June 2011

A summary of the news for June.

Final conference of MELT project in October

The MELT (Multilingual Early Language Transmission) project is aiming at the strengthening of linguistic diversity in the pre-school sector (children aged 0 - 4) and in particular at awareness-raising of parents and teachers in that sector. Over the last two years four language communities worked in close partnership with each other: the Frisian language in Fryslân, the Swedish language in Finland, the Welsh language in Wales and, the Breton language in Brittany.

The international closing conference of the MELT project will take place on Thursday 6 October, 2011 in the charming city of Brussels. This final conference is jointly organised by the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, a department of the Fryske Akademy (Fryslân, the Netherlands), Folkhälsan (Swedish language community in Finland), The Welsh Language Board (Wales, UK), the Divskouarn (Brittany , France) and the Region Council of Brittany (Brittany, France).

Some speakers at the conference are:

• Kinga GAL (European Parliament, Co-chair of Intergroup EP for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages)
• Alexey Kozhemyakov (Council of Europe, Expert Human and Linguistic Rights, Head of the secretariat of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages)
• Jannewietske de Vries (Fryslân, the Netherlands, The Frisian Minister of Finance, Recreation and Tourism, and Language and Culture)
• Lena Louarn (Brittany, France, Vice-president for languages of Brittany)
• Annick de Houwer (Belgium, Expert Early Bilingualism Developments “Early Bilingual Development and the Role of Input and Attitudes.”
• Hywel Jones (Wales,UK, Chief Executive of Mudiad Meithrin, that provides various training opportunities to provisions staff, volunteers and parents in Welsh-medium playgroups)
• Gunilla Holm (Finland, Expert on education for daycare pedagogies at the bilingual Helsinki University)

Various products, all translated into eight languages, presented at this conference:

• A toolkit (a sort of handbook) for teachers of nurseries and pre-schools to improve their skills towards multilingual language development of children aged 0-4 years.
• An awarenessraising brochure aimed at young parents dealing with questions about bilingual or multilingual upbringing in a minority language setting.
• A research paper with theoretical background on early language learning in a multilingual environment and best practices and strategies in immersing children in a minority language.

The conference will focus on the achieved results and products so far, the successes, recommendations and the challenges for the future of Multilingual Early Language Transmission. We invite members of the MELT project, NPLD members, members of the European Parliament, Council of Europe members, researchers, experts, policy makers, practitioners and interested others to the conference. We aim to provide opportunities for discussion, further research and future collaborations to continue a sustainable multilingual line from pre-school to primary and secondary schools and the conscious choice of parents and practitioners to speak and use the minority language in the daily life.

If you are interested in attending this conference, please send us an email. As of July you can find a registration form on the MELT website, for further information on the MELT project, please visit www.meltproject.eu.