Employment and languages

In the recent Communication "Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture - The European Commission's contribution to the Leaders' meeting in Gothenburg, 17 November 2017", language learning has emerged as one of the European Commission's priorities. Over the last years, the Commission has worked together with the Member States to identify successful strategies for language learning in multilingual settings and to facilitate the sharing of good practices in the field.

A Lunchtime debate about how language learning should be promoted in schools will take place in Brussels on 6 February 2018, 12:00-14:00. The session will be opened by Kristina Cunningham (Multilingualism Policy, Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission), who will discuss the role of languages in the European Education Area. It will be followed by a presentation of two new reports that offer a comprehensive view on literacy and language learning and that take into account the challenges and opportunities facing schools and teachers, including the need to accommodate increasing linguistic diversity in the classrooms:

• Rethinking language education in schools
• Language teaching and learning in multilingual classrooms (presenting many examples of ECML projects)

From the EC contract partner ECORYS, François Staring and Laurie Day will help present the reports. Three external experts, Dina Mehmedbegovic, Kristin Brogan and Deirdre Kirwan will be asked to comment and kick off the discussion. In the past years, Kristin and Deirdre have been involved in several projects, think tanks, training and consultancy initiatives and/or conferences of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe.

The event is open to staff from other DGs of the European Commission and it will be web-streamed.

Find out more

• EC web section dedicated to multilingual classrooms
• ECML training and consultancy “Young migrants – Supporting multilingual classrooms”

Related ECML projects and thematic collection

• A Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures: Competences and Resources (FREPA) (2012)
• Collaborative community approach to migrant education – A virtual open course for educators (EDUCOMIGRANT) (2015)
• Content-based teaching + Plurilingual/-cultural awareness (ConBaT+) ( (2011)
• Language skills for successful subject learning – CEFR linked descriptors for mathematics and history/civics (Language Descriptors) (2015)
• Majority language instruction as basis for plurilingual education (MARILLE) (2011)
• Teaching the language of schooling in the context of diversity – Study materials for teacher development (Maledive) (2015)
• Thematic collection on Migration and language education

The coordinating team of the project, Language for work – Tools for professional development (LfW) held its expert meeting in Graz on 7^th and 8^th December 2017. With it the team closed a very busy and eventful year and prepared the floor for the activities of the project’s final year.

A printed exemplar of the Language for Work – a quick guide. How to help adult migrants develop work-related development of language skills welcomed the team at ECML. Members and interested persons will find the English version on the project’s website. Versions in French and German will be soon online. Versions in further languages have been arranged. Members are invited to translate the Quick Guide into ‘their’ languages and disseminate it. If you can support the dissemination of this practical tool for professionals to support the linguistic integration of migrants, please contact the team at lfwnetwork@ecml.at for a template and any support needed. In addition to the Quick Guide, two other sets of guidelines for, respectively, decision-makers and staff in public services (including labour market administration) are ready in German. They aim at supporting social services to lower barriers when communicating with migrants. An English version as basis for further translations will be ready at the beginning of 2018. Interested members are welcome to translate and disseminate these guidelines as well.

In 2017 the team has been involved in a series of events to progress and disseminate the project and Network. The central event was the network meeting held in Graz on 1^st and 2^nd June. This attracted 26 experts from 16 countries including Canada and the Russian Federation (Moscow State Linguistic University). The participants provided examples of practice for the compendium of ways to support the development of work-related L2 skills, advised the team in central issues such as how to structure the tools for professional development. The team was also invited to various national and internationals events to present the LfW project and network: e. g.  symposia such the UN Language, the Sustainable Development Goals, and Vulnerable Populations, New York, and the meeting on integration for the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees, of the agency the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Geneva, both in May; and The Changing Context of Migration and LESLLA , in Portland Oregon, in August. Such prominent invitations as well as the numerous publications give evidence that work-related second language development is an increasingly recognised field and the network with it.

