May 2021
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France approves 'historic' minority languages bill

The French National Assembly has passed a bill on the protection and promotion of regional languages by 247 votes in favor and 76 against. The approval has been described as 'historic', as it opens the door to implement language immersion through the medium of minoritised languages in public schools, as well as to allow for better funding of immersive, community-run private schools. "In concrete terms, immersion is now possible in public education. The use of Breton in public services, signage, diacritical signs such as Fañch's tildé, everything is now enshrined in a French law," says Paul Molac, Morbihan deputy and a longstanding campaigner for the Breton language, who introduced the bill.

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New reports on Slovakia, Spain and the UK

The Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages has adopted three new reports on the implementation of the Recommendations for Immediate Action on the Slovak Republic, Spain and the United Kingdom. The reports acknowledge efforts made by the authorities to protect regional and minority languages, but also examine shortcomings in this domain.

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Conradh na Gaeilge to challenge NI Executive

Conradh na Gaeilge, the organisation for the Irish Language, is to legally challenge the Northern Ireland Executive over its failure to introduce an Irish language strategy. CnG's president Niall Comer: "It is hard to believe that four years on from a historic High-Court ruling declaring the Executive had failed to fulfill its duties, that we are now returning to the Courts due to non-compliance."

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INTERESTING LINKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EUROPE

● Lockdowns hurt child speech and language skills

● Lithuanian PM promises more information on vaccination in minority languages

● Young Frisian Community: "Dutch Ministry discriminates against status holders and Frisian"

● Initiative aims to preserve the use of non-Belgian languages

● What India can learn from UK Pahari speakers' efforts to preserve their linguistic heritage

● Datasheets on 'Minority Language Protection - ECRML Ratification'

● East Belfast gets first integrated Irish-language pre-school

● Responsibility for Cornish should be in Cornwall

● Basque proposal to influence language policies ready for consensus

● Why comparisons with Wales and Welsh are at the heart of the battle to save the Breton language

● Research article: 'Developing a multilingual identity in the languages classroom'

How do teachers incorporate multilingual practices in teaching?

The Erasmus+ funded project Global Citizenship and Multilingual Competences (GCMC) is carried out by researchers from Austria, UK, Netherlands, Italy, and Germany. The project team invites teachers to take part in their study to better understand how teachers of various subjects (e.g., History, Maths, Biology, etc.) incorporate global citizenship and/or multilingual practices into their teaching practices. The findings from this study will be used to help develop online teacher development resources to support secondary school teachers of all subjects and teacher educators in learning ways to integrate global citizenship education goals and multilingualism into their teaching in sustainable ways. Please take part in a short (approx. 5 min) online survey, or share your insights in a 45-minute (voice-recorded) interview online. Mail to gcmc[at]uni-graz.at to schedule a date at your convenience.
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French-Basque local minority languages charter

In partnership with Euskal Konfederazioa, the French municipality Itxassou is now inviting the rest of the municipalities of the North Basque Country to adhere to the local version of the European charter for minority languages. About thirty municipalities are already interested, the official signature could take place around November or December.

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Georgian Azerbaijanis fight monolingual policies

Ethnic Azerbaijani activists demand that the local Georgian authorities publish their information in the Azerbaijani language. They feel deprived of the right to participate in the decision-making process, because they don't speak Georgian. The lawsuit comes at a time of increasing anti-Azerbaijani sentiment among Georgian ultra-conservative groups.

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Spanish is my Superpower!

Sesame Street tackles prejudice faced by Spanish speakers in U.S.

15 years FSL

A journey into Flemish Sign Language

Dutch regional languages are disappearing rapidly

Professor of Germanic linguistics Arjen Versloot made a graph about the state of autochthonous language, in which one can observe a gradual decline in the Netherlands over the 20th century and a rapid decline in Flanders since the '60s, both heading towards (nearly) ‘zero’ for children born in 2020.

