Tag Archives: news

Language Rich Europe hits the headlines!

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In the midst of busy preparation for next weeks LRE Conference for stakeholders and partners it is easy to lose sight of why our project is so relevant. Language Rich has been making news in the UK these last two days and that make us happy!

Check out today’s news story from Northern Ireland, “Northern Ireland ‘ill prepared’ for business future, says language report“.

Yesterday we made news in Scotland where a similar story took shape: “Foreign language skills ‘cost Scottish businesses’“

This BBC video clip from Wales highlights the call for language learning in Wales.

Don’t forget to join the conversation next week at least virtually! Have your say on why language learning is so important.

 

Bring Your Voice to Our Upcoming LRE International Conference

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The room may be full for our upcoming high-level debate, but we want you to take part!  We will not only be live tweeting the highlights of the event from the British Academy in London, we are opening up the debate floor to your questions and views via twitter during the Multilingualism and Society session.

At 15:45 on December 3 this session will explore the economy, competitiveness, employability and social cohesion to understand how European countries and cities are reacting to diversity in civil society.  Details of this session are below.  For more info on the full event see the LRE International Conference Programme.

So follow along and join in using the Twitter hashtag #LREintl to submit your views and questions to our chair, Thomas Fritz (Head of lernraum.wien) and bring your voice to the discussion!

The Details

Our round table experts

  • Thomas Fritz, Head of lernraum.wien
  • Richard Hardie, Chair UBS Ltd
  • Sevdalina Voynova, Director of Programmes, Sofia Development Association
  • Csilla Bartha, Research Professor/Head Research, Centre for Multilingualism, Research Insitute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy for Sciences and Eötvös Loránd University
  • Benjamin Chatfield, Founder of OscarMike, an international marketing agency and former European Language Assistant
  • Thomas Huddleston, Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Group

Examples of questions and topics that will be explored in the round table

1)   On Economy and Employment.

The European Consensus seems to be that multilingualism is an important benefit for the economy – that companies with languages strategies and employees with language skills are more likely to be successful.

  • Why do you think that only a quarter of the companies surveyed by LRE claim to have such a strategy?
  • Why do so few companies keep records of their employees’ language skills, even where language capability is a criterion for recruitment.   What does this say about the real significance of languages for employees?
  • How much should it be the responsibility of employers to offer training in languages skills? (LRE sample reports 27% supporting English, 14% the national language and 12% other languages)
  • Does this mean that English is the language of business and employment as many other aspects of LRE seem also to suggest?

2)   On Multilingual societies

Many countries report on the rapid changes brought about by increased mobility and movement of peoples across and into and out of European countries. This seems to be something which affects everyone including countries that have traditionally been rather monolingual and countries of emigration.

  • In general terms what are the big challenges (and possibilities) in this area?
  • Many report that countries and regions –whether in education systems or civil life – often pay lip service rather than real attention to languages used in their communities other than the national language.  Do you agree? Could you give any examples of this? Or positive experiences which suggest the opposite?

3)   The Impact of economy on society

The economy is not separate from society but a major determining factor.  Would you say that some of the rather consensual ideas about Multilingualism from the end of the last century and the 2000s (An “Asset and Shared Commitment”; A “Rewarding Challenge”) are threatened by the current long term economic crisis?

  • Many report that countries and regions –whether in education systems or civil life – often pay lip service rather than real attention to languages used in their communities other than the national language. Do you agree? Could you give any examples of this? Or positive experiences which suggest the opposite?
  • It is reported that there is a reluctance to address issues of minority languages because they are linked to immigration which has become a controversial political issue.
  • In many countries the emphasis is firmly on learning the national language rather than supporting minorities.
  • What needs to be done in order to overcome some of the fault lines this discussion has revealed?

Today’s launch: Italy

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Italy

Did you know that…

“At the present time Italian is used as the main language by around 90% of the Italian population, also as the spoken language (ISTAT, 2007). This is a radical change to the centuries old idiomatic Italian tradition, characterised by a prevalence of local languages to Italian. Before the Unification of Italy (1861), Italian was the language used for centuries as the literary language, and it was only spoken in the Florentine-Tuscan and Roman areas (De Mauro, 1963, 1979, 1994).

