RML2future Press releases

Network for Multilingualism visits Carinthia

What can the Carinthian Slovenes learn from other minorities in Europe, in the field of education? Which new impulses can the Carinthian Slovenes offer to other European minorities?

These questions were addressed on Tuesday the 21^st of January – as the Network for Multilingualism and Linguistic Diversity in Europe – “RML2future”- had a meeting in Klagenfurt/Celovec with representatives of the Carinthian Slovenes. The network “RML2future” is a cooperation of six partners from all over Europe – headed by FUEN (Federal Union of European Nationalities).

The network, which is supported by the European Commission and the region of Trentino-South Tyrol, deals with all aspects of language use amongst the autochthonous minorities in Europe.

For example, the German-speaking Community in Belgium was attracted as expert for language certification. Everyone will know the Pisa-test – however in Belgium they developed a specific Pisa-procedure of their own for the school students of the German-speaking Community. As a result they have very important data that concentrate only on the specific situation of students from the minority.

Also the Council of the Carinthian Slovenes is involved in the network project. By virtue of good examples of kindergarten with education in two, three and four languages, the Carinthian Slovenes were picked out to work based on the existing initiatives. The comparison between pre-school education in the different multilingual parts of the Alpe-Adria region is another aspect the network will work on in the coming two years. The network has set as its objective to answer the question how these experiences can be used for the benefit of the other circa 300 minorities in Europe.

More information: www.rml2future.eu

Contact:
Janko Kulmesch: +43-6645364685
Judith Walde: +49 (0) 173 9936731

Information about the network RML2future

The network RML2future is dedicated to the promotion of multilingualism and linguistic diversity in Europe, actively involving regional and minority languages (RML).

The main aim of the network is to promote the Europe objective of multilingualism, namely that each European citizen learns his own mother language and two additional languages. The network does so by using the European regional and minority languages and trying to exploit this resource of natural bilingualism and multilingualism. The potential of multilingual regions should be used in order to reach the European objective and in regard to the value of multilingualism and its positive effect for the preservation of linguistic diversity.

In order to use the regional potential for education the network, in cooperation between practitioners, experts and decision makers, wants to create language-friendly environments in the regions, including the minority languages. It does so by building up know-how in the field of language planning and language policy amongst those people who are involved.

For this on a regular basis expert conferences are organised within the three years duration of the network, which is supported by the European Union.