EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES 

Riga, Blackheads House

26 September, 2004

Programme

Festivity Hall

10.00 – 10.20 Opening of the conference.

Address by Diana Rumpite, the Latvian Co-ordinator of the European Day of Languages.

Greetings.

Juris Radzevics, Minister of Education and Science of Latvia.

Eckart Herold, Ambassador of Germany in Latvia.

Pierre Barthe, educational attache of the French embassy in Latvia.

Josef Weitenberg, Goethe Institute Riga, Teaching of German language co-ordinator in Latvia.

10.20 – 10.30 Conclusion of the programme of the European Commission “European Label for Innovative Projects in Language Teaching and Learning 2004”. 

Baiba Sermulina, Program Co-ordinator, Academic Programme Agency.

Helena Kalve, Chairperson of the Judging Committee for awarding “European Label for Innovative Innitiatives in Language Teaching and Learning”.

10.30 – 11.00 Development of Languages: Responsibility of the EU or its Member States?”

Prof. Ina Druviete, MP, University of Latvia.

11.00 – 11.30 Promoting Linguistic Diversity.

Denis Cunningham (Australia), President of the World Federation of Language Teachers (FIPLV).

11.30 – 12.00 Innovations in Language Acquisition.

Prof. Ingrida Kramina, University of Latvia.

12.00 – 12.20 Intercultural Communicative Competence and its Development in Language Classrooms.

Assist.prof. Mara Dirba, University of Latvia.

12.20 – 12.40 The System of Language Proficiency Levels in Latvia and Europe.

Ieva Zuicena, leading researcher, Institute of the Latvian Language, University of Latvia.

12.40 – 13.00 Language, Politics and Education.

Evija Papule, Ministry of Education and Science.

13.00 – 13.10 The Goals and Activities of the Latvian Association of Language Teachers (LALT).

Assist.prof. Diana Rumpite, President of the Latvian Association of Language Teachers (LALT).

13.10 – 14.00 “United in the Song”. Concert of schoolchildren ensembles and choirs in different languages.

Libekas Hall

14.00 – 15.00 Get-together.

Exhibition. Schoolchildren Achievements in Learning Languages.

Book sale.

Organizers: Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Latvia

                    State Language commission under the auspices of the President

                    The Latvian Association of Language Teachers (LALT)

Supporters: Information Office of the Council of Europe in Latvia

                    Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Latvia

                   State Language commission under the auspices of the President

                   Translation and terminology centre

Informative supporters: Latvian Radio

                    Newspaper “Diena”

                   Newspaper “Izglītība un Kultūra”

 

REFLECTIONS ON THE EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES, LATVIA, 2004

Language is the treasure to be recognized, cherished and used

Diāna Rumpīte

The Latvian Coordinator of the European Day of Languages

For the fourth consecutive year, millions of people celebrate the European Day of Languages. In Latvia, this tradition started during the European Year of Languages 2001, when events were held in 45 countries to acknowledge language diversity and the importance of knowing several languages. The goal of these events is to draw public attention to the fact that the knowledge of more than one language is necessary to ensure proper communication and to the need of respect for all the languages existing in the world. In Europe alone, more than 200 languages are spoken. It is a treasure that has to be recognized, used and cherished. Mastering a new language enables us not only to positively influence our careers but to get a better understanding of each other, as well, by overcoming cultural differences.

The main event in Latvia took place on 26^th September, at the House of Blackheads, eliciting the attendance of about 300 language teachers, experts and other interested people from all over Latvia. The conference participants were greeted by Ms. Guna Sprinovska, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia; Mr. Eckart Herold, Ambassador of Germany in Latvia; Mr. Pierre Barthe, Educational Attache of the French Embassy in Latvia; and Mr. Josef Weitenberg, Goethe Institute’s Coordinator of Teaching of German language in Latvia. Certificates of the European Commission programme “European Label for Innovative Projects in Language Teaching and Learning 2004” were awarded by Ms. Baiba Sermuliņa, Programme Coordinator of the Academic Programme Agency, and Ms. Helēna Kalve, Chairwoman of the Judging Committee.

In her opening address, Diāna Rumpīte stressed the importance of teacher in the process of mastering the language. 