Despite the general diffusion of standard Italian, used by the vast majority of Italian society,Italystill presents a linguistic identity characterised by a wide range of dialects, varieties and registers, which places it among the countries which even today present a relatively high index of linguistic diversity.

To this complex panorama, a new factor has been added in recent years: the immigration of people from some of the poorest countries. Foreigners inItalytoday total more than 5,000,000 – one immigrant for every 12 residents (Caritas, 2011). A census regarding immigrant languages does not currently exist, but research carried out in various areas ofItalyestimate that approximately 200 new languages are present in the country (Bagna, Barni, Vedovelli, 2006; Barni, 2008).”

The Italy launch will take place on 8 June 2012 in the auditorium of the Goethe-Institut in Rome. The speakers of this launch event are:

  • Susanne Hohn, Direttore, Goethe-Institut Italia
  • Coordina Silvia Minardi, Presidente nazionale di LEND e Presidente del REAL
  • Christine Melia, Direttore, British Council Italia              
  • Diana Saccardo, Dirigente Scolastico Comandato, Direzione Generale per gli Affari Internazionali del Ministero dell’ Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
  • Massimo Vedovelli, Rettore, Università per Stranieri di Siena e, Membro della Conferenza dei Rettori delle Università italiane
  • Keynote Speech: Video intervention by Tullio De Mauro, Professore Emerito, Università “La Sapienza”,   Roma
  • Keynote Speech: Giancarlo Zucchetto, Capo dell’unità italiana, DG Interpretazione e Conferenze, Parlamento Europeo
  • Keynote Speech: Antonella Sorace, Professoressa in Linguistica dello Sviluppo, Università di Edimburgo e, Direttore “Bilingualism Matters”

Presentazione dell’Indice Language Rich Europe e i risultati italiani nel contesto europeo:

  • Martin Hope, Direttore, British Council Benelux e UE
  • Eilidh MacDonald, Project Co-ordinator Language Rich Europe, British Council Berlin
  • Monica Barni, Professoressa in Didattica delle lingue moderne, Università per Stranieri di Siena e partner italiano del progetto Language Rich Europe

After the presentations, there will be time for discussion.

Per ulteriori informazioni in italiano si consiglia di consultare il sito web di British Council Italia.

Tomorrow’s launches: Poland and Lithuania

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Poland

Did you know that…

‘Poland has adopted an interesting practice with regard to teaching Polish to immigrants. Bearing in mind that teaching Polish to immigrants is not the same as teaching Polish as a mother tongue, head teachers delegate this task to teachers of foreign languages, for example to teachers of English and not to teachers of Polish.’

The Poland launch will take place on 25 May 2012 at Warsaw Polytechnics. There will be several speakers discussing the findings of the project. These are:

  • Andy Williams, Director British Council Poland
  • Martin Hope, Language Rich Europe Project Director and Data Expert
  • Liliana Szczuka-Dorna, Head of Department of Modern Languages at Poznan University of Technology

Coinciding with the Poland launch is the first part of Lithuania’s launch on 25 May 2012 at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. The invited participants to the very first launch are representatives of the education institutions, companies, and cities researched, as well as the media. Speakers will be:

  • Dr. Julija Moskvina, Institute of Labour and Social Research, Lithuania
  • Dr. Irena Smetonienė, Vilnius University, Lithuania
  • Vilma Bačkiūtė, British Council, Lithuania

Lithuania

Did you know that…

‘Lithuania particularly cares about the status and usage of its state language. As for the rights of ethnic minorities, including the right to preserve their own languages and cultures,Lithuania has taken as many responsibilities as there can be in terms of the protection of minority rights.’

Global Dickens read-a-thon to celebrate 200 years of Dickens

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In this blog post we announce a Global Dickens read-a-thon which takes place today, 7 February, over Twitter. If you’re interested, please read on or have a look at the British Council Literature website, where you can find more details on the subject.

A global 24 hour read-a-thon of different Dickens texts takes place today, Tuesday 7 February over Twitter, in celebratation the bicentenary of the great writer’s birth in every corner of the world. Twenty-four countries will read an extract of the work of this truly global author, from China to Albania, Pakistan to Russia.  All readings will be uploaded onto the @BritishCouncil twitter feed and onto the #Dickens2012 stream: on the hour, every hour. The readings will carry on until 6 am tomorrow morning.

