1. Languages matter – now more than ever!
European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe
ECML
Centre européen pour les langues vivantes du Conseil de l‘Europe
CELV
Europäisches Fremdsprachenzentrum des Europarates
EFSZ
 Good morning, Finland!
On behalf of the ECML, I would like to add my words of welcome to those of Ms. Elina Turunen and at the same time to thank Elina for organizing this event and thank the Finnish-Russian school for once again hosting the event. I would also like to say a special thank you to our two experts, Merce and Kristin, who had such a wonderful time delivering a similar (but not identical workshop) last year in Finland, that they’ve come back for more!! I’d also like to say hi to our GB representative, Paula Mattila who has worked tirelessly over the years to promote quality language education and the work of the ECML. I hope that this workshop will complement the developments taking place in Finland and in particular the new curriculum, which places such importance on cultural and linguistic diversity, on language as essential for learning in all subjects – and in so doing, very much mirrors the philosophy of the Council of Europe – which I will briefly talk to you about in a moment.
As I said, this is the 2nd time Finland has requested an SMC workshop. The first time the focus was developing a whole-school approach to valuing and supporting linguistic and cultural diversity
This time we have different participants and a very slightly different focus –the focus is firmly on classroom teachers but not just language teachers, rather with the emphasis on the fact that all teachers have a role to play in supporting the development of their learners’ linguistic repertoires. I can see from the list of participants that we have a really rich mixture of different kinds of teachers, from different sectors and that we also have a head teacher and a Masters student - this range of expertise means that you all have so much to give and to learn from each other.
My purpose today is to place this workshop in the broader picture of the work of the ECML and of the wider CoE. I will talk to you about the CoE’s philosophy for language education – a philosophy very much reflected in the new Finnish curriculum – tell you about the various areas in which the ECML works, what our focus is in the current programme, and point out some other interesting resources you might want to have a look at – ones that will not be covered in this 2 day workshop.

3. The Council of Europe
47 MEMBER STATES 820 MILLION EUROPEANS

4. Council of Europe
Established on 5 May 1949 (Treaty of London) by 10 states
Comprises 47 member states today
Based in Strasbourg (France)
Intergovernmental political Organisation, founded on three main values: human rights, democracy and the rule of law
47 MEMBER STATES 820 MILLION EUROPEANS

5. The Council of Europe and languages
Language education contributing to democracy
Curricula and evaluation

6. European Centre for Modern Languages
Unique centre promoting excellence in language education
4-year programmes
National authorities
European project teams
ECML Secretariat

7. ECML: a unique centre for language education
ECML key services
Addressing national needs through Training and Consultancy
Building networks and partnerships within and beyond Europe
Providing practical resources for language professionals
Future-proofing through innovative projects
Encouraging language learning through the European Day of Languages

8. Targeted, tailored support to address national challenges
ECML training and consultancy for member states
Targeted, tailored support to address national challenges
Supporting Multilingual Classrooms*
Plurilingual education
Testing and Assessment (RELANG)*
Quality education in Romani
Quality assurance in language and citizenship courses
Language teacher education
Content and Language Integrated Learning
Use of ICT in support of language teaching and learning
Plurilingual and intercultural learning through mobility
Using the European Language Portfolio
* in cooperation with the European Commission

9. ECML Thematic Areas

13. Keep in touch!