That is why the main event of the European Day of Languages in Latvia was intended, among other things, as a celebration of language teachers who work very hard to help pupils and students improve their skills in various languages. This event could truly become a celebration, in large part, because it took place in the fabulous Festivity Hall of the Blackheads House.

Gunta Sprinovska, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science, made a point by saying that language learning at all ages is one of the conditions of life-long learning. By learning languages other than our own we deepen our understanding of our native tongue.In today’s multinational society the language situation is rapidly changing. Every European now needs to know several languages, and multilingualism is gradually becoming a routine occurrence. Every language is a unique cultural legacy, a basis for ethnic identity, and it must be preserved. United in diversity – it is also a position of the Ministry of Education and Science on the issue of language preservation.

Eckart Herold, the Ambassador of Germany in Latvia, talked in his speech about language and religion as the two most important factors uniting the people, but also separating them at the same time. Everybody has to consistently work on the development of their language potential. It is of special importance to consider three factors: learning one’s native tongue should be everybody’s first and foremost task; everybody must learn the official language of the country in which they live, since it plays an important part in the integration process; foreign languages pose a challenge for everybody to become part of more global context.

Pierre Barthe, Educational Attache of the French Embassy in Latvia, stressed how important it is to start learning languages as early in life as possible. Children are most successful when it comes to learning languages. There should be strong motivation and favourable circumstances conducive to learning languages at school since that is where those most likely to preserve and develop the language are to be found. Foreign languages, Mr. Barthe said, constitute one of the factors of civilization, and languages bring together nations and their cultures.

Mr. Josef Weitenberg of Goethe Institute in Riga emphasized that knowledge of languages substantially broadens one’s horizon and with each next language the learning becomes easier.  Of special importance is an early start of language learning, realization of language diversity, and learning of languages as a life-long process.

The lecture given by Ms. Ina Druviete, MP and a professor of the University of Latvia, entitled “Development of Languages: Responsibility of the EU or its Member States?” was received with great interest.

There, it was mentioned that after the 1^st of May the group of eleven EU languages was increased by another nine, and now 20 languages have achieved the status of the official language of the European Union. An important question to ask: how is this status going to affect the official language of each Member State, the basic policy being the preservation of every language and its identity. Various programs and recommendations have been developed in order to preserve and strengthen the language. Notwithstanding the number of people representing it and its economic value, every culture has to be protected.  Languages of EU Member States differ greatly in terms of the number of people speaking in each of them: the most spoken language is German, followed by English, French, Italian, Spanish and only then, taking the sixth spot, comes Polish – the language of one of the new Member States. Slovak, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Slovenian languages each has about two to three million speakers. Languages with over a million speakers are not considered endangered, therefore the languages of the three Baltic States should not fall under this category. However, the “principal languages” of the EU are also widely used in the status of the second or foreign language. As far as the second language skills are concerned, English is spoken by 31% of Europeans, French – by 12%, German – by 8%, and Spanish – by 4%. It is important to keep in mind, however, that each country has its own language traditions, culture, and the language development trend, all of which play a significant part in increasing the staying power of the language. Professor Druviete also talked about the fact that virtually in all European countries there are institutions that deal with improving the quality of language, one of their main tasks being the language development. The status of the European official language provides for great advantages when it comes to language development in each respective country. Aspects such as terminology, standardization, teaching methods and learning of second language are developed in accordance with the existing traditions and, at the same time, are based on new technologies. The professor emphasized the fact that there are languages which, in spite of all the efforts to protect them, may become extinct. It is therefore critically important to ensure favourable conditions for the competition that all languages could benefit from.

FIPLV President pointed out that linguistic wealth across the globe is threatened by a shift towards English as an international lingua franca and other languages perceived to be of prestige. Such language choice is evident in the areas of policy and practice. The challenge facing languages globally is reflected by moves to limit the array of languages on offer in schools, as language death emerges as a threat in society and education.

In his speech Denis Cunningham specifically dwelt on linguistic diversity in society and education. He stated that there were around 6000 languages in 2000 (Crystal 2000). Others placed the figure as low as 3000 or as high as 10000. The discrepancy may appear extreme, but debate continues on the integrity of languages and the demarcation between language, pidgin, Creole and dialect, among other factors. In an ideal world, 6000 languages spread evenly across 6 billion potential speakers could lead to 1 million speakers of each, ensuring the continuity of all languages, but the world is not like that.

