Tag Archives: European Commission

Poliglotti4.eu gathers Multilingualism Stakeholders in Madrid

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In this guest post Jana Mehl, Poliglotti4.eu Project Assistant, reports on the Poliglotti4.eu Stakeholders Meeting on Multilingualism which took Place in Madrid between 1 and 2 December 2011. The Poliglotti4.eu project partners as well as experts, policy makers, stakeholders and members of civil society gathered in Madrid to reflect the current state of the project and discuss the situation of multilingualism in Europe.

Poliglotti4.eu is a project promoting multilingualism in Europe – the result of the deliberations of the EU Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism. The topics of the Stakeholders Meeting hosted by the Representation of the European Commission in Spain were the political recommendations of the EU Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism, results of Poliglotti4.eu so far (On-line Language Observatory, Survey results, Multilingualism Tools, Ambassadors, Web), migrations, languages and social inclusion, including languages and public services, language learning and education, language policies, including minority languages as well as language and the media.

The Meeting was opened by Poliglotti4.eu Project Director Uwe Mohr, Director of the Language Department at the Goethe-Institut in Brussels. The project was especially pleased to have won over so many high quality guest speakers, whose contributions to the conference were greatly appreciated by all participants. Among the speakers was also Belén Bernaldo de Quiros, Head of the Multilingualism Policy Unit at the European Commission DG EAC, who underlined the importance of fostering language competencies amongst European citizens and presented the new EU programme « Erasmus for All ». It is an instrument in the framework of the EU 2020 strategy of which the objective is the investment in knowledge and education. During the next year the programme will be negotiated with the EU Council and EU Parliament.

Among the other guest speakers on 1 December were Joseba Achotegui, Psychiatrist and Professor at the University of Barcelona who talked about language as a component of the Ulysses syndrome in migrants, Prof. Piet Van Avermaet, Director of the Centre for Diversity and Learning at the Ghent University (Belgium) speaking about Super diversity, glocalisation and multilingualism and Prof. Concepción Otero Moreno from the University of Hildesheim and Braunschweig Mayor City (Germany). She delivered a speech about immigration, language and integration as well as training courses for language mediators in the non-academic field.

On day 2 of the Stakeholders Meeting spoke inter alia Ms. Carmen Valero Garces, Professor of Interpretation and Translation at Alcalá University who presented the university’s programme on multilingualism and public services. Another very interesting speech was given by Gardenia Trezzini, Editor in Chief at Euronews. Ms. Trezzini explained how Euronews dealt with its 11 working languages, as well as about difficulties and challenges incurring from this extensive language regimen.

Project partners of EU organisations representing the non-formal and informal learning as well as the arts and cultural sector agreed upon the highly relevant influence civil society actors play in shaping innovative  language learning approaches and multilingual services in the European public space. In order for this to be achieved, convincing  multilingualism policies are required.

The meeting was a great opportunity to exchange ideas, examples of best practice and to discuss the current situation of multilingualism in the European Union. All participants appreciated very much the varied and high quality contributions of experts, policy makers, stakeholders and members of the civil society brought together by this event.

For more information on the project and the Stakeholders Meeting please visit our project website www.poliglotti4.eu

Contact: Ulla-Alexandra Mattl, Project Manager Polilgotti4.eu (co-ordinator@eunic-brussels.eu )

Scotland – a multilingual country?

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It’s St Andrew’s Day today – Scotland’s national day, so what better excuse than to have a wee keek at the state of languages in my home country.

Scotland, like the rest of the UK, is not exactly famed for its ability in foreign languages. This has made the news again recently with British Council Scotland warning that a decline in Foreign Language Assistants could affect student numbers and the quality of foreign language education. Lloyd Andersen, Director British Council Scotland said:

Assistants perform a vital role in supporting language teachers by bringing a cultural dimension to language-learning that enthuses and inspires young people

Teachers are in no doubt this helps increase linguistic fluency and makes it more likely a young person will continue studying languages to a high level. In an increasingly globalised world, Scotland needs to be outward looking.

The Scottish Government, which provides funding for the FLA programme, has set up a working group to implement their programme of learning two languages plus ‘mother tongue’ but some see this as unrealistic.

2 + 1 is not a new initiative, nor is it an invention of the Scottish Government. Both the European Union and Council of Europe place emphasis on citizens being able to communicate in ‘mother tongue plus two languages.’ From the current level of foreign language education, this may be difficult to achieve, but I applaud the Scottish Government’s recognition of it as an important target nonetheless.