If you missed out on today’s events, don’t worry, as there’ll be many more to come. You can, for example, watch a British Council event, Bent and broken into a better shape: the magical storytelling of Charles Dickens, with Jeremy Harmer and Steve Bingham online. They will bring Dickens’ writing to life through readings and music, in a show designed especially (but not exclusively) for teachers and students of international English. You can follow the event live at www.teachingenglish.org.uk/dickens from 1845 on Thursday 9 February.

And as for past events, there is plenty of interesting video material on the British Council Germany website. From 26-28 January they hosted a seminar entitled What would Dickens write today? 

Or, if you’re looking for a nice and quick presentation of Dickens’ life, have a look at this wonderful video:

Languages Speak Up competition winners announced

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To celebrate the European Day of Languages on 26 September 2011, Language Rich Europe and Poliglotti4.eu launched a competition to find Language Ambassadors who are willing to lend their voice to the cause of language learning by creating a short video of their linguistic journey. The future ambassadors came up with creative videos in which they used all the languages they speak and explained how their language skills had improved their life.

The jury was faced with a difficult decision to pick three winners out of many great entries. All the winning videos had the following in common: An original idea of the setting and plot, a huge amount of imagination and creativity, and the clarity of the benefits of being multilingual. So without further ado, here are the winners:

The 1st prize goes to Khafi Kareem from England, who is fluent in French, Italian, English, Yoruba and British Sign Language. 

The Runners Up prizes go to Deividas Jakavicius from Lithuania, who fluently raps in Lithuanian, English and Russian…

…and Sophie Reece-Trapp from England, impressing the jury with her French, English, German and Dutch language skills. 

The selected videos will feature as an important part of the websites of our major twin projects: Language Rich Europe and Poliglotti4.eu. The winners will also carry on work as language ambassadors to the projects and will write their own blog posts in the future. The winner was awarded a new iPad2 and the two runners-up won a Sony Bloggie camera. Please find the winning entries as well as the other participating videos on our project website.

We would like to thank all the participants for their submissions, their enthusiasm and their creativity.

We are really looking forward to working with our new language ambassadors who will without doubt encourage and motivate others to learn languages!

Celebrate the 10th European Day of Languages!

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Council of EuropeThere have already been lots of events going on to celebrate the 10th European Day of Languages and there will be even more happening today and over the next few weeks. The Language Rich Europe blog will be looking at a selection of these in more depth as they happen and later today we will contribute to the European Commission’s Day of Multilingual Blogging initiative with our very own multilingual post.

But for now here is a short summary of some of the highlights of events taking place across Europe today. Please add your own events in the Comments section below and visit our News and Events page and the official European Day of Languages site to find out what else is happening where you are!

Working together with partners from EUNIC Berlin, the Berlin public libraries and the European Commission in Germany the British Council has an exciting programme of events for the European Day of Languages. The morning will see school classes taking part in fun activities hosted by libraries across the city, bringing the children into contact with different languages. Fourteen languages will be represented across 20 locations. To round the day off, members of the public are invited to a podium discussion event hosted by the European Commission looking at the theme of Language acquisition and successful integration.

In Estonia 16 embassies, cultural institutes and publishers will have information stands at the Atrium with short films on each country being screened throughout the day. Short Language classes (30 min) for beginners will take place and the day will be opened by the Rector of Tallinn University Tiit Land, Minsitry of Education Jaak Aaviksoo and the new Head of the Estonan Representation of the European Commission Hannes Rumm. The programme includes the presentation of the European Award for Teaching Languages, a Translation Conference, as well as  interviews and a quiz on the radio.

In Belgium, EUNIC in Brussels in cooperation with the STIB will be displaying poems in their original language and in translation by poets from all across Europe. Come and join the Flash Mob Dance in four of the metro stations in Brussels where the poems will be displayed. Starting at Gare du Midi/Zuidstation at 17:30, the Flash Mob Dancers will move to Porte de Namur/Naamsepoort, Merode and Roodebeek.

Poland is hosting a Language Gala in Warsaw where the social campaign ‘Learn Languages’ will be launched and personalities will be awarded for promoting multilingualism. Other events at the gala include the presentation of the Language Rich Europe project, a presentation on language policy in Poland, the awarding of best practices in developing language policies at Polish higher education institutions and the launch of the languages contest for business. On the 24 September, Krakow also celebrated the European Day of Languages by promoting the idea of multilingualism by encouraging people to learn languages and having fun by participating in the City Game.