Denis Cunningham explained that the reality is very different, with a continuum of language strength stretching between English at one end and, at the other, the next language to disappear from the globe. The vitality of a language depends not only on the number of speakers but on a range of factors that impact on language choice. There are more native speakers of Chinese across the globe, for example, but one still speaks of English as the global language. Arguably, the biggest current threat to linguistic wealth globally is English, but it is not alone. In some countries, the value of languages and the belief in multilingualism are integral to the ethos of the nation. It was specified that this is less evident in some Anglophone countries where the promotion of linguistic diversity has been countered by retorts like “why should I learn another language (in Australia) as I’m never going to travel anywhere else?” and “the whole world speaks English!” However, everyone does not speak English. Crystal places the figure at one quarter (Crystal 1999).

As to the death of languages, Denis Cunningham said, that the stark reality is that some of these languages remain ‘alive’ only as long as the sole remaining speaker of the language lives. Put another way, in some cases the death of an individual will constitute the death of yet another language. This was the situation for 51 of the world’s languages, with 28 being in Australia (Crystal 1999). According to Crystal’s data, one language is disappearing on average every two weeks (Crystal 2000). This is tragic and underlines the fragility with which some languages exist.

In his speech Denis Cunningham also highlighted the history, role and goals of the World Federation of Language Teachers (FIPLV) and pointed out some of its main activities.

FIPLV, founded in Paris in 1931, is the only international multilingual association of teachers of living languages. It has Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) ‘operational relations’ status with UNESCO and has representation as an NGO with the Council of Europe.

In 2004, national multilingual member associations come from the following countries: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Uruguay. As a result, FIPLV has several hundred thousand individual members.

The aims and priorities of FIPLV are:

1) to promote the teaching and learning of living languages in order to facilitate and improve communication, understanding, cooperation and friendly relations between all peoples of the world;

•Linguapax

In association with UNESCO, FIPLV actively participated in initiatives of the International Linguapax Committee on the theme of the contribution of language teaching to Peace. This priority is firmly founded in the thesis of the Delors Report of UNESCO, Learning: the Treasure Within, with its four principles, or pillars of education:

•learning to know

•learning to do

•learning to live together, learning to live with others

•learning to be

The wide possibilities of the collaboration of teachers of languages are especially significant. Wherever possible, FIPLV activities bring together teachers of all languages taught locally. This has been a desire in the formation of FIPLV Regions and conferences in recent years.

The informative role of the FIPLV website www.fiplv.org as well as its NewsletterFIPLV World Newswas stressed.

2) to develop, support and promote policies designed to diversify the languages taught, to improve the quality of language teaching and make this teaching available to all;

3) to develop the continuity and cohesion of multilingual education in primary, secondary, further, higher and adult education;

4) to improve the professional training and development of future and practising language teachers in all sectors of education;

5) to help and advise on the founding of professional associations of language teachers as unity and membership are particularly Important. The strength of existing associations, the speaker said, should be extended to others in a time where NGOs are predicted to have an increasingly powerful role in international relations.

6) to coordinate and develop the work of its member associations for a mutually beneficial partnership;

7) to encourage members of different language associations in the same country to cooperate with each other to promote the teaching of languages and language policy based on principles of multilingualism;

8) to support nationally and represent internationally the views of member associations.

Much interest was caused by that part of the speech which focused on the largest school In Australia Victorian School of Languages:

Complementing the language curricula of mainstream schools in Victoria (Australia), the Victorian School of Languages (VSL) teaches over 40 languages (excluding English) to almost 14000 school-age students in 720 classes across 34 metropolitan and rural centres.  Some adults are enrolled.  Six of these languages, plus Latin, are taught to another 1300 students via distance mode throughout the state.  The students are generally of school age, but there are some adults enrolled.  In 2004, the languages offered are

Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Auslan, Bengali, Bosnian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maltese, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Pushtu, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovenian, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinya, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese (and Latin by distance mode).

As a result, the VSL may well be “the largest language school in the world” (Merlino 1988).  The school would like to expand this range in response to demand, as the existing courses continue to undergo significant revision - and conversion for online delivery.