I also think there is another important point which cannot necessarily be separated from the foreign language debate – and that is the fact that Scotland is not historically or currently a monolingual country. As well as English, Scotland has two other main languages – Scots, a language with shares a common root with English, and Gaelic.

Scots and Gaelic receive financial and political support from the Scottish Government, where the Minister of Learning and Skills, Alasdair Allan has a particular responsibility for these languages. At a time of economic turbulence, the time and money spent on languages which are not as widely spoken as English is criticised by some, who also see it as pro-independence propaganda from a Scottish Government where the Scottish Nationalist Party has a majority.

However, these initiatives are not solely the result of an SNP government. Scots has been ‘back on the agenda’ in education since the 5-14 curriculum was introduced in 1991 and both Scots and Gaelic are covered by Part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which was ratified by the UK Government in 2001. As with foreign languages, Scotland and the UK are following the EU and Council of Europe’s lead, with the European Charter considering that:

the protection of the historical regional or minority languages of Europe, some of which are in danger of eventual extinction, contributes to the maintenance and development of Europe’s cultural wealth and traditions… the right to use a regional or minority language in private and public life is an inalienable right

This does not mean they should be taught to the detriment of English, clearly there is a need to learn it, but considering English’s dominance I find it unlikely that this would happen. Rather, Scots and Gaelic should be included in education instead of being sidelined to languages of the playground or home or as part of the once-a-year Burns Night celebrations. As recently as the 1960s, the Scots language was looked down upon as ‘not being proper English’ and even today it is often criticised for being a dialect or, worse, slang. Ayrshire, Glaswegian, Doric and Lallans are all dialects of the Scots language and, as anyone who has encountered a Glasgow taxi driver knows, they are spoken frequently outside of school.

If proper acknowledgement was given to this language in school, many children might have a different relationship with language learning. Instead of being ‘bad at English’ they can suddenly speak two languages. With this knowledge, confidence and enthusiasm at learning a foreign language might in turn increase.

Meertaligheid in het onderwijs en op de Nederlandse arbeidsmarkt: verstaan we elkaar?

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Volgend bericht werd geschreven door Aleksandra Parcinska, Project Manager Language Rich Europe in British Council Netherlands. Ze schrijft over taaltoetsen en meertaligheid in Nederland, waarover  een congres werd gehouden op 10 november in Den Haag.

In het kader van het Language Rich Europe project hebben British Council Netherlands, EUNIC Nederland en Huis van Europa (Vertegenwoordiging van de Europese Commissie in Nederland) een bijeenkomst georganiseerd over taaltoetsen en meertaligheid in Nederland. Op 10 november 2011 ontmoetten verschillende partijen die betrokken zijn bij taalonderwijs en taalgebruik op de Nederlandse arbeidsmarkt elkaar in het Huis van Europa in Den Haag om na te denken en van gedachte te wisselen over het onderwerp: verstaan we elkaar? 

Nederlanders leren van jongs af aan één of meerdere vreemde talen op school en het uitgangspunt voor de discussie waren vragen rondom het taalonderwijs op Nederlandse scholen:

  • Ligt het niveau hoog genoeg voor de internationale arbeidsmarkt?

  • Volstaat Engels of moet er meer aandacht zijn voor “echt” vreemde talen, zoals Russisch en Chinees?

  • Vinden internationale ondernemingen en instellingen voldoende opgeleide kandidaten?

  • Wat is de waarde van taaltoetsen?

Tijdens de discussiemiddag, geleid door Luc West (Huis van Europa), kwamen verschillende partijen aan het woord: onderwijsspecialisten, recruteringsbureaus en werkgevers die actief zijn in een meertalige omgeving. Zij spraken over de huidige situatie en de uitdagingen voor de toekomst, over problemen en oplossingen, over suggesties voor verbeteringen en over de mogelijkheid tot samenwerking.

Saskia Benedictus-van den Berg introduceerde de context van het Language Rich Europe project – de achtergrond, de methodologie en ambities. Daarna gaf elke spreker een toelichting over het aspect meertaligheid in zijn sector:

  • Onno van Wilgenburg, senior medewerker projecten bij het Europees Platform, over tweetalig onderwijs in Nederland (zie: www.europeesplatform.nl/tto).

  • Daniela Fasoglio, senior leerplanontwikkelaar bij SLO, over een proefproject voor Chinese lessen op Nederlandse scholen (zie: www.chineesopschool.slo.nl).

  • Roel Keuker, consultant bij Antal International, over het werven van meertalige kandidaten voor het bedrijfsleven.

