Projects

Language Rich Europe

(KA2 Languages: Multilateral Networks - 511780-LLP-1-2010-1-UK-KA2-KA2NW)

http://languagerichblog.eu/

Language Rich Europe (LRE) is co-funded by the European Commission and we are working with a wide network of partners and specialists in all 19 participating countries, including EUNIC, the European Union’s Network of National Institutes of Culture.

LRE will carry out professional research that will result in an innovative and interactive measurement tool called the “Index of Multilingual Policies and Practices in Europe”.  This Index will help visualise the role of and support for multilingualism in the participating European countries and highlight good practice. It will measure how these countries perform against.

Member States may have responded to increased mobility and migration by prioritising social inclusion and intercultural dialogue but this is not always supported by language policies and practices which promote linguistic diversity and language learning. European multilingualism policy has provided guidance but take up has been uneven, policy cooperation has proved challenging, and knowledge sharing initiatives have remained sector-focused. LRE will address these challenges by creating a sustainable interdisciplinary network of 960 decision makers from 14 Member States and 2 regions who will  through workshops, conferences  and online discussions, share good practice in language teaching and learning for social inclusion and intercultural dialogue and cooperate on improving language policies and practices.

To inform their work we will conduct a comparative analysis of countries’ performance against European multilingualism policy. The results will be presented in the attractive format of an Index of Language Policies and Practices in Europe, available in 18 languages and published in print form and on an interactive website.

The Index comprises 120 indicators and reflects use of official national, immigrant, regional, and foreign languages in education, public services and spaces, business and the media.

The knowledge sharing process will enable the network to develop action plans at national level to improve language policies and practices.

These action plans will be synthesized into a report for the EC to support the review of its multilingualism policy planned for 2012.

Expected impact:

- better understanding of good practices in language teaching and learning for social inclusion and intercultural dialogue
- enhanced cooperation and commitment to improving language policies and practices  
- increased awareness of EU and CoE recommendations and how countries perform against them  
- a sustainable European benchmarking tool to evaluate policies and practices
 

Project Partnership:

- Austria: EDUCULT, Denken und Handeln im Kulturbereich
- Belgium: Migration Policy Group, EUNIC Brussels, Danish Cultural Institute and Universiteit Gent / Ghent University (Steunpunt Diversiteit en Leren / Director Centre for Diversity and Learning)
- Bulgaria: Sofia University, Faculty of Classical and Modern Philologies
- Estonia: National Examinations and Qualifications Centre
- Germany: University of Hamburg, LIMA – Linguistic Diversity Management in Urban Areas and Goethe-Institut
- Greece: South East European Research Centre
- Hungary: Research Institute for Linguistics, Research Centre for Multilingualism
- Italy: Università per Stranieri di Siena, LEND
- Lithuania: Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Institute of Labour and Social Research, State Commission on the Lithuanian Language
- Netherlands: Tilburg University - Babylon, Centre for Studies of the Multicultural Society, Fryske Akademy
- Poland: Institute for Quality in Education
- Portugal: ILTEC – Institute of Theoretical and Computational Linguistics, Instituto Camões
- Romania: Centre Education 2000+, EuroEd Foundation
- Spain: Instituto Cervantes
- Switzerland: University Of Fribourg, Institute of Multilingualism
- United Kingdom: CILT, National Centre for Languages, Welsh Language Board
- Associate partner: Council of Europe, European Centre for Modern Languages
 

The aPLaNet project has been carried out with the support of the European Community. The content of this material does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Community, nor does it involve any responsibility on its part.