The curriculum is prepared by the school for all languages according to the criteria mandated for all (Government) schools.  It is called the Curriculum & Standards Framework II and the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) for the final two years (i.e. Years 11-12).  Post-communicative approaches are in place; these involve eclecticism, multiple intelligences (MI) with an increasing infusion of de Bono theory and the thinking curriculum.  Incorporating a knowledge base, the trend favours a move towards skills-based learning with the desire that lifelong learning skills are developed for a rapidly evolving society.

As intercultural understanding and acceptance of the differences of others must begin with the individual, the multilingual and multicultural environment provided by the Victorian School of Languages offers an excellent model of inter-racial harmony".

In conclusion FIPLV president pointed out that all the possible steps should be taken to stop the anticipated deterioration of the linguistic wealth currently enjoyed across the globe.  The solutions are many and must be put in place immediately.  Global awareness-raising of the issue at all relevant levels - governmental, political, family, community, education, culture, NGO associations, electronic and digital media, to identify but a few - must be undertaken without delay to mobilise a global conscience to protect and retain the world’s languages.

The conference organizers are grateful to the professor of the Faculty of Modern Languages of University of Latvia, Ingrīda Kramiņa, for the presentation of her paper “Innovations in Language Acquisition”.

The professor stressed that the trends in language learning are essentially determined by the language learners themselves, their wishes, and the requirements dictated by the advancement of society.  She presented the statistical analysis of the results of the survey of the students from the Faculty of Modern languages, University of Latvia, summarily illustrating the students’ goals in their language studies.  Likewise, the goals of the students of other universities and colleges, such as Riga Technical University, the Academy of Culture, etc. were described.  Out of the 316 students surveyed, 126 (40%) indicated Latvian as their further language of study; for 98 (31%) students it was English, for 38 (12%) – Russian, for 10 (3,1%) – Danish, for 4 (1,3%) – Finnish, for 4 (1,3%) – Norwegian, for 4 (1,3%) – Swedish, and for 2 (0,6%) – French.  Professor Kramiņa emphasized the importance of considering the social and cultural aspect in communication and that it has to be addressed in language classes.  To be able to use the language in communication, knowledge of the language is not enough.  One must be able to understand the meaning of what has been said and to interpret it accordingly, while at the same time not neglecting the pragmatic aspects of the language as well.  The professor gave a striking and humorous example on misunderstandings that may occur if the context of the situation and the practical application of language is not perceived.

Continuing on what was said by professor Kramiņa, the associate professor of the Faculty of Modern Languages Māra Dirba in her presentation entitled “Intercultural Communicative Competence and its Development in Language Classrooms” stressed the necessity to pay more attention to the development of intercultural competence in language teaching and learning. The UNESCO document “Education in a Multilingual World” (UNESCO, 2003) states that “languages should not be simple linguistic exercises, but opportunities to reflect on other ways of life, other literatures, other customs”.  To become intercultural mediators in multicultural Europe, teachers need to understand intercultural communication.  For this reason, at the Faculty of Modern Languages the future teachers have the course “Intercultural Communication and Learning” included in their curriculum.  Intercultural learning implies the development of a greater openness towards other cultures, the appreciation of cultural diversity, the overcoming of cultural bias and of ethnocentrism.  By the term “culture” we mean not only ethnical/national cultures, but also cultures of companies, generations, gender, family, religious groups and other types of cultures.  Thus, schools and students are also multicultural.  Through an experiment, it was revealed that pupils still do not know the culture of different people groups living in Latvia: the Latvians, Russians, Belorussians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, Roma, and others.  Even many teachers do not know that.  To partially solve the problem, attention-catching, colourful and interesting language teaching materials dealing with multicultural society of Latvia should be designed.  Also, the available textbooks should be made use of.  One of the methods involves presenting intriguing problem situations whereby the pupils are expected to come up with answers in the context of intercultural communication, expressing their personal opinion and comparing that with others.

Moreover, the author pointed out that the European Council publication “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages” (2001) was published without resolution of the problem of establishing levels of attainment in intercultural competence.  But it has to be fully explored in the near future.  Most teachers know how to assess knowledge and skills.  It is more difficult to assess attitudes.  Associate professor Māra Dirba in her work with students has been assessing long-term performance on qualitative basis giving tasks for all themes of the course regularly, and the tasks and students’ self-evaluation were assembled in a “language portfolio”.

