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Mercator Network Newsletter 120


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Number 120 - March 2016

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The Mercator newsletter informs you about the news of the five Mercator Network partners:
Mercator Research Centre of the Fryske Akademy
Mercator Media Mercator Legislation / CUSC-UB
Stockholm University Research Institute for Linguistics
Newsletter focusing on multilingual regions dealing with regional or minority languages, but also immigrant languages and smaller state languages, with emphasis on language needs arising from migration and globalisation. Submit your subscription request, comments or suggestions to: Johanneke Buning (Fryske Akademy).
NEWS
Dissemination of the LEARNMe White Paper by the Mercator Network continues
Council of Europe visits the North of the Netherlands
Utrecht University students visit Frisia
Manifesto for a Plurilingual Spain released
Employees of the Dutch Tax Information Line not allowed to speak Frisian
ECML launches its new programme 2016-2019 "Languages at the heart of learning"
Over 90 resources now available on the LangOER LRE gallery
Welsh government unwilling to carry out language regulations
Mercator Research Centre publishes two new Regional Dossiers
EVENTS
EVENTS

NEWS

Dissemination by the Mercator Network of the LEARNMe White Paper continues

  Elin Jones presents the LEARNMe White Paper to Paul Bilbao

By: Jorrit Huizinga

The Mercator project partners continue to disseminate the LEARNMe White Paper on Linguistic Diversity among students, government officials, NGOs and international bodies like the ECRML’s Committee of Experts. In the picture, Elin Jones of Aberystwyth University presents the White Paper to Paul Bilbao, Secretary-General of Kontsueila (the association of Basque Social Movements).

The full and abridged English versions are already available on the Mercator Network website.

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Council of Europe visits the North of the Netherlands

  Area in which Low Saxon is spoken

March 3 - A delegation of the Council of Europe visited the North of Netherlands to discuss the status of ’t Bildts, Low Saxon and Frisian. Advocates of’t Bilds, a language spoken in a northern municipality of the Netherlands, are working to get the language mentioned in the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Low Saxon is mentioned in the Charter, but as a "Regional Language", under the Charter's "Part II". Advocates of this languages are trying to get it mentioned under "Part III". This would provide the language with additional protection and a status similar status to Frisian, the only official minority language in the Netherlands.

Low Saxon is spoken in the northwest of Germany and adjacent territories of The Netherlands and Denmark, by approximately 1.8 million people (Unesco Atlas). The Language's advocates have been working to improve the language's status since 1997. A study from the University of Groningen shows that Low Saxon meets 37 of the criteria formulated by the Charter, more than sufficient to deserve such a status. Even so, a mentioning under Part III seems unlikely for now: last year the Dutch minster of Interior and Kingdom Relations, Ronald Plasterk, argued that National (as opposed to European) recognition should suffice for Low Saxon. Fleur Gräper, a representative of the province of Groningen, stated that the talks with the European delegation were largely procedural, and that the main aim was to put together a convenant that everyone can agree on.

Source: Dagblad van het Noorden

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Utrecht University students visit Frisia

 

By: Rixt van Dongera

March 23 - Students following the Master’s programme ‘Language, Humanities, and Society’ at the University of Utrecht visited Fryslân, in order to learn more about applying language policy in practice. During their stay they had the opportunity to gain insight into the workings of a variety of organisations dealing with language policy as well as ask the representatives of these organizations questions about their daily work.

The organisations that were involved in this visit were: the Fryske Akademy, Mercator European Research Centre, Afûk, Cedin and the Province of Fryslân. All these organisations focus on the application of Frisian language policy, but each in a different manner. Whereas the Fryske Akademy and the Mercator European Research Centre focus on academic research that can form, guide and evaluate language policy, the Province of Fryslân writes and implements language policy on the basis of for example such research and asks organisations such as the Afûk to create tools (books, serious games, etc.) that assist in reaching the objectives of language policy in Fryslân. Cedin is an example of an organisation that advises teachers on how to develop and implement multilingual language policies in practice, with an equivalent position for the Frisian language.

The wide range of activities which these organisations presented on, provided the students with a varied and complete overview of how language policy in the Province of Fryslân comes about. All parties involved therefore look back at a highly successful visit, and will attempt to repeat this excursion next year.

