from Language Documentation, Language Technology and others working on European endangered languages can exchange ideas and techniques on language documentation, archiving, and revitalisation;
  • Include further discussion and research into linguistic diversity in Europe;
  • Reflect on language policy issues.

The second day of the Conference will have two special panels: one focusing on the endangered languages in the Iberian Peninsula and a round table, dedicated to the theme “new speakers of minority/endangered languages”.

The Conference will include a socio-cultural program related to the theme “Endangered Languages in Europe” with the aim of promoting intercultural exchange and reinforcing the relationship between linguists and language communities. On 19 October 2013 there will be a “Language Fair”, in which members of endangered language communities in Europe will present their languages and cultures through book displays, and cultural events (music, theatre, movies, exhibitions, etc.). On the evenings of 18 and 19 October there will be an Endangered Languages Music Festival.

Plenary speakers

  • Ulrike Mosel (University of Kiel)
  • Mandana Seyfeddinipur (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)
  • Sebastian Drude (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen)
  • Fernando Ramallo (University of Vigo)

Scientific committee

  • Annette Endruschat (University of Regensburg)
  • Michael Cysouw (University of Marburg)
  • Frank Seifart (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig)
  • Wolfgang Schulze (University of Munich)
  • Xosé Afonso Pérez Álvarez (University of Lisbon)
  • Lachlan Mackenzie  (ILTEC, Lisbon)
  • Johannes Helmbrecht (University of Regensburg)
  • Peter-Arnold Mumm (University of Munich)
  • Nikolaus Himmelmann (University of Cologne)
  • Geoffrey Haig (University of Bamberg)

Organizing committee

  • Vera Ferreira
  • Peter Bouda
  • Francisco Vicente
  • Rita Pedro
  • António Lopes
  • Ingrid Scholz
  • Paulo Vicente

For more information please contact ele2013@cidles.eu and visit the following websites:

www.cidles.eu/events/conference-ele-2013

www.cidles.eu/events/conference-ele-2013/language-fair

Have you seen our European Recommendations? Call to action!

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The Language Rich Europe (LRE) consortium called on European institutions and member state governments to initiate new policies to support immigrant language teaching, revise trilingual learning, and use the particular position of English to promote and support multi/plurilingualism. This would help to develop a truly multilingual Europe and in turn ensure economic competitiveness while building more inclusive societies.

European Recommendations were presented in Brussels this week at the EESC during the LRE final conference. There was an institutional response from the European Commission, European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

Key findings & recommendations:

  • English is now the most widely-chosen second language in Europe’s schools, especially in higher education studies. A new model for developing and preserving other languages is needed to promote diversity among languages used and spoken by Europeans.
  • The European Commission’s trilingual formula of ‘mother tongue plus two’ should be updated and further developed. For many citizens ‘mother tongue’ is no longer the same as the national language. The particular position of English also means that in practice most citizens will learn English plus one, so it is rarely any ‘two’. A useful development of the formula could include the clear articulation of a linguistic profile.
  • The particular position of English in Europe should be explicitly acknowledged, in order to propose a new model for the co-existence of languages in Europe. This would have implications for policy formulations and would encourage more research and development work on the ways in which the position of English could be used to promote and support multi/plurilingualism rather than to undermine it. This would also mean that European funding streams, for example, the successor to the Lifelong Learning Programme, would prioritise support for languages other than English.
  • Immigrant languages have significantly changed the linguistic landscape in Europe. To develop more inclusive societies, immigrant languages should be explicitly recognised at European level. Funds should be allocated at the national and European levels to support language teaching from pre-primary to university education that reflects the diversity of student populations.
  • Existing barriers to the employment of teachers from other member states should be removed. Teachers should be enabled and encouraged to do training abroad to improve the level of achievement in language learning. For example, “Erasmus for teachers” should be established.
  • When creating audio-visual materials, subtitling – not dubbing – should be the default option for organisations on the European level. The comparative data demonstrate a strong positive correlation between subtitling and language competency.
  • We should reassess the ways in which multilingualism increases trade and profitability. Research is needed into how successful companies actually engage in successful business exchanges across languages and cultures from an economic and sociological perspective rather than with a solely linguistic bias to produce case studies and practical guidance.

Lid King, director of the Languages Company, said whilst presenting our Recommendations: “English is perceived as the language people should learn and are learning. That used to be the elephant in the room. Now we can see that elephant.” He said policymakers needed to recognise the “particular position” of English but that “more work needs to be done on how English can be used to support multilingualism.” He called on a strategy of subtitling as opposed to dubbing films, televisions programmes and conferences.

