The ECML’s third medium-term programme (2008-2011) is entitled Empowering language professionals: competences – networks – impact – quality.

20 projects have been selected 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 thematic areas of the new programme have been identified by the representatives of the member states as key elements in innovative language education. They represent areas where there is 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
• result-oriented assessment
• greater autonomy of educational institutions
• increasing ethnic and cultural heterogeneity among students
• promotion of lifelong or recurrent education.

The new medium-term programme takes place against the backdrop of major developments in the sphere of education involving both the Council of Europe and the European Union. Action undertaken within the framework of the European Commission include the elaboration of a European Indicator of Language Competence, the action programme in the field of lifelong learning (2007-2013), the Lisbon strategy objectives in education and training and the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008). 2008 has also been declared International Year of Languages by the United Nations, providing additional impetus to the concerted international effort for better quality in language education.

With this programme, the ECML intends to pursue its unique contribution to language teaching in Europe by increasing awareness of and confidence in the capacities of professionals in language education and by enabling members of the profession to be more actively involved in defining and delivering higher standards of 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
  ECML activities seek not only to encourage teachers and other actors in language education to acquire new knowledge in their field of expertise, but also, and even more importantly, to see that this knowledge is put into effective practice in their working environment. Through this process of professional development, individual language experts will be able to make a better contribution to change and innovation in their work. Support for language professionals as agents of change is therefore a direct investment in higher quality language learning.

• Strengthening professional networks and the wider community of language educators
  The dissemination of the major principles and instruments promoting enhanced standards in language education developed by the European organisations can only be achieved via effective information and communication structures. The sharing of knowledge, ideas and initiatives throughout the wider professional community of practice will have a powerful impact on the content and quality of the work of the individual, on overall developments in theory and practice, and on the cohesion of the educational community and its public profile.

• Enabling language professionals to have greater impact on reform processes
  The ECML’s support for language education professionals and their networks will help teachers play a more influential role in their professional environment. They will also be better equipped to participate effectively in the consultations involved in decision-making processes.

• Contributing to better quality of language education in Europe
  Through the improved competences, stronger networks and greater impact of its members, the language-teaching profession will become more actively involved in improving standards in language education.

The ECML programme 2008-2011 is founded on European language policy guidelines and tools for language education and it is designed to contribute to the promotion and further development of these approaches.

As a Council of Europe institution, the ECML operates within the context of the ongoing language education work of the major European organisations. A great number of the projects in its programme therefore build on existing European language education principles and tools, particularly the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the European Language Portfolio(ELP) developed by the Language Policy Division.

Within the ECML’s second medium-term programme, an ELP resource and reference website for teacher training and ELP implementation projects has been developed: http://elp.ecml.at/.

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The first year of the new programme has started with a full schedule of meetings and workshops in Graz.
By mid-May, 15 out of the 20 project teams had met at the ECML to launch their work.

For dates of ECML events please see the ECML online calendar.

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 The ECML has set up new project websites for its projects based on a content management system. The aim of the integrated online platform is to support collaborative work and as a means of encouraging synergies and interaction across the programme. The pilot platform for the new system was the project co-ordinators’ website http://coordination.ecml.at which was established as a direct follow-up to the meeting of the co-ordinators of the new programme at the ECML in November 2007.
In the meantime, individual sites have been set up for all projects which have a team meeting in 2008. These project websites are still at an early stage of development.
It is the task of the website correspondent of each team to see to the development of the content of each project site.

If you want to find a particular ECML project website of the programme 2008-2011 enter the URL- address consisting of

• http://project acronym.ecml.at
  
• The project acronym can be found in the list of projects.

Examples:
http://carap.ecml.at
http://conbat.ecml.at

The integrated platform was designed with three principal functions in mind:

• an ‘intranet’ enabling co-ordinators to liaise with the ECML and the programme consultants;
• a platform for networking with project participants and piloting materials;
• an ‘extranet’ website communicating to/interacting with a wider audience and disseminating project results.

