The European Centre for Modern Languages marked the completion of its second medium-term programme 2004-2007 with a large-scale conference devoted to the theme of this programme: Languages for social cohesion – language education in a multilingual and multicultural Europe. About 250 language professionals from Europe and beyond gathered for the event, which was held at the Karl-Franzens University Graz on 27-29 September.

The ECML Conference 2007 was a platform for language professionals to present their work on developing and implementing instruments and tools to improve the teaching and learning of languages in the context of securing greater social cohesion in our continent. Four thematic areas corresponding to the sub-themes of the Centre’s programme were chosen: Linguistic and Social Diversity; Intercultural Communication; Teacher Development; Innovative Approaches.

The conference took stock of current work in this field, based first of all on the results of the 21 projects run within the Centre’s programme since 2004, which were presented by their coordinators. To extend the scope of the proceedings, the Centre also invited contributions from international experts not involved in its activities. All these presentations were given in parallel working sessions corresponding to the conference’s four thematic areas.

Special guest speakers complemented this programme with plenary presentations giving a European and wider international perspective on both the political and policy aspects of language education’s role in ensuring greater social cohesion. They included:

• Lucija Čok, Rector of the University of Primorska, former Slovenian Minister of Education;
• Joseph Lo Bianco, University of Melbourne;
• Harald Hartung, Head of Multilingualism Policy Unit, European Commission;
• Joseph Sheils, Head of the Council of Europe’s Department of Language Education and Policy.

Summaries of the discussions in the working groups and a panel discussion spotlighting the achievements and challenges arising from the conference contributed to the conclusions of the event, which proposed input for the orientation of future reforms and developments in the practice of language teaching and learning in Europe. Moderated by Dagmar Heindler, Austrian member of the ECML Governing Board, the following speakers contributed to the panel:

Carol Taylor, president of CERCLES

• Terry Lamb, president of FIPLV
• Janina Zielinska, Vice president of FIPF
• Gé Stoks, editor of Babylonia and teacher trainer at the Alta Scuola Pedagogica di Locarno
• Anne Gallagher, Director of the Language Centre, National University of Ireland.

The conference closed with the launching of the Centre’s third medium-term programme 2008-2011 Empowering Language Professionals: Competences – Networks – Impact – Quality.

The results of the projects of the ECML’s second medium-term programme – publications, CD-Roms, reports, websites, materials - were on display throughout the conference at the Project Fair. These results will shortly be available on the ECML website: www.ecml.at.

In response to wide-scale interest in the conference, a webcast of the event was organised. This may still be viewed online at www.ecml.at/conference.

The ECML thanks the Karl-Franzens Universität Graz (Institut für Anglistik, Institut für Romanistik and Institut für Germanistik) and the Österreichisches Sprachen-Kompetenz-Zentrum (ÖSZ) for their active co-operation in the preparation of the conference.

Contact: Susanna Slivensky

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Below you will find the full list of the results of the projects run within the Centre´s second medium-term programme – publications, CD-ROMS, websites, leaflets and reports. Individual publications may be ordered from the ECML. Alternatively, six months after their publication, they are available for downloading from our website. So please check the expected publication date for each or look out for announcements in the news section of the ECML site.

Project results

Babylonia, the Swiss journal of languages teaching and learning, highlights the outcomes of the ECML's second medium-term programme in a special issue.

Babylonia n° 3/2007

The ECML is about to launch its third medium-term programme (2008-2011) entitled “Empowering language professionals: Competences - Networks - Impact – Quality”.
20 projects have been selected by the Centre’s Governing Board for inclusion in the new programme, which is divided into four thematic areas:

• Evaluation
• Continuity in language learning
• Content and language education
• Plurilingual education.

The themes chosen for this programme are key elements in innovative language education. They represent areas where there is currently increasing demand on the professional skills of teachers who are expected to contribute to national education reform processes and face up to major challenges such as standard-linked tuition and result-oriented assessment, greater autonomy of educational institutions, increasing ethnic and cultural heterogeneity among students and promotion of lifelong or recurrent education.

