The conference Why languages matter: European and national perspectives on mulitlingualism was held in Florence, Italy on 25th
and 26th September 2014 in the frame of the Italian presidency. The event was attended by Arja Krauchenberg on behalf of EPA. Read her comprehensive report here:
Introduction:
The conference on multilingualism and its
perspectives for the future, held in Florence on September 25th and 26th on the
occasion of the European Day of Languages, assembled around 300 delegates from
various institutions all over Europe. The keynote speakers as well as the
panelists stressed the importance and the advantages of learning languages for
the personal development of each individual but also to foster mutual
understanding between citizens of different member states. It was however
pointed out that there are still a number of obstacles as surveys show that the
number of people actually speaking one foreign language is less than predicted
for 2014 (45%) and the proportion reaching the EC´s goal of mother tongue + 2
languages is only 65% of those.
Important points:
A language test will be compulsory for anybody
going abroad within an Erasmus+ program in English, French, German, Spanish and
Dutch. Online-courses will be provided for those candidates whose level is
judged insufficient at the first test. They will then have to pass a second
test before leaving. On return there will be another test in order to monitor
the progress.
An interesting new suggestion was brought in to
more actively involve cities in promoting and providing facilities for
multilingualism. Most cities in Europe being multilingual nowadays are trying
to develop strategies to deal with this challenge. They should be encouraged
and supported in doing so, more best practice exchange should take place.
Pierre Mairesse, the director general for the EU 2020 strategy, promised to
look into the matter and is open for suggestions of how to implement such a
cooperation.
Material for including the new digital devices
in the classroom but also to encourage youngsters to use those possibilities
for learning outside the classroom were introduced by an international team.
The development of those items took place in the frame of an ECML project and
is now in the phase of dissemination. The proposed activities can be easily
included in the existing programs and don’t need a new structure or an enormous
change of curriclum.
Better trained teachers were an issue on
various panels: more language competences in order to deal with immigration,
foreign language teaching, using the existing digital tools and helping pupils
and students to develop their personality and their professional orientation
were mentioned. The subject of including parents in all those processes was
raised by Arja Krauchenberg as board member of the European Parents’
Association and met with great support from the audience as well as from the
panelists. The development and implementation of such strategies however seems
rather vague. Best practice examples need to be disseminated further and in a
following private conversation Pierre Mairesse uttered the wish for a teacher
trainer modul on plurilingualism that could be applied throughout the European
Union with local modifications.
Problems and challenges of translation were
addressed on the afternoon of the second day. On the one hand there is a need
for highly qualified translators and
interpreters as requested by the European institutions on conference
level. On the other hand very often unqualified bi- or plurilingual persons are asked to serve as intermediators
between people of different origins. The EC is thinking about giving these
people proper training on a lower level than conference translation but
recognizing their skills and having them evaluated and valorized. This idea was
strongly disputed by one representative of the Union of Translators and
Interpreters saying that it would lead to pricedumping and less quality.
Conclusion:
Apart from the section on translation which
concerns parents only indirectly, in all other fields parents should have a
role as stakeholders. Especially the unanimous demand for better (trained) teachers
shows that this is challenge all over Europe for which no “perfect” solution
exists but exchange of ideas and best practice examples can foster development
in this domain without having to “reinvent the wheel” every time!
Many interesting contacts emerged during the breaks and networking
events and the projects presented are all worth disseminating.
More
information, the presentations and abstracts can be found on the website by
clicking on programme: http://edl-2014.teamwork.fr/en/pictures
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