Contributing to these functions, the content management system offers a number of attractive features for project teams:

• collaborative platform
• multiple access rights (co-ordinators, project participants, general public)
• document uploading
• mailing lists
• forums
• weblogs
• calendars
• search engine
• wikis (allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages)
• glossaries
• surveys
• automatic language switch
• statistics.

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The project ELP-TT2 is the first of two short-term projects (2008-2009) designed to disseminate the ELP training kit developed during the original “ELP-TT” project (“Training teachers to use the European Language Portfolio”) run in the ECML’s second medium-term programme (2004-2007). 

These follow-up projects will organise dissemination and training events aimed at ELP multipliers and teacher trainers from different cultural backgrounds and educational settings. These events will be held in 16 ECML member states which did not benefit from national training events during the first project (Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom).

On 6 and 7 February 2008, the first meeting of the project team of ELP_TT2 took place in Graz. Four national events are planned by the team for 2008 in different ECML countries (among them Slovenia, the Slovak Republic and Cyprus).

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The organisers of AILA 2008 – the 15 th World Congress of Applied Linguistics to take place in Essen, Germany, from 24-29 August, invited the ECML to present a symposium on the Centre’s recent work. This symposium is scheduled for 27 August 2008, 9-12 am.

After an introduction on the Centre’s programme 2004-2007: Languages for Social Cohesion and the programme 2008-2011: Empowering Language Professionals, a number of ECML project co-ordinators will present results and publications from selected projects:

Making provision for Europe’s 'additional' languages
Joanna McPake, Scottish CILT, UK

Promoting linguistic diversity in school
Antoinette Camilleri Grima, University of Malta

Preparing teachers to use and implement the ELP
Dick Meijer, consultant, The Netherlands

CARAP − A framework of references for pluralistic approaches
Michel Candelier, University of Maine (Le Mans), France

LCaS − Improving language competence with the Case Method
Johann Fischer, University of Würzburg, Germany

Research methodology in TEMOLAYOLE studies
Marianne Nikolov, University of Pécs, Hungary

In addition, Laura Muresan, the co-ordinator of the project “QualiTraining – A training guide for quality assurance in language education” (2004-2007) and the follow-up project “Quality training at grassroots level” (2008-2009) will present and disseminate her “QualiTraining guide” in an individual time slot at the congress on 25 August, 9.40 am.

Presentations by other previous and current ECML project co-ordinators and team members as well as information on the ECML stand at the congress exhibition can be found in the AILA programme.

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A Memorandum on Co-operation and Liaison has been signed between the ECML and the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) of the University of Ottawa, Canada. Under the agreement, the OLBI will act as a contact point in Canada for disseminating the Centre’s work and propose and finance Canadian experts’ participation in the ECML’s projects either as team members, resource persons or participants. It is hoped that, in the long term, this co-operation will create favourable conditions for full Canadian membership of the ECML.

Nathalie GIGNOUX took up her functions as Administrative Support Assistant in January 2008, working on the Centre’s administration and finances.

Anna KEHL joined the Centre as Secretarial/Communications Assistant in May 2008 and will work both with the documentation centre and website teams.

All ECML staff

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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 January to June 2009 is 30 September 2008.

ECML web pages on traineeships

In addition to its own programme activities, the ECML regularly hosts international meetings and conferences run by external institutions, drawn by the prestige of the ECML in the field of language education and the attractions of the city of Graz. Such activities add to the profile of the Centre as an international meeting point within the region.

External events at the ECML, which must be in keeping with the principles and values of the Council of Europe, are managed by the “Austrian Association” (Verein EFSZ in Österreich) set up by the Austrian authorities to look after the Centre’s infrastructure and local contacts.

