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

Visit FYK-exchange Overview Fryslân Language(s) Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning Multilingual education

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Well-known outside Fryslân

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taalkaart

Visit FYK-exchange ContinentLanguages CountPercent Africa Americas Asia Europe Pacific Totals

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Frisian as First Language

Visit FYK-exchange Frisian Language Command 54 % Mother tongue 94 % Understanding 74 % Speaking 65 % Reading 26 % Writing

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Home Languages Ljouwert Dutch Frisian Liwadders English Arabic Kurdish Hindu Berber Papiamentu German Somali Turkish French Vietnamese Chinese Spanish Bosnian Iraqi Italian Farsi Armenian Persian Polish Urdu Albanian Javanese Portuguese Russian Sranan Tongo Greek Serbo-Croatian Moroccan Arabic Malay Indonesian Romanian Tamil Bantu Filipino Catalan Hebrew Punjabi Swedish Kosovo Albanian Lingala Norwegian Ukrainian Kinyarwanda Czech Flemish Dari Georgian Niger-Congo languages Jamaican Patois Nepali Austria German Serbian Sinhala About 60 languages

Visit FYK-exchange 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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Visit FYK-exchange Mercator Research Centre : Documentation and Information Centre. Funded by the European Union : transition into: Information and Research Centre. Funded by the Province of Fryslân and the municipality of Ljouwert/Leeuwarden.

Visit FYK-exchange 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.

Visit FYK-exchange Difference between EU and CoE EU: member states Economic Federation Council of Europe: member states Human rights development Gateway to European Union (European Charter on RML, Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities)

Visit FYK-exchange 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

Visit FYK-exchange M 7 M Differences in size Catalan Galician Luxemburgish Catalan (I) Saterfrisian Cornish

Visit FYK-exchange Mercator’s activities Publications & databases Research Network of Schools Network of Teacher Trainings Institutes Conferences & seminars Q&A service

Visit FYK-exchange Research reports Newsletters Regional dossiers series - 40 language descriptions - Update every 5-7 years - Online available Publications

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Network of Schools > 90 members > 30 language communities 15 EU member states News bulletins Website: - teaching materials - projects

Visit FYK-exchange 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. Conferences in 2009

Visit FYK-exchange 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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Visit FYK-exchange 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.

Visit FYK-exchange Why bilingual education? Right on education in mother tongue Pedagogical development Social integration Cultural participation Language maintenance

Visit FYK-exchange 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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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

Visit FYK-exchange 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

Visit FYK-exchange Why multilingual education? (1) Bilingualism has positive effects on language and educational developments of children. The level of skills in the mother tongue predicts the level of skills in the second language quite well. Promotion of mother tongue helps the mother tongue itself, but also the dominant language. To use time for the minority language does not have a negative effect on the acquisition of the majority language at school.

Visit FYK-exchange Why multilingual education? (2) A minority language is vulnerable and risks to get lost at school. To disrespect the language of the children at school means in fact a disrespect of the children themselves. To give the children a dynamic identity and social opportunities for the future.

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