  • Niels Koekoek, medewerker PR bij de Duits-Nederlandse Kamer van Koophandel, over het belang van meertaligheid, en in het bijzonder Duits, voor Nederlandse ondernemingen.

 Uit de presentaties kwam onder andere naar voren dat:

  • …1 op de 5 middelbare scholen tweetalig onderwijs aanbiedt.

  • …er sinds augustus van dit jaar een eerstegraads lerarenopleiding Chinees aangeboden wordt in Leiden.

  • …bedrijven een voorkeur hebben voor “native speakers” bij het vervullen van vacatures waaraan bepaalde taaleisen worden gesteld.

  • … ondanks dat Duitsland één van de belangrijkste handelspartners van Nederland is, Duits in het onderwijs een ondergeschoven kindje is.

Daarna was er een levendige dialoog, met elkaar en met het geëngageerde publiek. In de dialoog werd onderstreept dat het belangrijk is het contact tussen scholen en bedrijfsleven te versterken; dat moet van beide kanten komen. Bovendien werd aangegeven dat de doeltaal niet altijd of onvoldoende als voertaal wordt gebruikt in het taalonderwijs.

 De discussiemiddag werd voorafgegaan door workshops voor beoordelaars van taaltoetsen van diverse taalinstituten in Nederland: het Goethe Instituut, Institut Francais, Instituto Cervantes, British Council en het Belgische deel van de Nederlandse Taalunie. De workshops werden geleid door het CITO, het Centraal Instituut voor Toetsontwikkeling, een Nederlandse organisatie die examens en toetsen ontwikkeld. Het doel van deze informele workshops was om de taaltoetsen van het CITO met toetsen van andere instituten te vergelijken.

 Dit was de allereerste keer dat een dergelijke kennisuitwisseling in Nederland werd georganiseerd. Door de spontane reacties van de deelnemers kunnen we zeggen dat het een nuttige en gewaardeerde oefening was – er is interesse om deze bijeenkomst vaker te organiseren. In deze omgeving bleek het Language Rich Europe project een ideaal en neutraal platform te zijn om verschillende partijen bij elkaar te brengen.

 Van de sprekers:

“De discussiemiddag “Verstaan we elkaar?” gaf een interessante kijk op het belang van talenonderwijs in Europa. Daarbij bleek duidelijk dat het beheersen van het Engels alléén niet voldoende is in het Europa van vandaag de dag en dat het leren van een tweede of derde vreemde taal daarom verder gestimuleerd moet worden.”

 Niels Koekoek, Nederlands-Duitse Handelskamer

A multilingual post for the 2nd Day of Multilingual Blogging

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As part of the European Commission’s 2nd Day of Multilingual Blogging, the Language Rich Europe Project team – David Sorrentino, Aneta Quraishy, Eilidh MacDonald and Nadine Ott blog in languages they don’t normally write in…

 

David Sorrentino, Communications Manager – Italian

“Ma, ho veramente bisogno di imparare un’altre lingua?”  Come molti madrelingua inglesi io spesso posto questa domanda.

Mi chiamo David e io lavoro per il progetto Langauge Rich Europe.  E Sono anche uno studente di lingua.

Io ho origini italiani e par coincidenza una moglie Italiana (con tutti di suoceri), ma vengo da una zona rurale e malto monolingue in Stati Uniti.  Quando ero in scuola in Vermont, abbiamo tutti parlavano solo in inglese.

Adesso, qui in Bruxelles io ho tanti collegi con competenza linguisti fantastico.  Sono portavoce perfetto per il progetto e loro possono raccontare come le lingue li hanno aiutati a succedere e sviluppare

Allora, sono anche una portavoce per il progetto, ma per una regione opposito: non parlare un’altra lingua perfettamente mi ha fatto perdere opportunità

Devo fare più sforzo di miei colleghi per creare relazioni professionali. Inoltre, questo post del blog sta prendendo molto tempo per scrivere.

Allora, io non rinuncio ancora. Ho imparato la risposta alla domanda di qui sopra. E se vi chiedete ancora, posso dirvi che in questo mondo sempre più globale, non importa l’ambiente e la vostra situazione, la risposta è sempre “sì!”

 

Aneta Quraishy, Senior Project Manager – Greek:

Γεια σας. Το όνομά μου είναι Aνετα. Ταξιδεύω στην Ελλάδα πολλά, για τα νησιά. Σπούδασα ελληνική για ένα χρόνο. Δεν είναι μια εύκολη γλώσσα.

