Transcript Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning “a service at hand” Cor van der Meer & Tjallien Kalsbeek Fryske Akademy Visit FYK-exchange 28-07-2009

Mercator European Research Centre on
Multilingualism and Language Learning
“a service at hand”
Cor van der Meer & Tjallien Kalsbeek
Fryske Akademy
Visit FYK-exchange 28-07-2009
Overview
• Fryslân
• Language(s)
• Mercator European Research Centre on
Multilingualism and Language Learning
• Multilingual education
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Fryslân in history
Early
Middle ages
Today
Late
Middle ages
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Well-known outside Fryslân
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870
taalkaart
3.200
1.500
26.300
342.000
11.500
634.000
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Continent
Languages
Count
Percent
Africa
2 092
30.3
Americas
1 002
14.5
Asia
2 269
32.8
Europe
239
3.5
Pacific
1 310
19.0
Totals
6 912
100.0
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Visit FYK-exchange 28-07-2009
Frisian as First Language
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2000
Fries
Nederlands
Frisian Language Command
• 54 % Mother tongue
• 94 % Understanding
• 74 % Speaking
• 65 % Reading
• 26 % Writing
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Visit FYK-exchange 28-07-2009
Home Languages Ljouwert
Dutch
Frisian
Liwadders
English
Arabic
Kurdish
Hindu
Berber
Papiamentu
German
Somali
Turkish
French
Vietnamese
Chinese
Spanish
Bosnian
Iraqi
Italian
Farsi
Armenian
Punjabi
Persian
Swedish
Polish
Kosovo Albanian
Urdu
Lingala
Albanian
Norwegian
Javanese
Ukrainian
Portuguese
Kinyarwanda
Russian
Czech
Sranan Tongo
Flemish
Greek
Dari
Serbo-Croatian
Georgian
Moroccan Arabic
Niger-Congo languages
Malay
Jamaican Patois
Indonesian
Nepali
Romanian
Austria German
Tamil
Serbian
Bantu
Sinhala
Filipino
Catalan
Hebrew
About 60 languages
Mercator Network
Mercator Research Centre “lead partner”
4 Partner institutes
• Aberystwyth – University of Wales
• Barcelona – Ciemen
• Budapest – Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Ekilstuna (Sweden) – Mälardalen University
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Mercator?
Gerardus Mercator
1512-1594
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Mercator Research Centre
1987-2006:
• Documentation and Information Centre.
• Funded by the European Union.
2007-2008: transition into:
• Information and Research Centre.
• Funded by the Province of Fryslân and the
municipality of Ljouwert/Leeuwarden.
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Position within Europe
• European Union
- Communication on Multilingualism
• Council of Europe
- Language Policy Development
• Cooperation and Partnerships
Mercator Network, EBLUL, NPLD, ECML (Graz),
ECMI (Flensburg), regional authorities and
institutes.
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Difference between EU and CoE
EU: 1957
• 27 member states
• Economic Federation
Council of Europe: 1949
• 47 member states
• Human rights development
• Gateway to European Union (European Charter on
RML, Framework Convention for the protection of
National Minorities)
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EU-based typology
Unique minority languages
• Welsh, Frisian, Galician
• Catalan (E, I, F), Basque (E, F)
Minority languages with a “kin-state”
• German (B, Dk, F, I), French (I), Slovene (Au, I)
• Ukrainian (Sl, Pol)
Special cases
• Romani, Yiddish
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Differences in size
200 2.000 20.000
280.000
2M
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7M
Mercator’s activities
• Publications & databases
• Research
• Network of Schools
• Network of Teacher Trainings Institutes
• Conferences & seminars
• Q&A service
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Publications
• Research reports
• Newsletters
• Regional dossiers series
- 40 language descriptions
- Update every 5-7 years
- Online available
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Visit FYK-exchange 28-07-2009
Network of Schools
• > 90 members
• > 30 language communities
• 15 EU member states
• News bulletins
• Website:
- teaching materials
- projects
http://www.networkofschools.org/
Conferences in 2009
• April: “Multilingualism, Regional and Minority Languages:
Paradigms for the languages of the wider world”, London,
organised in cooperation with CETL, UCL and SOAS.
• June: “Pedagogy and Didactics in the Multilingual
Classroom”, Ljouwert, organised in cooperation with the
Basque Ministry of Education.
• September: Mercator Network conference, “Developments in
the curriculum of language teaching and learning, at primary
school level and in secondary education”, Ljouwert.
• October: Partnership for Diversity conference, “The
challenging relationship between transmission of cultures and
transmission of languages”, Ljouwert, organised in
cooperation with EBLUL and combined with the European
song contest Liet International.
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Fields of research
• Added value of multilingualism and multilingual
education.
• New technologies; distant language (and
culture) learning.
• Application of the CEFR and the ELP in Europe.
• Informal learning and promotion of reading in
families & households.
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Old Theory
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New Theory
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Definitions
• Monolingual education: dominant language only.
• Bilingual/Trilingual education: two or more
languages taught as a subject and used as a
medium of instruction.
• Immersion: use of minority (or: lesser used
language) as only medium of instruction. The
dominant language taught as a subject.
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Why bilingual education?
• Right on education in mother tongue
• Pedagogical development
• Social integration
• Cultural participation
• Language maintenance
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Models of bilingual education
• Immersion
• Systematic split of time
• Systematic split of subjects
• One person/one language
• [Minority language as a subject only]
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Visit FYK-exchange 28-07-2009
Trilingual education (1)
• Model used:
- Group 1-6: 50 % Frisian, 50 % Dutch
- Group 7-8: 40 % Frisian, 40 % Dutch, 20% English
• Systematic use of Frisian, Dutch and English as
a medium of instruction.
• Interactive language education
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Trilingual education (2)
• Results:
- Good quality of Frisian
- Results of Dutch at the same level at the end of
grade 8 as all other pupils in the Netherlands
- Results for English slightly better, but not
significantly
- Self consciousness in English better, but not
significantly
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Visit FYK-exchange 28-07-2009
www.mercator-research.eu
[email protected]
Mersi dit
Tak
Danke
Thank you
Dzãczi
Haristo
Hvala
Tige tank
Teşekkür ederim
Köszönöm
Ful toank
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