Pending finalisation of the new programme, the Gazette can reveal that it will include projects supporting application of the CEFR (Evaluation), implementation of the ELP (Continuity), teacher training for CLIL (Content) and on majority/minority language teaching and learning issues (Plurilingualism). A project will also focus on the networking of language teacher associations. Our next issue (Spring 2008) will give details of the new projects and indicate how you can follow the progress of work on each of them.

With this programme, the ECML intends to pursue its unique contribution to language teaching in Europe by enabling members of the profession to be more actively involved in defining and delivering higher standards of language education.

The ECML is convinced that the key to this is to be found in increasing awareness of and confidence in the capacities of professionals in language education. The vision of “empowerment” highlighted in the programme’s title will be pursued through four objectives:

• Enhancing the professional competence of language teachers;
• Strengthening professional networks and the wider community of language educators;
• Enabling language professionals to have greater impact on reform processes;
• Contributing to better quality of language education in Europe

The celebration of the European day of Languages (EDL) has become a regular activity in many hundreds of schools which set up original projects and contribute to awareness raising and respect for other languages and cultures.

In 2007, 37 countries celebrated the EDL and 643 events were registered in the dedicated website (www.coe.int/EDL) which contains a database offering information on each activity.

Once again, the Council of Europe provided promotional material to National Relays with a view to promoting wide dissemination to mark the Day: posters, stickers, but also buttons specially produced by the ECML. Moreover, many schools, associations and even universities contacted the two Council of Europe co-ordinating instances (ECML and Language Policy Division) directly.

The official Council of Europe Press Release (English and French) was translated into 6 further languages thanks to National Relays: Albanian / Bosnian / Hungarian / Lithuanian / Swedish / Turkish.

New forms of celebrations took place, in particular international activities and celebrations by twin cities. The Council of Europe was associated with the celebration of the Day at the “Third Forum of Young People from the World” in Toulouse . The European Commission was actively involved in the celebration of the EDL and supported national initiatives

The EU Commissioner for Multilingualism, Leonard Orban, visited the ECML on Friday 14 December 2007 during a two-day visit to Austria.

Mr Orban met the ECML’s Executive Director and participated in a round-table held at the Centre on “Multilingualism and Intercultural Dialogue 08: a regional perspective”. The round-table brought together local politicians including members of the regional government of Styria, the Mayor of Graz and the mayors of communes from towns on Austria’s border with Slovenia.

Website of the European Commission / Multilingualism
Press release and pictures gallery

Nicolas Kravic , the ECML’s Assistant Documentalist, left the Centre at the end of September after seven years of dedicated services to the Documentation and Resource Centre. Nicolas’ discreet but efficient contribution to the Centre’s work will be missed by project coordinators, team members, workshop participants, library users and visitors to the ECML alike.

The Secretariat wishes him every success in his new job in the private sector.

Pending his long-term replacement, Nicolas’ functions will be taken over by former ECML trainee from Slovenia, Daniela Kocmut .

The ECML offers traineeships for recent graduates with an excellent command of at least one of the working languages of the Council of Europe (English and French). Traineeships last 6 months (January to June or July to December) and candidates must apply for one of the three areas of the Centre's work: its programme activities, its information and documentation services or its website. The Centre also offers traineeships in its administration once a year from September to February.

More information on trainees' profiles, duties and tasks, on living and working conditions in Graz, together with the application procedure and form can be found on the ECML traineeship web pages.
The deadline for applying to be among the intake of trainees for the period July to December 2008 is 31 March 2008.

As the seat of the European Centre for Modern Languages and as a result of the pioneering work that the Centre has become renowned for, the name of Graz has become synonymous with innovation and excellence in both the theory and practice of modern language teaching in Europe. Yet it is not only the ECML that has contributed to the reputation of Graz as a city of language expertise; several other eminent Graz-based institutions have carried out outstanding work and can boast notable achievements in promoting the teaching and learning of languages and related research.

From the very beginnings of the Centre, there has been close cooperation between the ECML and Graz University on the one hand and local schools and colleges on the other. The Austrian Federal authorities acknowledged the importance of this development by strengthening existing institutions and structures in Graz, by basing important projects and initiatives in the city and by establishing the Centre’s Austrian contact point here.

