July 2009
A summary of the news for July.
- PfD conference in Ljouwert / Leeuwarden
- Mercator Research Centre receives subsidy for Antillean toddler’s project
PfD conference in Ljouwert / Leeuwarden
The yearly PfD conference takes place at the Mercator Research Centre, in Ljouwert / Leeuwarden in Fryslân (The Netherlands) on 30/31 October 2009. The conference’s aim is to bring together academic experts and representatives of local / regional authorities, in order to stress the mutual responsibility for a sound basis of research which gives guidance to a sound implementation of actions. The conference’s goal is to create an agenda of activities, which aim at preserving and fostering Europe’s regional minority languages (RMLs). Particularly welcomed are representatives of regional and local authorities, which bear responsibility for linguistic diversity.
Presentations and workshops will be held on (a) the role and responsibility of regional and local authorities towards the protection and promotion of RMLs and cultures, (b) in how far cultural and linguistic rights can preserve and promote RMLs and cultures, and (c) new trends in formal and informal transmission of cultures and languages.
More information on the PfD conference.
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Mercator Research Centre receives subsidy for Antillean toddler’s project
The municipality of Leeuwarden has granted the Mercator Research Centre subsidies for the Papiamentu – Dutch language developments project “More languages, more opportunities”. On March the 31st of 2009, the project plan for the improvement of bilingual language development of Antillean toddlers was submitted. At the end of June, the official allotment arrived at the Mercator Research Centre / Fryske Akademy. These subsidies will be used to finance the pilot project, which will run for six months in Ljouwert / Leeuwarden. During that period materials as books in Dutch and Papiamentu and an interactive website and the training for the languages coaches will be developed.
The actual start of the project will be in September of this year. Of course there will be a thorough evaluation during and after the pilot period, to examine the quality and appropriateness of the materials and training. This is necessary because there have been no comparable projects for the Antillean target group. After the evaluation the Mercator Research Centre will continue the project in Ljouwert / Leeuwarden and also want to start in other Dutch cities with an Antillean community. The duration of the project per location is two years.
The before mentioned financing (about €90.000) is mostly meant for the active part of the project. Besides this active part, there will also be a research part. The effects of the project will be tested here. Do more languages really offer more opportunities for the target group of this study? The research will be executed by the Mercator Research Centre.
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