Faced with growing divisions amongst member states during the crisis, the EU needed to go in a positive direction towards celebrating diversity rather than being defensive and falling into ‘linguistic protectionism’, King said. He added that multilingualism could “calm tensions”, both amongst Europeans from different member states and non-EU immigrants.

You can read Androulla Vassilliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, full response to the Recommendations .DSC_0083.

Is English still the dominant language of higher education? – LRE is a panelist in Guardian live chat

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Language Rich Europe is looking forward to being a panelist on tomorrow’s Guardian live chat - Is English still the dominant language of higher education?

Join the panel on the Guardian’s website on 15 February from 12-2pm GMT for a live chat on issues such as whether global higher education is being dominated by one language and what the implications of this might be on institutions.

The live chat is in partnership with ETS TOEFL and panelists include:

You can read more about Language Rich Europe’s research into languages in higher education institutions on our website:

Language Rich Europe in the Netherlands – Multilingualism in Business and Education

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lre- pin wheel logo300x267As part of the Language Rich Europe project, we are holding workshops across Europe to discuss the findings and plan the next steps. In this blog post, Lorcan Murray, an intern at British Council Netherlands, writes about the workshop held in Utrecht in November.

Much ado about Language

On an unseasonably warm and sunny day, Projects Team Netherlands made its way to the heart of the country, to the lovely city of Utrecht (which meant Lorcán, the intern, had a much shorter commute, so he was happier than usual!). Our purpose was to host a Language Rich Europe workshop with our partners Levende Talen and Mercator, at the wonderful location of Silverijn, on multilingualism in business and education.

We arrived nice and early to deal with last minute preparations (“put the banner over there. No, over there. Hmm, a bit more the left.”) and panics (“What do you mean, you don’t know where the name badges are?!”), and welcomed our seventy invitees to arrive in dibs and drabs. Some arrived too early; some arrived unfashionably late, but eventually we were all gathered for the introduction from Toon van der Ven, the Chairman of Levende Talen and moderator of the afternoon, which kicked-off the programme.

Mr van der Ven was followed by a panel consisting of Ms Sena Dora International Account Manager at ABN AMRO (about being multilingual at a bank), Ms Debbie Ceiler, director of secondary school Bernardinus College (about her school offering a wide language programme), Dr. Michel Wauthion, Education attaché at the French Embassy in The Hague (about the situation on foreign languages offered in secondary education in France) and Professor Guus Extra (about LRE results for Netherlands and other European countries). Each panel member ended the discussion with a thought provoking point of view. Unfortunately, Your Humble Author was unable to witness this panel discussion, as, well; someone had to welcome the late-comers!

Fortunately, Your Humble Author was able to take part in one of the four group workshops, with each group containing a panel member, and so off we all split to our designated rooms. (Your Humble Author was in Group 4. Group 4 was the best group.) In these groups we discussed the point of view put forward by our respective panel member. In the case of Your Humble Author, it was foreign languages offered in France and the interesting idea of entrelinguisme – where you learn several similar languages at the same time, in this case French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian – was debated.

After all too short a time, the lively and interesting discussion was drawn to a close and we all reconvened to relay our findings and recommendations to the other groups. The findings of group 4? That there needs to be a more national consistency in language teaching, rather than have every school have a different language policy. Since you cannot speak every language, the need to be selective in which languages we teach is paramount. How do we choose? Unfortunately, that question proved too big for the timeframe!

The programme came to a close with a nice lecture from Jacomine Nortier from Universiteit Utrecht about the advantages and prejudice of multilingualism, including a delightful video example of code switching: a child switching between English, French, and Filipino in the same sentence!

And so the day came to end with a borreltje in the gezellig basement of Silverijn, and an excellent chance to network. Proost!

LRE Launch – Ukraine

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Language Rich Europe launches the results of its research in Kyiv, Ukraine on Friday 9 November at the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Pedagogic Sciences of Ukraine.

Ukraine is one of only three non-EC countries participating in the project (the others are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Switzerland).

The programme for the event is as follows:

Welcome speeches by the President of the National Academy of Pedagogic Sciences, the Directory of British Council Ukraine and the Deputy Minister of Education and Science.

