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Result
Language certification
The practical example for all this was its implementation and use in the German-speaking Community in Belgium.
The first regional conference of the network RML2future on the subject of language certification and testing language skills took place in Eupen, Belgium, from 8-10 February 2010. The documentation of the regional conference gives an overview of the subject of the conference and on its results.
This report presents amongst other things the procedures and aims of language certification and language skill testing. It gives an overview of European and also regional language certifications that exist thus far. Further considerations are given on the usefulness of these instruments for minority languages and linguistic minorities. This is explained based on two examples, from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the German-speaking Community in Belgium. The report concludes with a series of useful tips on the possibilities and difficulties in establishing testing procedures.
The question of recognition and assessing language skills in regions of language minorities cannot be answered easily without knowing the context in which these languages are „living“. In order to get to know this environment in every particular region, study visits in five selected regions were undertaken (Upper and Lower Lusatia in Germany; German-Danish border region; North Friesland in Germany; Carinthia in Austria and the Ladin valleys in South Tyrol). Only with this background information issues of language certification and recognition can be worked on in a meaningful way.
Adult education as a part of lifelong learning has an important place in the light of the current and projected demographical development, although it is given no or too little attention at present.
The second regional conference of the network RML2future on the subject of adult education took place in Apenrade/Aabenraa, Denmark from 7-9 February 2011. The documentation of the regional conference gives an overview of the theme of the conference and its results.
Højskolen Østersøen, a folk high school working according to the Scandinavian tradition of lifelong and permanent learning also after concluding or ending formal education, was part of the network to present attractive ways of adult education with an emphasis on language learning as a good practice to the selected European regions.
These guidelines give an overview of the Scandinavian tradition of lifelong learning, describe the fundaments of the subject of adult education in Europe and present some examples and the results of the work of the network.
Our guiding forward looking endeavour is to establish a centre of competence for the regional and minority languages, which shall meet the strong demand for advise on the part of multilingual regions and regional and minority languages. It is an effort to create an innovative instrument that will support multilingualism policy by exploiting and revaluating the potentials of the minority regions and minority languages in Europe.
The objective of the centre of competence will bring together the promotion of multilingualism by using the regionally available resource of the regional and minority languages, with as goal the promotion of linguistic diversity.
The basis for all this is the needs analysis undertaken at regional and minority languages and in several regions, the need for information and advice that was established on the part of the actors of the regional and minority languages, the decision makers and cooperation partners and the demand for practical support. Among these needs are in particular advice in regard to funding opportunities and project management, the exchange between language teachers, professionals, cooperation between schools and other educational establishments, the development and exchange of teaching and pedagogical materials, training and instruction materials on multilingualism.
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