If you are interested in using the premises of the ECML, contact Ursula Newby, the manager of the Austrian Association: verein.efsz@ecml.at

The fact that the Graz Centre is one of the external Council of Europe offices has made it an obvious choice for events organised by or in co-operation with the Organisation, such as the workshops held in the framework of its “Pestalozzi” training programme for education professionals:

• November 22-24 2007, “Plurilingualism, Diversity and Social Cohesion in Schools” (hosted by the Austrian Ministry of Education, the Arts and Culture) ;
• December 5-7 2007, “Media Literacy Development for sustainable democratic societies” (organised by the Division for the European dimension of education and the Media and Information Society Division.

2007 Annual Report of the Austrian Association (in German)
Website of the Verein EFSZ in Österreich

A language corpus (plural: corpora) is a collection of texts which can be analysed using different computer programs, including concordancing programs. A survey on the use of corpora in language education has been developed by Christopher Tribble, Department of Education and Professional Studies, King’s College, London University. It is aimed at anyone who is involved in language education. This includes those involved in second or foreign language teaching, as well as those involved in teacher education, research into languages and in the teaching of linguistics.
A summary of the survey findings will be presented at the Teaching and Learning with Corpora (TALC) Conference in Lisbon in July, and the results are likely to form the basis of a later research article.

To take part in the survey please open the following link:

Survey

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The results of the 21 projects run within the Centre´s programme 2004-2007 (publications, CD-ROMs, websites, leaflets, reports, interviews, project overviews) are available online. The projects are arranged in four groups corresponding to the programme sub-themes:

A Coping with linguistic and social diversity
B Communication in a multicultural society
C Professional development and reference tools
D Innovative approaches and new technologies

Access to the results overview (Please click onto the titles to get to the project result pages)

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The list of publications presents the results all of the ECML’s work (books, CD-Roms, websites, flyers, brochures).
All ECML products are downloadable free of charge from the Centre’s website.

ECML publications list
Order
To access the Ressources Section

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A request by Ukraine for the Language Policy Division to conduct a “Language Education Policy Profile” was approved recently by the Steering Committee for Education. This will be the 16th “Profile” since the initiative was launched in 2003 to assist national or local authorities to reflect on and review their language education policies.

In recent months, work has been going on simultaneously on a number of Profiles at various stages in the process. The Profiles for the Slovak Republic, Poland and Ireland have been approved by the ministries of Education, whereas those for Austria and Val d’Aosta are nearing completion following a Round Table with the stakeholders. One-week study visits have been made to Armenia and Sheffield − the first city to apply − during which a team of experts met the main local partners in language education to discuss the needs and challenges outlined in their respective Country/City Reports, and the process has just begun in Estonia. Luxembourg, whose Profile was completed in 2006, has now launched a new action plan based on the outcomes of the Profile.

A transversal analysis of the Profiles carried out so far, which will include proposals for future development, is currently under way.

Country/Regional Reports and Profiles are published by the Council of Europe and made available online (www.coe.int/lang − Section ‘Language Education Policy Profiles’).

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An intergovernmental conference on the Languages of Schooling within a European Framework for Languages of Education: Learning, Teaching, Assessment was held in Prague from 8 to 10 November 2007 with the generous support of the Czech authorities. The Conference Report is available online.

The conference began and ended with a reassertion of the central nature of the values underlying this project: languages play a determining role in maintaining cultural diversity, democracy, citizenship and social inclusion. The development of competences in the languages of schooling is essential to ensuring that all learners have equal access to education − a fundamental right. Education systems, which are responsible for guaranteeing equal opportunities for learners regardless of their situation or origin, face very real challenges.

Identifying language competences

Comparative analyses of teaching curricula in primary and secondary education carried out in a number of European countries before the conference enabled the participants to view the curricula of their respective countries from a different angle. The work done to identify the language competences referred to implicitly or explicitly in curricula for teaching a language as a subject or for other school subjects in the next stage of the project will make it possible to define the minimum competences required for succeeding at school. These minimum competences constitute a fundamental right that education systems must be able to guarantee to learners.