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Manifesto for a Plurilingual Spain released

 

February 25 - Spanish academics, politicians, writers, historians and journalists from all over Spain, jointly read the Manifesto for the Acknowledgement of the Linguistic Plurality of Spain.

The Manifesto was made available in the seven legally-recognized languages of Spain (Spanish, Basque, Catalan – also known in Valencia as Valencian – Occitan – known as Aranese – Galician, Asturian and Aragonese). It argues that more action at the State level is required to recognize the multilingual nature of the country.

The Manifesto is the result of three working sessions entitled “Interdisciplinary Seminars for Plurilingualism in Spain” held over the past two years (Madrid, September 2014; Barcelona, April 2015; and Valencia, November 2015), which served to gather the most prominent experts from different disciplines – law, sociolinguistics, political sciences, etc. – to lay the foundations for the Manifesto.

The Manifesto is available here.

Source: npld.eu

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Employees of the Dutch Tax Information Line not allowed to speak Frisian

 

March 12 - This matter came to light when a caller and a receptionist discovered they both spoke Frisian, the Netherland's only officially recognized minority language. On the caller's suggestion that they switch to Frisian, the receptionist stated that he was not allowed to do so.

In reply to a subsequent inquiry by a Frisian newspaper, the Dutch Tax Information Line has confirmed the recptionist's statement: "The Dutch tax service is not located in Frisia and thus we are not obliged to speak Frisian. Therefore we have decided to probibit the use of the language altogether".

Interestingly, the Dutch tax service does offer forms in three other languages - English, German and Polish. It is allowed to fill out the forms these languages and information on the website is available in these languages as well.

MP Lutz Jacobi has raised the issue in parliament.

Source: It Nijs

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ECML launches its new programme 2016-2019 "Languages at the heart of learning"

 

Since the beginning of January ECML has started its new programme: Languages at the heart of learning.

The programme has two main axes: development and mediation. The development strand focuses on creating solutions to the challenges in language education, that have been identified by our member states. Through the mediation strand, member states can adapt and implement existing ECML resources, access ECML expertise through training and consultancy and national support events, celebrate the European Day of Languages and take part in conferences, webinars and colloquia.

If you would like to find out more about the new ECML programme and how to get involved, please visit the website.

Source: ECML Newsletter

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Over 90 resources now available on the LangOER LRE gallery

  LangOER logo

March 16 - LangOER has added an impressive collection of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to the gallery of The Learning Resource Exchange (LRE). All materials provided concern language learning and are freely available.

LangOER is a European network focused on enhancing the linguistic and cultural components of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Open Educational Practices (OEP). The Learning Resource Exchange (LRE) is an online repository for learning content, developed with the aim to more easily exchange high quality learning resources that ‘travel well’ and can be used by teachers in different countries.

Visit the gallery here

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Welsh government unwilling to carry out language regulations

 

27 February 2016 - The Welsh government officially objects to its obligation to offer specific services in Welsh. Oddly enough, the Welsh government itself introduced these obligations, and even placed them before parliament.

Two obligations are under discussion. One is the obligation to offer all public documents in both Welsh and English. The other is the obligation to do all intercom communications in these two languages: Welsh first.

Welsh language movement Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg has asked prime minister Carwyn Jones en language commissioner Meri Huws to explain the situation. According to the movement's chariman, Manon Elin, the government's attitude shows that authorities like to say they support the Welsh Language, but when push comes to shove their support vanishes like frost under the morning sun.

Language commissioner Meri Huws is currently looking into the matter.

Source: It Nijs

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Mercator Research Centre publishes two new Regional Dossiers

 

The second edition of the dossier The Ladin language in education in Italy was compiled by Roland Verra. The second edition of The Sorbian language in education in Germany has been compiled by Dr. Beate Brezan (head of the WITAJ-Sprachzentrum) and Meto Nowak (personal assistant at the Brandenburg Ministry of Sciences, Research and Cultural Affairs).

Download the dossiers here:

Ladin in Italy 2nd
Sorbian in Germany 2nd

Mercator's Regional Dossiers concern education of minority languages in Europe. Topics under discussion include a country's education system in general, a country's policy with regards to education of its minority languages, language use in schools, difficulties faced by teachers and policy makers, and the solutions they have come up with. All dossiers are written by experts in Mercator's network and edited by the research centre in Ljouwert. All dossiers can be found on the Mercator Research Centre website.