And finally, the ZOI.gr programme on SKAI Radio in Greece will interview a representative from the Directorate General for Translation of the European Commission who will draw the winners of the languages competition which ran last week. Entrants have the chance to win a one-semester language learning course.

And don’t forget… from today you can upload your videos to take part in the Language Rich Europe and Poliglotti4.eu competition – read how to do this on our website and earlier blog post!

Languages and Immigration

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This is a difficult subject to write about as I am fully aware of how sensitive, complex and political it is. To be completely honest, I would much prefer to write about this Gaelic-speaking teddy bear, due to be launched in October.

But if we are going to look at language policies and practices across Europe, this blog cannot ignore the issue of immigration. This is currently of particular relevance because of a legal case under way in the UK.  

On the one hand, we have immigration rules introduced in Britain by Home Secretary Theresa May requiring all immigrants outside the EU to have a basic command of English. On the other, we have Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects the right to a ‘private and family life,’ and Article 12 which recognises the right to marry and establish a family.
 
But caught in the middle of this legal battle are a husband and wife unable to reunite because of languages. Rashida Chapti is a British citizen but her husband Vali Chapti cannot join her because of his lack of English. According to an article in the Daily Mail, he is unwilling to learn English, but his reasons for this are not so straightforward. In India, he left school at the age of 9 and “he can barely read or write in his mother tongue, Gujarati.” So learning English, at the age of 57, must be all the more difficult.

To many, lack of interest in learning the language of your new home is seen as lack of interest in integrating and your motivation for immigrating is questioned. “Sponging off the state” is a comment that is frequently heard. But in Chapti’s case, he has a job offer in the UK and has family that can speak English so integration may not be such a problem, and his taxes will be paid. Another argument made is that residents have the “right to a common language” but the UK has always been a multilingual country and historically English was not spoken by everyone.

Personally, I would like to speak the language of whatever country I am living in. But my situation is very different to that of Vali Chapti’s, having studied languages at school and university. I wonder how successful forcing someone to learn a language is, or if making a country welcoming so that newcomers want to learn the language and putting systems in place so that they are strongly encouraged to do so might be better?

If you would like to read more about this case, you can do so in The Telegraph and The Independent. I would also recommend the Guardian’s podcast which looks at the different issues surrounding the English language requirement for immigrants.

Does Age Matter?

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Everyone knows that learning languages becomes more difficult as you get older. Our brains are no longer sponge-like and, as the saying goes, you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. This provides a nice, ready-made excuse for those of us trying to balance evening classes with work and family commitments. We don’t have time to sit and learn vocabulary every evening, but even if we did there wouldn’t be much point now that we are over the age of ten. Right?

Well maybe not. Recent research from Israel (presented at the 12th International Congress for the Study of Child Language in Montreal) shows an adult brain is more suited to learning a language’s grammar than a child’s brain. In one experiment, researchers invented a new grammar for Hebrew and tested 8, 12 and 21 year olds on their ability to learn the system. The 21 year olds achieved the best results.

In an article for Belgian newspaper de Standaard, Monika Schmid, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Groningen, explains that many scientists are unable to agree on this subject. One reason for this is it is difficult to create a truly controlled environment in which to test language learning ability. External factors such as schooling mean that children tend to be immersed more thoroughly in a language, so they reach a higher level of fluency more quickly. But if these factors were removed, would children still come out on top? The Israeli research suggests not.

However, grammar is only one aspect of language learning and Professor Schmid goes on to explain that while rules can be learned more easily by adults, children tend to learn a language more intuitively:

Volwassenen leren talen expliciet: ze leiden de spelregels van de grammatica bewust af, zoals je ook een videorecorder leert programmeren. Kinderen leren talen zoals ze ook leren fietsen: op een gegeven moment weten ze intuïtief hoe het moet.

At the end of the day, does it really matter how old we are? So we might not become as fluent or learn as quickly as we would like to but if we are motivated and enthusiastic about learning a new language, surely that is much more important!

Thanks to Canan Marasligil for drawing my attention to the article in de Standaard.

Information on the Israeli research is also available in English from the New Scientist website.