 

Eilidh MacDonald, Project Co-ordinator – Scottish Gaelic

Is mise Eilidh (pron. Aylee). Tha mi à Inbhair Air à Alba ach tha mi a’fuireach ann am Berlin anns a’ Ghearmailt. Is toil leam cànanan ionnsachadh! Tha mi a’ bruidhinn Gearmailtis, Frangis agus Gàidhlig. Chan eil mòran Gàidhlig agam ach tha mi ag ionnsachadh na Gàidhlig airson oir tha ùidh agam anns a’ chultar agus an eachdraidh agam fhèin. Is toil leam Gàidhlig airson tha mi a’ leughadh bàrdachd le Somhairle MacGill-Eain (Sorley Maclean) agus le Iain Mac a’ Ghobhainn (Iain Crichton Smith).

A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh? Gur math a thèid leat!

 

Nadine Ott, Former Senior Project Manager – Indonesian

Saya mulai belajar bahasa Indonesia. Itu bahasa sangat indah. Saya suka katakata yang saya sudah tahu seperti “guru”, “orang utan”, mata hari”, tetapi katakata yang lain seperti “kubukubu” dan “pipipipi ” juga sangat menarik. Adabanyak gambar puitis dan metafora. Saya juga suka yang syntax tidak  sangat  susa– saya bekir!?

 

For information on the 2nd Day of Multilingual Blogging:

www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=204808956247595

http://euonym.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/2nd-day-of-multilingual-blogging/

 

Sign Language – making literature more accessible

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This year the Edinburgh International Book Festival piloted a new scheme which offered British Sign Language interpretation by request for any event. This built on previous years where BSL interpretation was offered at a number of pre-decided events. The festival ended on Tuesday and now with some time to reflect, Amanda Barry, Marketing and PR Manager has kindly shared some of the background to the initiative with the Language Rich Europe blog:

Why was the decision made to start this initiative?

We have a set budget for BSL interpreted events and were choosing the events ourselves which seemed the wrong way round. People who book events because they are BSL events rarely make themselves known to us, so we are never sure how many people actually use the facility. The events we used to pick to be BSL interpreted were often the more popular events and would sell out very quickly and we wanted to allow for later bookers, be able to assess how many people actually wanted/needed a BSL interpreter (given we are a book festival about language and words and many deaf people struggle with this) and wanted to give bookers some flexibility in what they could attend.

Although the response rate to the initiative was described as ‘low – about 6 people requested BSL interpreted events’ with no plans to expand upon it in the immediate future, the pilot recognises the importance of  sign languages in making book events more accessible with Press Manager Frances Sutton explaining that the festival wanted ‘to give our hard of hearing customers a wider range of events they can see and enjoy.’

Edinburgh is not the only book festival to include sign language in their programme. Last year, Sheffield’s Off the Shelf festival launched the first British Sign Language translation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This book enables readers to read the text in English while following video clips of the BSL translation. According to publisher DeafEducate’s website, this is an important resource for language learning:

For people who use British Sign Language as their first language, eBooks will enable them to acquire confidence in reading and understanding English, and likewise for people who use English and want to learn British Sign Language.

Similarly, the European Commission funded project SignLibrary provides access to world literature which has been translated into Sign Language. Texts can be downloaded or read directly on the site and members can create their own stories or translate books themselves which can be uploaded to the Community area.

Initiatives such as these support the European Parliament’s call ‘to promote sign language and to ensure deaf people can work and learn in their preferred language’ and the European Commission‘s acknowledgement of sign language as ‘an important part of Europe’s multilingual diversity.’ There are many more excellent sign language projects and events happening across Europe, a few of which are listed below, but we would love to hear of others in the Comments section:

A big thank you to Amanda Barry, Frances Sutton and Colin Fraser at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for answering my questions and Kathrin Tietze at the British Council for providing information on other sign languages events.

“Education and public services must go multilingual” recommends EU Platform

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Following on from a previous post on the Language Rich Europe blog in May, the EU Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism (CSPM) has now published its policy recommendations to the European Commission, member states and regional authorities with this advice:

Education and public services must go multilingual to boost Europe’s language skills, sustain Europe’s economies and cater for increasingly diverse societies

According to the CSPM there are still unacceptable gaps in support for multilingualism and language learning throughout the EU and even where good policies exist, implementation is often inadequate. To help combat this, the platform recommends strategies including making plurilingual education (“mother tongue” plus 2 other languages) the norm; strengthening learning support for immigrants; and improving language skills of public services across Europe.

Uwe Mohr, Chairperson of the Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism, explains:

only as multilinguals can we fully enjoy the benefits of our culturally and linguistically diverse Europe and live a richer, more interesting and more successful life in the Europe of the future.