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Interesting Links

Message from Irina Bukova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the International Mother Tongue’s Day 2016

Closing the gap Opportunities for distance education to benefit adult learners in higher education.

Language Documentation and Conservation in Europe, document based on the knowledge brought together during the Endangered Languages in Europe conference (ELE 2013), organised by CIDLeS. Edited by Vera Ferreira and Peter Bouda.

Language and Employability, report by the The Joint Research Centre that explores the relation between knowledge of languages and employability.

Peter Lang welcomes new proposals to the book series: Language, Migration and Identity
Proposals may concern migrant communities and their language practices, studies of language practices in multilingual educational settings, and case studies of identity building among migrants through language use.

Preserve rare languages to spread benefits of multilingualism, says expert
Prof Antonella Sorace says children should be encouraged to learn less common languages to prevent them from dying out.

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EVENTS

7-8 April 2016, Medenine (TN): First International Conference on Language Teaching Pedagogy, hosted by The Higher Institute of Human Sciences, Medenine


8-9 April 2016, Nottingham (UK): Diachronic Corpora, Genre, and Language Change. International conference, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.


22-24 April 2016, Alba (RO): Conference on Linguistic and Intercultural Education. International conference, CIEL Centre, University of Alba Iulia. Call deadline: 31 March 2016


19-20 May 2016, Tarragona (ES): First DEAiA Spring Institute:Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in the 21st century, – Call deadline 2 April 2016


20 May 2016, London (UK): Language and Conflict: Politics of Language and Identity across Contexts. Workshop, hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), aimed at exploring the intersection of language and conflict on several levels, stressing the role of language and identity.


6-8 June 2016, Glasgow (UK): SOILLSE Conference 2016: Small Language Planning: Communities in Crisis. International conference, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.


23-25 June 2016, Madrid (ES): International Conference on Applied Linguistics to Language Teaching, hosted by Nebrija University. Conference for researchers and teachers, both experts and novices, to share the results of studies and didactic experiences.


20 June – 01 July 2016, Bozen/Bolzano (IT) and Grisons (CH): Summer School on Human Rights, Minorities and Diversity Management - Focus 2016: “Integration / Disintegration”. two-week programme for all those interested in minority rights and diversity management.


22-25 June 2016, Bangkok (TH): 15th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology (ICLASP15). Hosted by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).


30 June-1 July 2016, Lancaster (UK): BAAL Language Learning and Teaching SIG conference. Hosted by Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Lancaster.


1, 2 July 2016, Alcacena (PT): Endangered Languages and Language Varieties in the Iberian Peninsula – Call deadline 31 March 2016, Summer School by SISSA


5 July 2016, Cambridge (UK): Cambridge Postgraduate Workshop on Endangered Languages and Cultures – Call deadline 30 April 2016


7-15 July 2016, Rome (IT): Trieste Encounters on Cognitive Science (TEX), focus: language learning, Summer School by SISSA


25 July – 5 August 2016, Aarhus (DK): Language Description and Linguistic Fieldwork, Summer School by Aarhus University, Registration: 1 February until 15 March 2016.


4-5 Augustus 2016, Potsdam (GE): Sentence Processing in Multilingual and Other Less Commonly Studied Populations, international workshop on sentence processing in multilingual and other less commonly studied populations.


1-3 September 2016, Budapest (HU): 1st International Conference on Sociolinguistics (ICS-1), hosted by Eötvös Lorónd University.


11, 13 September 2016, Ghent (BE): Conference on Multilingualism 2016, hosted by Ghent University.


16, 17 September 2016, Zadar (HR): Perspectives on Language Sustainability: Discourses, Policies and Practices, conference dedicated to the presentation and examination of theoretically and empirically founded approaches to language endangerment. Call deadline 15 April 2016


19, 20 September 2016, Tromsø (NO): Heritage Language Acquisition: Breaking New Ground in Methodology and Domains of Inquiry, workshop hosted by the Arctic University of Norway. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together researchers from around the world who work on heritage language acquisition and processing from any theoretical linguistic perspective.


22-23 September 2016, Stockholm (SW): Explorations in Ethnography, Language and Communication, biannual conference for the Linguistic Ethnography Forum affiliated with the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL). Call deadline: 1 April 2016


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