As these competences vary according to the level and nature of each education system, the conference concluded that the competence descriptors should be compiled by target group and, in due course, made available in the form of a bank of descriptors on the Council of Europe website.

The existence of competence descriptors for the languages of schooling will make it easier to assess the observable and measurable part of these competences more objectively. However, it is important to stress in the Reference Framework that although some of the aims of the languages of schooling, such as building a personal and collective identity, developing an awareness of the aesthetic values of languages and literature, and participating in a democracy, society, are not always measurable, they are fundamental.

Future orientation

2008 will be a year of research and expert meetings to prepare for drafting the central part of the Common European Framework of Reference for the Languages of Education and various accompanying modules, including a number of series of competence descriptors for the languages of schooling (language both as a subject and as a vehicle for teaching other subjects). Special attention will be paid to the specific needs of migrant children and children from disadvantaged environments.

This project has been supported by generous contributions from Norway and the Czech Republic.

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The follow-up to the Forum on The Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) and the development of language policies : challenges and responsibilities is presented in the Report which is accompanied by a summary of the responses at European level that the Language Policy Division intends to give to the needs indicated by the member states for the exploitation of the full potential of the CEFR (Follow-up activities). Both documents are available online. The Forum received very generous support from France and the Netherlands.

Forthcoming developments: a Committee of Ministers Recommendation

The Division has prepared a draft Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to the member states concerning the use of the CEFR and the promotion of plurilingualism, which will be discussed in the near future.

Further concrete follow-up initiatives

In response to another request from the representatives of the member States at the Forum, a seminar took recently place in Amsterdam with the support of the Institution for Curriculum Development of The Netherlands
(SLO) to define the contents and structure of a Guide for the development and implementation of curricula for plurilingual and intercultural education.

Another important seminar will be organised with the support of the CIEP (Centre international d’études pédagogiques) in Sèvres (France) as a follow-up to the Forum: a cross-language rating seminar (English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish). The calibrated samples of oral production (by learners aged 15-16) that will result from this seminar will be extremely useful for teacher and examiner training sessions to be held in the context of the upcoming European Indicator of language competence activity of the European Union (based on the CEFR standards). This Indicator will measure, every three years, the language competences of learners at the end of compulsory education.

The Language Policy Division is officially represented on the Advisory Board for the European Indicator of Language Competence, and a Memorandum of Understanding on the use of the Council of Europe’s CEFR may be signed in the near future.

Illustrative material is available on the website of the Language Policy Division (www.coe.int/portfolio).

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In response to the many requests for guidance on linking national and European examinations to the CEFR proficiency levels, the Division has prepared and piloted a draft Manual, accompanied by illustrative material for several languages on DVD, CD-Rom and on the web.

The amendments made as a result of feedback gathered through a three-year pilot phase in 38 institutions in 20 countries are now being co-ordinated.

Thanks to a generous offer by the University of Cambridge ESOL (English for speakers of other languages), a seminar on case studies concerning the use of the Manual was organised in December 2007. The exchanges showed that the Manual has been very useful even in its draft form; some proposals to enrich the official version were put forward. A compendium of case studies concerning the use of the Manual will also be published

A further seminar, this time offered by CITO (Institute for Assessment in the Netherlands), took place in Athens in May 2008 at a major conference of experts in the field of language assessment. The seminar discussed ways of confirming the validity and reliability of examinations. These methods, presented in a compendium published by the Language Policy Division, represent another major contribution to the good use of common European standards.

The cross-language rating seminar mentioned above will provide valuable additional material illustrating the CEFR standards to that which is already available. This will prove extremely useful in implementing the procedures for calibrating examinations proposed in the Manual.

National and international teams are working on reference level descriptors, a task consisting of making a detailed description of the linguistic and cultural elements proper to each language enabling learners to perform the tasks defining each of the six CEFR levels.

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The European Language Portfolio Validation Committee of the Council of Europe has so far accredited 93 different validated models, including electronic models, which illustrates the success of this instrument.