Multilingualism is seen as crucial to the preservation and accessibility of the common European cultural heritage and the CSPM identifies translation as playing an important role in this. The platform therefore also recommends that the working conditions of translators be substantially improved, with sound degree programmes and opportunities for mobility.

The CSPM, chaired by EUNIC in Brussels, was set up in 2009 by the European Commission to promote multilingualism in Europe in the areas of culture, media and non-formal education. It consists of 29 selected member organisations which are all committed to promoting multilingualism and operating at a trans-national or European-wide level. There are plans for the platform to continue its work beyond this project. As Mohr states:

Europe needs to develop a language policy that monitors language use and ensures that languages are treated equally. We also highly recommend that the Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism be continued on a permanent basis to act as an instrument of dialogue between the EU policy level on the one side and the national, regional, and local language policy levels and social reality on the other side.

Nine members of the CSPM have committed to setting up an on-line Language Observatory to advise policymakers in designing and implementing successful policies for multilingualism. As part of the European Commission funded project Poliglotti4.eu, the observatory will launch in the autumn and will conduct research and capture and disseminate good practice.

Coming soon: www.poliglotti4.eu

You can read the recommendations in full at the following website.

The Poliglotti4.eu website will be launched in September. In the meantime you can follow the project on Twitter and Facebook.

Poliglotti4.eu – A Language Observatory in the making

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On the blog this week we have a guest contribution from Ulla-Alexandra Mattl and Julia Kofler. Ulla co-ordinates the activities of EUNIC in Brussels and Julia is the interface between the British Council and EUNIC. By the way, EUNIC stands for European Union National Institutes for Culture. It’s the network of international cultural relations institutes from the member states of the European Union. Formed in 2006, it currently has 29 members from 25 countries and 67 so called clusters (local networks) worldwide.

Ulla and Julia are working on a new multilingualism project called Poliglotti4.eu, which has been successful in securing funding from the European Commission. We’ve asked them to tell us a little more about it:

“After months and months of toing and froing, lively discussions, paper rustling and keyboard torture – we are here! The 29 selected member organisations of the European Commission’s Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism have completed our core mission to deliver recommendations on multilingualism to the European Commission. Sitting proudly on the Platform, a Consortium of 9 partners headed by EUNIC in Brussels has committed to creating a tool to better observe and scrutinise the constellation of  European multilingualism. The result is Poliglotti4.eu, our online “language observatory”.

Coming soon: www.poliglotti4.eu

A language observatory
“The website Poliglotti4.eu will be launched before the summer and will be our online language observatory – a resource where we will gather and share information, research results (the research phase has just started) and opinions on everything related to multilingualism, particularly in the areas of lifelong learning, early language learning and social and community services for social inclusion. The site will address a wide range of users in e.g. non-formal education systems, social and community services, policy makers, grass-roots civil society organisations as well as policy makers and all of you who love languages. Anyone working with or in the language sector is very much welcome to get in touch, engage with the observatory, contribute and share thoughts and opinions. Let us know if you have any bright ideas!”

Language ambassadors
“In order to spread the word further about the importance of language learning, Poliglotti4.eu is currently undertaking its first action: recruiting a series of “language ambassadors” from all over Europe –  EU officials, musicians, politicians, artists, etc. They can be well-known or the man/woman in the street. We interested in anyone who is  multilingual, or particularly knowledgeable and active in the field of multilingualism. Each one has been telling us with much enthusiasm why languages are important and what the knowledge of speaking several languages can bring to the professional and private life. Soon you will be able to watch their video testimonies online.

We’ll post again when www.poliglotti4.eu is fully up and running. In the meantime,  visit www.eunic-brussels.eu for further information and follow us on our new Facebook page to get the latest updates”

Julia Kofler and Ulla-Alexandra Mattl

Day of Multilingual Blogging

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The European Commission in the UK is organising the “Day of Multilingual Blogging” on its Facebook page as part of the European Day of Languages. The announcement says:  ”Let’s highlight the importance of the European Day of Languages by blogging in another language. If you don’t feel comfortable writing in another language, why not find a guest? Or do a video?” So far, there are 101 facebook users signed up to take part in this online event (I am one of them and will post an article here).  

The online event will take place on 26 September 2010. If you are interested in participating, have a look at the European Commission in the UK’s facebook page and share your link on their wall. The twitter users among you can use the hashtag #babel (as short and multilingual as possible, as it is stated on the site) to share their posts or spread the word, in any language, about this particular event. Also feel free to share your multilingual posts in the comments section of this blog.