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Blog post about researching language attitudes

Are corpus-assisted discourse studies of social media data a useful way of investigating language attitudes? Find out in this new Strictly Language blogpost by Ethan Kutlu (University of Florida’s Psychology department) and Ruth Kircher (Mercator European Research Centre).

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Webinar: Multilingualism in new digital environments

In the online event 'New technologies, minority languages and linguistic diversity' (12 May) experts will discuss the challenges faced by minority languages in the current context of new digital environments, technology and texts in the English class as well as multilingualism in the classroom. A demonstration will be given of BabelAR, the new multilingual game by VirtuLApp.

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Call for Papers: Endangered Languages and Diaspora

The Foundation for Endangered Languages and the Center for Research and Publication on Arbëresh (QSPA) invites international scholars working on the revitalization of endangered languages and their documentation, to contribute to the conference on 'Endangered Languages and Diaspora', which will take place at the University of Tirana (Albania) on 16-19 December, 2021.

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INTERESTING LINKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORLD

● Taiwan’s indigenous languages available on Wikipedia [Taiwan]

● Virginia offers ASL video chats for COVID-19 call center [USA]

● Thinking language with chocolate [Australia]

● An activist's effort to put his native language Dagbani on the digital map [Ghana]

● Yiddish is now on Duolingo [www]

● Ethnic minority students need more help in learning Chinese as a second language, say gov’t auditors [Hong Kong]

● Saving Nigerian indigenous languages [Nigeria]

● Locals say multilingual vaccine awareness campaign will fight misinformation, encourage action [Canada]

● The keys to multilingual game development [www]

● Inspiring new generations of Balinese language speakers through superheroes and wikis [Indonesia]

'Research & career paths in the field of plurilingualism'

Are you a (junior) researcher, post-doc, supervisor or language teacher? Register now for the free ENROPE webinar on 'Professional Identity Development for Junior Researchers: Research, Career Paths and Future Prospects in the Field of Plurilingualism and Education'. It will take place on Friday 28 May and is hosted by the University of Siegen (DE).

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ECSPM: Multilingualism in Higher Education

The annual ECSPM symposium 'Multilingualism in Higher Education in Europe' (28-29 June 2021) is hosted by the University of Konstanz (DE). Invited experts will present their views and research results regarding the important issue of monolingualism as well as the colonisation of curricular knowledge linked to the internationalisation of universities.

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INTERESTING EVENTS

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

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

ONLINE: 10 May- 30 June (!) 2021, Paris (France)
Minority languages spoken or signed and inclusive spaces
Organised by INSHEA.

ONLINE: 12 May 2021, Basque Country (Spain)
New technologies, minority languages and linguistic diversity
Organised by the Erasmus+ project consortium VirtuLApp.

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).

ONLINE: 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.

ONLINE: 10-11 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.

ONLINE: 28 - 29 June 2021, Konstanz (Germany)
ECSPM symposium 'Multilingualism in Higher Education in Europe'
Organised by University of Konstanz and the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA).

28 June 2021 - 2 July 2021, Barcelona (Spain)
ENROPE Intensive Study Week for young researchers in the field of Plurilingualism and Language Learning
Organised by University Ramon Llull and the ENROPE consortium.

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.

16 - 19 September 2021, Poznań (Poland)
50th Poznań Linguistic Meeting
Organised by the Adam Mickiewicz University

14 - 15 October 2021, Flensburg (Germany)
International conference: Multi-platform and Connecting Communities: Contemporary Challenges for Minority Language Media
Organised by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)

29 - 30 November 2021, Paris (France)
2nd International Symposium on Family Language Policy
Organised by the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco)

ONLINE: 15 - 16 December 2021, Sydney (Australia)
The Value of Languages in a Multilingual World
Organised by Multilingualism Research Centre (MRC)/ Macquarie University

16-19 December 2021, Tirana (Albania)
Conference 'Endangered Languages and Diaspora'
Organised by the Foundation for Endangered Languages and the Center for Research and Publication on Arbëresh

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