March 2021
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ELEN publishes open letter regarding the Diwan Breton schools

The European Language Equality Network (ELEN) published an open letter to the French Government regarding the Diwan Breton immersion schools. This international NGO for the protection and development of European lesser-used languages expresses its full support to the Diwan Breton bilingual immersion schools, and calls on the French state to immediately reverse its decision to reduce the amount of teaching hours in Breton at the secondary and college level. ELEN writes that "in order to begin to address the systemic discrimination by the French state against Breton and all regional languages, we call on France to 1) ratify the European Charter for Regional of Minority Languages, 2) fully support the Paul Molac Bill on regional languages and 3) bring forward legislation for a Breton Language Act (...)".

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Catalan-Romani publication to raise awareness

The Directorate-General for Language Policy in Catalonia published a new Catalan-Romani Visual Guide, an innovative tool aimed at raising awareness and knowledge of the Romani population in Catalonia. The guide offers visual information of everyday contexts such as leisure, work, etc. It is also explained in Romani and Catalan as a way to learn the basic vocabulary in Romani and also Catalan.

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Minority language speakers left behind in pandemic

Global research shows that children who were already disadvantaged have suffered the most from the pandemic school closures and the education gap between the have and have-nots has grown bigger. “Emergency education materials are usually provided only in major national or international languages. This has proved to be a problem in many countries,” says Prof Dr Premsrirat (Mahidol University).

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INTERESTING LINKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EUROPE

● Welsh McDonalds drive-thru menus 'should be bilingual'

● Mulgimaa takes centre stage as Estonia embraces its Finno-Ugric family

● Motion in favor of the unity of the language in Ibiza City Council is approved

● Supermarket director sacked after Welsh language jibes

● Factsheet about Lower Sorbian added to the Wiki on Minority Language Learning

● Article: On the history of Mercator partner CUSC-UB in Romanesque Studies

● New resource website for professionals involved in sign language teaching and assessment

● Linguistic discrimination continues in Valencian public health

● Cornish couple feel 'discriminated against' over wedding language

● Family given permission for Irish language phrase on gravestone that had been banned

18th International Conference on Minority Languages

Let's continue to strengthen the international network of minority languages! The 18th International Conference on Minority Languages takes place from 24-26 March, 2021 and is organised by the NOR Research Group of the Faculty for Social and Communication Sciences (University of the Basque Country). The theme of this biennual event is 'In the long run' and it offers an interesting programme with inspiring keynote sessions on translanguaging in school context, speaker subjectivity, the invisibility of linguistic diversity online and linguistic justice. More information on the programme and registration can be found on the event's website.

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Call for more presence of Valencian in education

The Catalan organisation Plataforma per la Llengua calls for more vehicular presence of Valencian in the education system. The aim must be to favor the normal use of Valencian and not to comply with percentages. "The new law 4/2018 (allowing teachers to apply their own language program) may jeopardise the necessary support for teaching in Valencian, which is a minority language."

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Author Frisian-Japanese dictionary passed away

The Japanese professor Hitoshi Kodami died in early february at the age of 89. Kodami had a major interest in the Western Frisian language, the language of Friesland, the Netherlands. The professor came to Leeuwarden every summer for almost ten years to work on his dictionary at the Fryske Akademy. He published his Frisian-Japanese dictionary in 2004.

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Mother Language Day

The History of International Mother Language Day!

Saterfriesisch

Sater Frisian is threatened with extinction

Testers wanted for the game BabelAR by VirtuLApp!

The Erasmus+ project VirtuLapp (Virtual Language App) develops tools for any multilingual situation in the classroom. The team is looking for more testers to play BabelAR, the game! Pupils (7-12 y/o) work together in this collaborative-multiplayer AR-game, which aims to show them the value of the language(s) they possess and to activate their language knowledge.

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Mobile Speech Lab to study dialects and articulation

The University of Groningen created the mobile language laboratory 'Spraaklab' ('Speechlab'). It comprises a workplace for researchers and a sound-proofed room where state-of-the-art recording equipment can be used to obtain high-quality research data. The lab will be used for linguistic research, for example on patients with Parkinson’s disease and during public events.

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German youth initiative for multilingual signs in Poland

The Association of the Youth of the German Minority in Poland (BJDM) has launched the campaign '#wPolsceusiebie #inPolendaheim #naszHeimat', with which it wants to send a media-effective signal for multilingual place-name signs in minority regions. As part of the initiative, the BJDM is asking minority communities in Europe to post photos of multilingual place-name signs using the hashtags mentioned above.

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LSP Teachers' Community of Practice online

The EU project CATAPULT (Computer-Assisted Training And Platforms to Upskill Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) teachers) publishes a newsletter on a regular base. The latest edition, with information on the forthcoming third edition of their LSP MOOC, is now available here. Language professionals are also invited to provide feedback on the free web platforms produced by the project.