Project overview by Eilidh MacDonald, Project Co-ordinator Language Rich Europe, British Council Germany

Cross-national analysis of language policies and practices in Europe by Prof. Guus Extra, Tilburg University

Presentation of the LRE research results in Ukraine – Lyubov Naydonova, Institute of Social and Political Psychology

Presentation on language policies and practices in Wales – Martin Dowle, British Council Ukraine

The presentations will be followed by a round table discussion with the following topics and speakers:

Language Policy Trends in Lithuania, Vilma Backiute, Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania

Main Aspects of Multilingual Education Development in Autonomous Republic of Crimea: Policy, Identity, Culture – Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska and Yulia Tyschenko, Crimea Policy Dialogue Project

Issues of language policy in higher education – Prof. Stepko M.F, Institute of Higher Education

Presentation by Prof Vasyutynsky V.O., Institute of Social and Political Psychology

Language policy and the language situation in Ukraine, Prof. Masenko L.T., Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

Key findings: Languages in pre-primary education

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Pre-primary pupilLanguage Rich Europe research provides a rich source of cross-national insights into multilingualism across the education sectors. Today we focus on pre-primary education.

  • Many European Union and Council of Europe documents underline the importance of early language learning. At pre-primary level, 14 of the 24 countries/regions surveyed provide additional support in the national language for all children funded by the state. The Netherlands and Ukraine devote the most time to this.
  • Foreign language provision at this level is offered by seven countries/regions: Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Basque Country, Bulgaria, Catalonia, Estonia, Spain and Ukraine, although it may be partly or fully funded by parents/guardians. English, French and German are the most common languages offered.
  • Regional/minority languages are offered by 17 countries/regions, and are mainly funded by the state/region. In some countries there are minimum group size requirements to form a group. The widest variety of languages is offered in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Ukraine.
  • Provision in immigrant languages in pre-primary education is not yet very common. However, in spite of the difficulties involved in identifying appropriate teachers and learning materials, three countries (Denmark, Spain and Switzerland) do offer support to very young children for the maintenance and development of their languages and cultures of origin. In Denmark national, regional and local funds cover all costs for these programmes, while in Spain and Switzerland source-country related funds partly cover the costs through bilateral agreements.
  • The only country offering early language learning across all language types is Spain.

If you haven’t already, have a read of Baby Erasmus, a great initiative in Spain and share any other good practice examples from your country by responding to this post!

You can read the LRE profile for your country on the country profile page of our website and find out more about our key findings in the first part of this series – Key findings: Official documents and databases.

Discover your linguistic and cultural paradise

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Runner up of last year’s Languages Speak up! competition, Sophie Reece-Trapp blogs about her experience of discovering her ‘linguistic paradise’ and encourages others to do the same.

After falling in love with all things German during a school exchange to Munich, Sophie spent her Gap Year working in Cologne, before studying Modern and Medieval Language (Dutch and German) in Cambridge. Currently a trainee at the European Parliament, Sophie will be moving to Leuven in September to embark on a Master’s degree in European Studies.

Brussels might not have the climate of a tropical island, but in my eyes, it is a linguist’s paradise.

At the beating heart of a country that boasts three official languages, a rich tapestry of tongues is woven on its streets. Staccato tones of Swahili rebound from the shop fronts lining Matongé, a vibrant quarter that takes its name from the commercial district of Kinshasa, Congo. Anyone walking from the artsy square at Flagey to the Ixelles/Etterbeek border during Euro 2012 would have passed fervent Portugal supporters spilling out of pubs, marking each goal with a cacophony of shouts and whistles that could be hear from streets away. Not to mention the weekly market at the Gare du Midi, where the exchange of euros for vegetables, fruit and clothes is executed in fluent Arabic. Even the streets of Brussels exude an international character: the chic Place du Londres or the Rue Americaine with its grid-like formation.

In the aptly-named ‘European Quarter’ sprawls the European Parliament. It is in these labyrinthine buildings that I have been a trainee for the past five months, in the Committee on Culture and Education. Je discute avec mes collègues en français, die Mehrheit meiner Freunde bevorzugt Deutsch and, of course, my mother-tongue, English, is an indispensable lingua franca. And, of course, Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish and a multitude of other language echo along the corridors, as legislation is drawn up in 23 different languages. A truly international workplace in a truly international city.

Yet who says that my paradise has to be your paradise? It is certainly not only Brussels or Belgium that boasts this rich diversity of languages and cultures from across the world. Have you ever wandered around the Marais in Paris, past the Yiddish bakeries, Kosher pizzeria and Hebrew bookshop and asked yourself: am I in France or Israel? Travelled just half an hour with the train and, upon disembarking, found yourself to be barely intelligible? Or even popped into the Chinese supermarket on the corner and felt yourself transported half-way across the world? In our globalised society, we no longer need to buy an expensive flight ticket to experience different cultures and languages: they are right on our doorstep.

