Project overview

This project will develop new methods for teachers in primary schools that make use of and value migrant languages in the class room. In addition these methods will focus on combining languages in the class room, as opposed to teaching each language separately.

Duration: 01-09-2017 - 31/08/2021

Funding: Provinsje Fryslân, SIA

This project will serve as a pilot study for the development of multilingual teaching methods for different types of secondary schools. Research will be conducted into the implementation of new teaching methods and the effects it has on the language attitudes and the effectiveness of teachers.

Duration: 01/09/2017 - 31/08/2018

Funding: Provinsje Fryslân

The project aims at clarifying why teachers need to teach diversity, how to teach in diversity and how to manage diversity.

Duration: 11/2016 – 11/2018

Funding: Erasmus+ programme of the European Union

The goals of COMBI project are to develop innovative and inclusive/systemic practices and methods focused on acquiring communication competences in the languages required in the workplace. It takes into consideration the multilingual reality of European regions.

Duration: 01/11/2016-01/05/2018

Funding: DG Education and Culture – Erasmus+, KA2 Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education

The Mercator Research Center was requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education to conduct a study on minority languages and education with a focus on vocational education.

Bildts is a minority language spoken in the Northwestern part of the province of Fryslân in the Netherlands. It has some 6,000 native speakers. Currently, Bildts does not have official recognition as a minority language in the Netherlands, although it receives support from both the province and the local municipality.

LangOER was a 3-year network (January 2014 - December 2016) that addressed the questions: How can less used languages, including Regional and Minority languages, benefit from Open Educational Practices? How can Open Educational Resources (OER) be shaped to foster linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe? What policies are favourable to the uptake of quality OER in less used language communities?

From 2013 untill 2015, Lysbeth Jongbloed-Faber from Mercator Research Centre researched Frisian language use on social media. The expectation was that social media offer chances for minority languages to increase their vitality.

The LEARNMe (Language and Education Addressed through Research and Networking by Mercator) project was an EU funded project by the Mercator Network providing policy guidelines and recommendations for policy stakeholders in the field as well as for practitioners.