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INTERESTING LINKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORLD

● Language and social justice [Australia]

● Mother language in Iran another excuse for injustice against minorities [Iran]

● Step by step, China gives less and less room to minoritised languages [China]

● Facebook makes multilingual speech recognition model open source [www]

● Retrenchments will affect broadcast of minority languages programming [South Africa]

● California launches multilingual vaccine ad campaign [USA]

● International Year of Indigenous Languages in the Arctic

● Controversies around endangered indigenous languages in the Canadian Arctic [Canada]

● Rising Voices’ Activismo Lenguas initiative receives International Mother Language Award [Bangladesh]

● Rajasthan govt school students can opt for third language [India]

Linguistics conference NEWCON online

The international linguistics conference New Contexts for the Use of Minoritized Languages/Varieties (NEWCON) will be held on 26-28 May 2021 as an online event. NEWCON is organised by the University of Zadar, SOAS/University of London, Mercator European Research Centre and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation (CIDLes).

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International Symposium on Family Language Policy

The 2nd International Symposium on Family Language Policy on 25-26 November 2021 (Paris, or online) will focus on the role of orality and language transmission under the theoretical framework of the family language policy. It is organised by the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco) and the University of Galatasaray. Call for Papers deadline: 1 May 2021.

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Invitation webinar: ' Towards Plurilingual Professional Identities'

Mercator European Research Centre (Fryske Akademy) and the Enrope consortium cordially invite you to participate in the webinar (Multiplier Event) 'Towards Plurilingual Professional Identities' on Tuesday 16 March 2021 (13:30-17:15 CET). This event offers a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience on a range of topics, including the professional identity development in plurilingual research, networking and collaboration, the need for bibliographic references to publications in languages other than English, language development and education in multilingual contexts, and more. For more information and registration (free!), please visit the ENROPE website.
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INTERESTING EVENTS

2021, NEW DATES T.B.A., Zurich (Switzerland)
Symposium on Research Methods in Language Attitudes
Organised by the University of Zurich

2021, NEW DATES T.B.A., Valetta (Malta)
International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education 2020 (ICMME4)
Organised by the University of Malta.

ONLINE: 15 - 16 March 2021, Siegen (DE)
ENROPE Online Study Phase
Organised by the ENROPE consortium, hosted by the University of Siegen.

ONLINE: 16 March 2021, Leeuwarden (NL))
ENROPE webinar (Multiplier Event) 'Towards Plurilingual Professional Identities'
Organised by the ENROPE consortium, hosted by the Mercator European Research Centre.

ONLINE: 18 - 19 March 2021, Bergen (Norway)
Multilingualism On My Mind 2021 (MOMM2021): Exploring Multilingualism in Education
Organised by the University of Bergen.

ONLINE: 24 - 26 March 2021, Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain)
18th International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML XVIII)
Organised by the University of the Basque Country.

5-7 May 2021, Murcia (Spain)
13th International GLAT Congress: Le monde connecté et les approches interculturelles: vers un nouveau paradigme des frontières ?
Organised by the University of Murcia

10 - 12 May 2021, Paris (France)
Minority languages spoken or signed and inclusive spaces
Organised by INSHEA.

ONLINE: 26 - 28 May 2021, Zadar (Croatia)
New Contexts for the Use of Minoritized Languages/Varieties (NEWCON 2020)
Organised by the Linguistics Department of the University of Zadar,the SOAS World Languages Institute, Mercator European Research Centre and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation (CIDLes).

28 May 2021, Siegen (Germany)
ENROPE multiplier event: Professional Identity Development for Beginning Junior Researchers
Organised by by the ENROPE consortium, hosted by the University of Siegen.

June 2021, Groningen (Netherlands)
TABU - International linguistics conference
Organised by Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen.

ONLINE: 9 - 11 June 2021, Brighton (United Kingdom)
Approaches to Migration, Language & Identity 2021
Organised by University of Sussex.

30 June 2021 - 3 July 2021, Barcelona (Spain)
30th Conference of the European Second Language Association (EuroSLA)
Organised by University of Barcelona/ EuroSLA.

5 - 8 July 2021, Athens (Greece)
14th Annual International Conference on Languages & Linguistics
Hosted by the Athens Institute for Education and Research.

ONLINE: 10 - 14 July 2021, Warsaw (Poland)
International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB13)
Organised by the University of Warsaw.

15 - 20 August 2021, Groningen (the Netherlands)
AILA 2020: World Congress of Applied Linguistics
Organised by the University of Groningen, Multilingual Matters and others.

6 - 8 September 2021, Graz (Austria)
Language Teacher Psychology Conference 2021 (LTP)
Organised by the University of Graz.

8 - 9 September 2021, Warsaw (Poland))
Conference: Conventional and unconventional ways of transmitting and revitalizing minoritized languages: in European context and beyond
Organised by the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Science.

25 - 26 November 2021, Paris (France))
2nd International Symposium on Family Language Policy
Deadline Call for Papers: 1 May 2021
Organised by the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco) and the University of Galatasaray.

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