An increasing number of my friends, also interns, are postponing holiday plans this year, citing a lack of funds. Instead of bewailing this situation, perhaps we should take this opportunity to take a closer look at the colourful cultural and linguistic landscapes surrounding us, whether we’re based in a high-rise city flat or in mountainous climes. We might just be pleasantly surprised!

View Sophie’s Languages Speak up! entry here

Languages at the London 2012 Summer Olympics

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It’s a matter of hours until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and 10 days until I visit London 2012 myself, so it’s probably about time Language Rich Europe got into the spirit of things!

London is a multilingual and multicultural city regardless of whether the Olympics are happening or not, but the arrival of participants and spectators from all over the world has resulted in a greater effort to recruit multilingual staff to meet and greet arrivals at airports and to produce multilingual signs. Unfortunately this hasn’t always worked as effectively as the organisers may have liked, with reports that some Arabic signs in train stations and Westfield Shopping Centre are ‘gibberish.’ But it’s a well-meaning gesture and for an Olympic Games which places so much emphasis on legacy, I will be interested to see if there will be any lasting impact on multilingualism.

If you are heading to London for the Olympics, have a great time and here are some resources to help you communicate with the locals and visitors alike:

- London 2012: Breaking the Language Barrier – a quick guide to London English 

- Learn key phrases in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin and Arabic using the British Council’s Visitors Handbook 

- Learn cockney rhyming slang with the USA team

Language Rich Europe launch in Greece

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The Language Rich Europe launch in Greece took place on 21 June 2012. Zoi Tatsioka, South-East European Research Centre, summarises the key points from an event which couldn’t ignore the current political and economic situation in the country.

The Language Rich Europe launch took place in Athens, Greece on 21 June 2012 in the beautiful building of Goethe Institut. The talks were very interesting and stimulating and the audience contributed to the conversation with constructive questions and comments.  Simultaneous interpreting from Greek, English and German facilitated interactions throughout the event.

First, we were welcomed by Dr Matthias Makowski, Director of Goethe Institut in Athens, with Tony Buckby, Director British Council Greece introducing the project and stressing the significance of partnership in multinational projects. We were also greeted by Eusebi Ayensa Pat, President of EUNIC Greece.

Eilidh MacDonald, from the British Council Language Rich Europe team, provided an overview of the project, explained its objectives and stressed the need of Europeans to speak more foreign languages as expressed in the European Barometer findings. Moreover, she emphasised the importance of the project for businesses and the role of multilingualism in boosting the economy.

Dr. Kutlay Yagmur, from the University of Tilburg, provided some key findings and stressed the importance of the project in order to identify the best practices in the EU and to motivate countries and regions to improve or implement better language practices. He also talked about the challenge of the project to develop a common yardstick for 24 countries and regions with unique historical characteristics and societal conditions. Some of the points made when presenting the results were the need to improve immigrant language provision especially in pre-primary education and the fact that the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages has not been ratified in many countries, including Greece.

Dr Sara Hannam, formally of the South-East European Research Centre (now Oxford-Brookes University) focused on the findings of Greece. She stressed the fact that the research was conducted in a very challenging time for Greece which resulted in great difficulty in the collection of data. Some of the most important findings are mentioned below:

- Greek is the official language of the country. Immigrant languages are not recognised and the only recognised minority language is Turkish in the Thrace region.

- With regard to foreign language learning, there is considerable investment from the state and the private sector.

- English is the de facto first option in foreign language learning in primary and secondary education. In secondary education in particular examination taking is emphasised. However, this emphasis on the English language can have a significant effect on the concept of multilingualism.

- Turkish is offered in a large number of primary schools in the Thrace region but reduces significantly in secondary education.

- Regarding media, subtitles are used on TV to motivate language learning and as an act of respect to the original language. There is some provision for sign language, but there is room for improvement. Numerous new language communities are represented in newspapers and magazines, which reveals important information about the population of Greece. This however is not reflected in official spaces and documents.

- Regarding public services and spaces, the service user needs to be conversant and literate in Greek. Dr Hannam emphasised the difficulty in collecting data for this domain and argued that the effect of the economic crisis should not be underestimated.

- In the case of the business sector languages play a very important role in business life; however, little reward is offered to the employees who are speakers of foreign languages.

In her conclusion, Dr. Hannam mentioned that the rich linguistic history ofGreeceand present reality need to be reflected via policy and protection mechanisms and celebrated. Finally, she stressed the importance of the project in order to raise awareness and make multilingualism a priority in the wider society.