The presentation given by Ieva Zuicēna, leading researcher of the University of Latvia’s Institute of the Latvian Language, on the system of language proficiency levels in Latvia and Europe was also especially topical. Ieva Zuicena stressed that learning of a language is a long and complicated process. For practical purposes, it is useful to divide the teaching material into consecutive stages of language proficiency and represent them as parts of an integrated scale. In the document developed by the Council of Europe “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment” a whole section is devoted to scales of language proficiency levels, their types and practical application. The number of language proficiency levels and grades generally depends on the aim to be reached. For example, for teaching purposes, it is better to have a more detailed division of proficiency levels, so that the learners should sooner realize that they are making some progress. In the assessment process, however, an excessively large number of levels may lead to complications. In European countries a six-level system has been established and is currently used, in which the classically adopted basic, medium and highest levels are subdivided into higher and lower grades:

A                                            B                                              C

Basic User                              Independent User                     Proficient User

A1                   A2                   B1                    B2                    C1                   C2

In the book “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment” we find a division of language proficiency levels into three types of scales depending on the purpose and the user of the scale, namely:

1. scales meant for language learners and users (user-oriented);

2. scales meant for testing language proficiency, used by those who assess language skills (assessor-oriented);

3. scales meant for the designers of language examination, also useful in the writing of textbooks, drawing up of curricula, etc. (constructor-oriented).

With the help of these level scales that describe the respective language proficiency it is possible to compare systems of language examinations existing in one country and in various countries. More thought should be given to learning and practical application of CEF at schools and institutions of tertiary education of Latvia.

Moving on with the conference agenda, Diāna Rumpīte, President of the Latvian Association of Language Teachers (LALT), characterized the goals and activities of the association.

It was emphasized that each member of any association of language teachers in Latvia automatically becomes a member of LALT, as well as a member of the World Federation of Language Teachers (FIPLV), since LALT is already a member of FIPLV.  The informative role of the association’s home page www.lvasa.lv was stressed.  It contains, among other things, the materials on the most recent activities of the association – the 9^th International Conference on Creativity “Research on Creativity and its Development” (jointly with the Creativity Centre of Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy) on 12^th November where teachers of languages and other subjects are invited to participate (for more information please visit www.lvasa.lv and www.rpiva.lv), as well as the pupils’ public speaking competition in different languages “Language is the place where minds, souls and humans meet” on 15^th March 2005 (see www.lvasa.lv for more details) and several other activities.  Meanwhile, LALT wants to encourage all schools to submit by 1^st November the information on any events organized locally to celebrate the European Day of Languages.  The information should be sent to anita.vahere@izm.gov.lv for summarization.

As a fitting conclusion of the conference, all of those present in the audience could enjoy the performance in different languages by several song ensembles under the motto “United in Song”.  The performers included groups from Riga Secondary School No. 25, French lyceum and the vocal ensemble “Bella” of the Centre for Children and Youth “Laimīte”.

 

We deeply appreciate Laimdota Trinkuna, Vice President of the Latvian Association of Language Teachers and a teacher of German at Secondary school No. 25, for her work in organizing the concert.

The concert was followed by a friendly get-together, over a cup of coffee, allowing for further discussions on things accomplished and still to be done to advance the learning of languages.

The celebration of the European Day of Languages would not have been possible without the hard work on behalf of its organizers – the Ministry of Education and Science and, in particular, Gunta Arāja, deputy director of the European Integration and Technical Assistance Programmes Coordination Department, and Anita Vahere, senior expert of the International Communications Section of the same Department, as well as the Latvian Association of Language Teachers and the State  Language Commission under the auspices of the President.  We also want to express our thanks to other sponsors who have supported this event financially, by providing media and information services, and otherwise: Information Office of the Council of Europe in Latvia and its director Uldis Krastiņš, Translation and Terminology Centre and its director Māris Baltiņš, the Radio Latvia, newspapers “Diena” (Day) and “Izglītība un Kultūra” (Education and Culture), and Ināra Siņagina, Director of the “Globuss” book store.

Until next year!