European Union Commission urged to promote language learning

European Day of Languages : European Union Commission urged to promote language learning

The event was open to the public and saw a number of events take place in and around the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, including an exhibition of language projects, music and singing in different languages and multilingual games. 26 September has been designated European Day of Languages by the Council of Europe and the Commission since 2001’s Year of Languages.

The Commission set up a High Level Group on Multilingualism in 2005, which also presented its report.

Issues:
The recommendation, from the report of High Level Group on Multilingualism, came as the EU executive used its special languages day to announce the launch of an online ‘Have Your Say’ external corner and consultationexternal on multilingualism.
The launch represents the beginning of a new phase in the Commission’s consultation process in this area, with the focus switching from governments, experts and companies to other stakeholders, including the general public.
Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban said that the EU executive “has a clear role in promoting multilingualism”, adding that it has to know the needs and expectations of citizens, stakeholders, companies and member states in order to “define the best way forward”.
“Our aim is to give the Union a new generation of multilingual citizens,” he added.
The latest consultation process will run until 15 November 2007, with the results made available in early 2008. It will lead to a policy statement in the form of a Communication on Multilingualism in May 2008, Orban added.

Meanwhile, the High Level Group’s reportl recommends:
* Launching information campaigns among parents, young people, educational and cultural organisations and decision-makers to raise awareness of language learning.
* Including language in sports and extra-curricular activities for young people as a way of increasing motivation to learn – as well as more television programmes encouraging language learning, particularly through subtitles.
* Creating pan-European benchmarks to professionalise the training of third-country languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Russian.
* Developing masters and higher education programmes in specialised areas of translation and interpretation such as the legal sphere.

Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban described the recommendations as “very valuable”.

Positions:
Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban, referring to the High Level Group’s report, said: “This report can inspire concrete projects, for instance, research into aspects of multilingualism where there are currently gaps in our knowledge.” He cited the promotion of language learning outside formal education settings, encouraging language learning at an older age and the integration of linguistic minorities as areas requiring more attention.”
He added: “My strong belief is that, in order to be effective, language learning should meet at least three criteria. It should be attractive, it should start at an early age, and it should continue during one’s whole life.”
An afternoon seminar presented members of the High Level Group with illustrations of how the media can play a role in encouraging people to learn foreign languages.

Steven Fawkes, former education officer at the BBC, said that the issue was “bigger than education”, as language learning goes beyond the classroom to become a key element in other social activities such as sport. He commended the BBC’s efforts to promote languages via multilingual programmes on TV, radio and the internet but noted that the issue of fees was always going to come back on the agenda. “Why pay the BBC fee if I don’t watch it?” is the recurring question in Britain, he said.

Claire Doutriaux, a producer at Arte TV, showed an episode of her Karambolage external flagship programme, which seeks to entertain viewers with Franco-German cultural subtleties. Like all other programmes at Arte, Karambolage is bilingual but the difficulty lies in finding a story-telling “drama” that works for both language versions. “We have to juggle with languages, images and translation to make it happen,” she explained.

Jaana Sormunen, executive producer at Finnish broadcasting company YLE, presented an educational and entertainment programme, La Casa en España, which, for the second year running, has attracted numerous viewers in Finland. The TV game saw competitors study Spanish at home for three months and then take speaking exams in the studio and during weekend trips to Spain. The show is part of YLE’s language-learning drive, which includes a virtual language school, The Language Gateexternal , in which users can practice languages with interactive exercises using audio, video and text.

Frédéric Simon, managing editor at EurActiv.com, presented EurActiv’s unique approach to EU political news coverage with the launch in 2004 of several partner websites in central and eastern Europe, each covering EU affairs in their own language. The CrossLingual Network, Simon said, aimed to meet demand for independent information on European policies in those countries where the democratic deficit with the EU elites in Brussels is made worse as a result of the language barrier. He then presented the two most recent additions to the network, with the launch of EurActiv Franceexternal in May and EurActiv Turkey in September.

Debate centred on the issue of TV subtitling versus dubbing with one participant pointing out that subtitled programmes do not score high audience levels in France.
He was contradicted by Jaana Sormunen, who said that viewers in Finland massively protested when the American TV series The Bold and the Beautiful was presented in a dubbed version. Conference moderator Wim De Wielder, from the Dutch-speaking Belgian television channel VRT confirmed this, saying that Flemish viewers are accustomed to subtitling and have found it a useful way to learn English.

Latest & next steps:
* 25 Sept. 2007: Commission adopted report on the implementation of the Action Plan 2004-2006 Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity.
* 26 Sept. 2007: Commission held European Day of Languages and launched online ‘Have Your Say’ corner and consultation on multilingualism.
* 26 Sept. 2007: High Level Group on Multilingualism presented its report.
* 15 Nov. 2007: Latest Commission consultation process ends.
* Nov. 2007: Business Forum on Multilingualism in Lisbon.
* May 2008: Commission releases Communication on Multilingualism.