The final talk was given by Professor Bessie Dendrinos, from the Research Centre for English Language Teaching, Testing and Assessment, University of Athens, who stressed the importance of deliberate and implicit language policies. She mentioned that a certificate of language competence is Greece is not essential for anyone who wants to work in Greece, while job applicants for public services are awarded significant credit points for their certified competence in foreign languages. Also, she referred to the increasing support for Greek as a second language (GSL) in primary and secondary education in both mainstream and after-school support classes. Finally, she mentioned the need for a coherent language education policy and referred to the positive steps that the University of Athens is taking in this direction

LRE launch in Budapest – ‘Hungary is trend setting in Sign Language policy’

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The Language Rich Europe launch took place in Budapest, Hungary on 15 June 2012. Simon Ingram-Hill, British Council Hungary Director writes about the day.

Last Friday 15 June, we presented the findings of the Language Rich Europe research in the morning and ran the first national workshop on sign language in the afternoon. The beautiful and prestigious Banking Hall in the British Embassy was a worthy venue for such an occasion. Though not a full house, numbers held throughout the day and very active participants included government, public and private sectors, researchers and academics, NGOs and heads of cultural institutions. Translation from and to sign language was provided for the whole duration of the event.

The Hungarian government endorsed the significance of the launch in an opening speech by Miklós Soltész, State Secretary for Social, Family and Youth Affairs at the mega-ministry of Human Resources, which covers everything from Education, Health and Culture to Sport and Youth. State Secretary Soltész (see photo) made the point that nations live through their languages, and Hungarians were justly proud of the uniqueness of theirs. But he also emphasised the importance of fighting for the preservation of minority languages, and the special significance of Hungarian policy recognising sign language for the deaf as an official minority language.

Jonathan Knott, UK Ambassador to Hungary, picked up on this recognition of sign language pointing out that in policy terms Hungary is trendsetting in the European context. The Ambassador also made a strong reference to England’s own lack of national capability in languages and that, despite languages being described as important, in practice and provision there have been many fault lines; thus anticipating the launch of the findings of the LRE report for England on 28 June. His speech therefore was much appreciated for referring to UK’s own failings and leaving it to others to set out the Hungary stall.

Eilidh MacDonald, Project Coordinator (Berlin) and Project Director Martin Hope (Brussels) then followed with their overview of the project and comparative country results. The Hungary results were presented by Dr Csilla Bartha, LRE project partner and Senior Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Linguistics, Research Centre for Multilingualism and a panel discussion followed. Some points worth mentioning here:

  • English is not a “danger” to other European languages.
  • Hungarian is a majority language in Hungary but a minority language in neighbouring countries.
  • Hungarian sign language – should it be “integrated” into the curriculum or should it be “segregated” taught in special schools for the deaf?
  • Multilingualism is not just about foreign languages but requires support for its regional and minority languages, too.
  • UK has a high reputation for teaching sign language at school level.
  • It is difficult but necessary to preserve the identity of minority languages such as Romani and crucially important to teach Roma children and adults foreign languages (Director of Research Studies for the Roma and adviser to the Minister of Economy).
  • There are 7 sign languages in Hungary alone.
  • If you want to be well qualified and be mobile for employment purposes then foreign languages should be made compulsory throughout EU.
  • The LRE project has helped researchers and others to build up contacts and networks between countries and across communities.

The afternoon workshop on sign language proved extremely rich, including presentations by MEP Ádám Kósa and President of SINOSZ (the Hungarian Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing), Koloman Brenner, Deputy Dean responsible for strategy, ELTE University, Faculty of Liberal Arts, and Csilla Bartha. Discussions were followed by an extremely moving performance of a play performed by Ergo Sum sign language theatre. This was filmed and will be made into a 15-20 minutes shortened version for Youtube with Hungarian and English interpretations and hopefully for showing at the European Parliament next March.

Finally there was a round table discussion moderated (in sign language) by Péter Zalán Romanek which also brought in Vera Tóthmárton from Tesco Hungary and Péter Horváth. Some striking points

  • Is sign language a true language or just a tool? Officially EU has acknowledged sign language but does not make it a legal requirement. Is it a minority language or a language used by those with a physical ability? Hungary legislation accepts both.
  • Hungary is one of only 3 countries that protect the culture of the deaf at the state level through the constitution.
  • In US university students with hearing disabilities get extra help to learn foreign languages instead of giving an exemption.
  • Tesco as a responsible employer has developed good practice tools for dealing with deaf customers and operates an equal opportunity policy which has posts at different levels for deaf employees. Tesco recognises this is very much work in progress.
  • Very few deaf people have the opportunity to learn foreign languages.
  • In USA, American sign language is the 5th most popular foreign language.
  • At ELTE, special tutors are assigned to talented students from the deaf community

All in all a really rich day of revealing findings, discussion and plenty of food for further thought.