Europass: a growing success

According to statistics supplied by the CEDEFOP/European Commission, the most popular documents are the CV and the ELP examples and templates of the (Council of Europe) Language Passport. 35 485 Language Passports were completed on line in 2007, an increase of almost 7 000 compared with 2006, and 185 298 examples and 114 371 templates were downloaded (an increase of 23% and 26% respectively).

Since the launch of Europass in December 2004, the site, which includes the Council of Europe language proficiency scale contained in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and also in the European Language Portfolio, has been visited over nine million times.

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Two versions of the Autobiography are currently being finalised (primary and post-primary/adults), on the basis of the results of the pre-piloting exercise (11 trials in 6 countries). The revised versions, which are currently being piloted in 14 different countries, will be illustrated with graphic material. They will be accompanied by a Concept Paper explaining the rationale and theories behind the Autobiographies to non-specialist educationalists. These three documents should be published in autumn 2008.

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A growing number of states are introducing procedures for testing knowledge of the language and society of the host country for those applying for residence permits or citizenship, often basing the language training they provide and the language tests themselves on the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). However, the levels of competence required vary greatly and reference to the CEFR is not necessarily a guarantee either of appropriate assessment or of adequate training.

The Language Policy Division therefore sent out a questionnaire to member states to find out what their conditions of entry are (residence permits, citizenship, etc.) and establish the conditions and content of the training available to migrants. The replies to this survey are currently being examined and will be made public at the end of June.

In order to address issues related to the linguistic integration of adult migrants with the states concerned, an intergovernmental seminar for the states concerned will be organised by the Language Policy Division in co-operation with the Migration Division in Strasbourg on 26 and 27 June 2008.

This seminar is particularly designed for i) persons involved in decisions concerning language requirements for adult migrants and ii) those responsible for language training and language tests for adult migrants.

A number of reference documents have been commissioned, in particular a Concept Paper, analyses of the CEFR’s potential for policies for the linguistic integration of migrants, quality assurance in training and in language tests. Case studies illustrate example of good practice concerning teaching and training related to adult migrants.

This project on adult migrants is supported by voluntary contributions from Ireland and Luxembourg.

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A seminar involving ten member states was organised in 2007, with the support of the Finnish authorities. It addressed decision-makers, teachers and teacher trainers as well as textbook developers, all involved in the teaching of the Romani language. The draft Curriculum Framework for Romani was introduced and a piloting phase was launched. This Framework is designed for age groups 4-14 years and is to be adapted to local contexts and needs. Action plans were presented by participants. The Framework as well as related material are available online in English and in Romani.

As a follow-up a wider seminar will be organised in November 2008, open to all member states concerned by the teaching of Romani, during which the results of the piloting phase will be presented, as well as a kit composed of elements of ELP models (European Language Portfolio), aimed at teachers of Romani.

Interested persons with policy responsibilities are invited to contact the Language Policy Division (decs-lang@coe.int).

The European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) is directly involved and is following this work with interest.

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Special issue “World Programme for Human Rights Education” ( February 2008)
All issues

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The Conference "10 Years of Protecting National Minorities and Regional or Minority Languages: Institutions and Impact” (Strasbourg, 11 March 2008) marked the 10th anniversaries of the entry into force of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on 1 February and 1 March 1998 respectively.

Press release
Opening address by Deputy Secretary General, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio
Commissioner for Human Rights’ keynote speech
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

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This Day celebrates the contribution of the Roma people to the cultural diversity and richness of Europe. One of the main objectives of the Council of Europe, as an intergovernmental organisation, is to encourage member states to adopt a comprehensive approach to Roma and Travellers issues.

Recommendation (2008)5 on Roma and/or Travellers in Europe, adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 20 February 2008, gives clear guidelines for the drafting of national strategies for Roma, including language issues.

Press release
Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)5
of the Committee of Ministers to member states
on policies for Roma and/or Travellers in Europe
Webpage of the Roma and Travellers

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