To make Graz’s special profile more visible, not only on a local and regional level but also internationally, the idea arose to build up and strengthen synergies between these institutions in the framework of a ‘Graz Language Network’. The idea was taken up with enthusiasm by potential partners, under the leadership of the “Verein EFSZ” – the Austrian Association for the ECML.

The members of the Graz Language network are:

European Centre for Modern Languages, Austrian Association for the ECML, Karl Franzens University Graz, Pedagogical University of Styria, Austrian Centre for Language Competence, Graz International Bilingual School.

All partners in the network share the common objective of promoting plurilingualism and agree to link up their competences and share knowledge and experience. The main goal of this venture is to use existing synergies more profitably and to make Graz more visible, both nationally and on the European stage, as a place of language-related expertise.

 

Contact: Ursula Newby, Austrian Association for the ECML

The list of publications presents the results all of the ECML's work. The updated version include the results of the 21 projects conducted between 2004 and 2007 (books, CD-Roms, websites). All ECML products are downloadable free of charge from the Centre's website 6 months after their publication date.

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New factsheets on language education in the ECML member states are now available on the Centre's website. Each factsheet provides the contact details of the ECML Governing Board members, national nominating authorities and contact points in each country and the services offered by these official institutions. In addition, the pages include relevant information sources and resources on language teaching and learning such as links to national organisations, pedagogical institutes, universities, professional associations. Documentation highlighted includes the national versions of the European Language Portfolio and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the educational language policy profiles where available, strategic policy papers, thematic bibliographies, and the educational press.

Individual factsheets can be accessed by clicking on the country of choice on the interactive map.

 

New factsheets on language education

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Contributions to the ECML's database of international language events increase weekly. This database provides information on a wide range of activities related to teaching and learning languages or intercultural communication. It includes information on conferences, workshops, seminars, and other activities held in Europe and beyond. Experts may use this comprehensive tool to promote relevant events amongst the international community of experts and to keep up to date on the latest developments.

International events database

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The Language Policy Division held its second intergovernmental conference on policies and standards for the languages of instruction in school in Prague (8-10 November 2007). The event, organised in co-operation with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic, had three main aims: to update participants on the work undertaken during the year since the last conference (Strasbourg, November 2006); to seek further feedback from participants on how a framework of reference for languages of education should develop, particularly with regard to the relationship between language as subject and language across the curriculum; to develop new contacts as well as to strengthen existing networks to help advance the project.

Participants addressed the issue of possible minimum standards for language and other communication (semiotic) competences in the curriculum, based on an analysis undertaken for a number of subjects – history, mathematics, sciences – at the end of primary and the end of compulsory education (the series of studies is available online). There was a specific focus on equal opportunities for socially disadvantaged learners, and on making the best use of assessment.

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National or regional reviews are carried on and further countries have requested the Council of Europe expertise. Reports are available online.

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This personal document – developed to promote intercultural dialogue – aims at encouraging users to think about and learn from the intercultural encounters that have made a strong impression on them. It is currently being piloted. More

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A draft Curriculum Framework for Romani has been developed in co-operation with the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERFT). It was launched during a seminar and is currently being piloted in 10 countries. More

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Special issue “22nd Session of the Standing Conference of European Ministers of Education"
All issues

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Website

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The Committee of Ministers made public on 25 June 2007 the third report on the situation of regional or minority languages in Hungary. 14 regional or minority languages are protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Hungary: Armenian, Beás, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Polish, Romany, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian.

 

Council of Europe press release
Report
Committee of Ministers' recommendation

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The Roma are present in almost all Council of Europe member countries and their culture enriches European societies . A CD of Roma variations on the theme of the European anthem was launched on 20 November 2007 in Strasbourg. The CD is part of the Council of Europe awareness-raising campaign “Dosta!”, which aims to bring Roma and non-Roma people closer together. The campaign is part of a joint programme between the Council of Europe and the European Commission, carried out in 2006 and 2007 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.

 

Council of Europe press release
To sample the music:
Roma version of European anthem by Esma Redzepova
Roma version of European anthem by Grupi folklorik Rome nga Shqiperia
Roma version of European anthem by Yorgui Loeffler
Roma version of European anthem by Kal
Campaign website

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