The project’s main event next year will be the final workshop in Graz on 23^rd and 24^th October 2018, where the team will present the following tools to advance practitioners’ professional development

• A quick guide, How to help adult migrants develop work-related language skills
• Guidelines for decision-makers and staff in public services to facilitate communication with migrant clients

• Ways to support work-related language development, including a compendium of practice examples
• Overview of practitioner competences indicated for different types of support
• Language for Work Network resource centre

This workshop will offer networking opportunities with experts (including teacher trainers working in the fields of adult second language learning and vocational education and training; researchers with an interest in work-related language development; national skills policy makers; workforce development professionals; employer and trade union representatives). Participants to this event are selected by the national agencies, so colleagues interested in attending should contact their national agency. If you want information about how to do this, please contact the project team at lfwnetwork@ecml.at

Between now and October 2018 a busy time awaits the LfW team, to finalise the project’s products.

In the meantime we wish you a peaceful Christmas and a Good New year with this picture of Graz in advent.

Quick Guide

Language for Work Network website

by Matilde Grünhage Monetti, coordinator of Language for Work (LfW) (http://languageforwork.ecml.at)

At initiative of Petra Elser, LfW-Network member, I was invited to participate in a multiplier event for the COMBI project in Donostia, in the Basque region of Spain, on 6^th and 7^th June.

The project Communication competences for migrants and disadvantaged background learners in bilingual work environments is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. COMBI partners are acting in various officially bilingual regions in Europe. The once dominant languages of these regions have been minoritised through the hegemonic language policy of the nation-states – I prefer to speak of “minoritised” languages and not “minority” languages.  In this sense the COMBI languages (Basque, Welsh, Frisian, Swedish in parts of Finland and the Sicilian dialects) are representative of many more in Europe.

The issue of these minoritised languages is particularly relevant in today’s context of migration, demographic change and the shortage of local staff in health and social care. Health and social care sectors across Europe have become heavily dependent on migrant staff. In bilingual regions these migrant workers face the double challenge of having to learn to at least a certain degree of proficiency both languages of the host country. It is to be expected that the older people they care for, in particular people with dementia, may react better to the language of their childhood: Basque, Welsh, dialect, etc., while other interlocutors and the environment in general may speak predominantly the “national” language.

The COMBI project therefore wants to provide vocational teachers in the health care sector and minority language teachers with innovative tools aiming at developing the language skills in the minority language migrants need for working in the health care sector (www.combiproject.eu).

For the event in Donostia I chose to present the Quick guide, since it encourages reflection on the essentials of L2 learning and offers advice and practical tips, how to support migrants develop work-related language skills. Each statement was illustrated with mini case-studies provided by Network members from all over Europe (http://languageforwork.ecml.at/Portals).

The meeting was held in Basque and in the project language, English. From the partners’ contributions emerged the different status of the minoritised language in the various countries due to historical developments. In the fields of policies next to the very functional approach of Finland with its focus on individuals as workforce, the Basque provider KABIA brought humanistic dimensions into the discussion talking about principles of care, linguistic equality, responsibility and social justice.

In the discussions the same issue emerged which was discussed at the Network Meeting in Graz (1st and 2^nd June): language and communication as shared responsibility of all actors involved. To echo the title of a manual produced by the Swedish colleagues of ArbetSam: Better language means better care and therefore higher quality, which is an asset for the whole society (http://www.aldrecentrum.se/......pdf).

Another common theme was the shift of focus from teaching to learning and a growing interest for non-formal and informal arrangements, equally discussed in Graz.  Another commonality is the growing interest for reflective and affective dimensions of learning. Particularly effective were the practical examples by other guest speakers: Cathrin Thomas, Arbeiterwohlfahrt, Bielfeld, Germany, presented some of her phonetic exercises and two French-Basque colleagues, Etcharry Formation Dévelopment, Ustaritz, illustrated their holistic training approach. Finally the concept of translanguaging was vividly illustrated by the practical examples of the methodology used by Banaiz Bagara Elkartea in their Basque language courses, which is particularly effective in bilingual situations. The aim is not to train two monolinguals in one person, but language users who can draw on their entire linguistic repertoire: The languages in question are not treated as separate entities; the transition from one to the other is fluid.

A remarkable sociological insight on the employment rate of migrants in the Basque countries was presented at the conference:  The number of women in work is higher than the number of men. Most of these women come from South America and work as domestic help in private households without social insurance.

The event itself was a good example of translanguaging with fluid transition between Basque, English, Castillian, and many more European languages!

I would like to close with an homage to the great Sicilian poet, Ignazio Buttitta (1899-1997), who has often written on the loss of his native “minoritized” language:

*****

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