The European Centre for Modern Languages: changing needs, new initiatives, continuing development

by

Sarah Breslin

 

 

The European Centre for Modern Languages: changing needs, new initiatives, continuing development

 

As the former Director of SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages and now as Director of the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) and Head of Language Policy at the Council of Europe, I’m all too aware of the challenges in remaining connected to European developments in language education in a post-Brexit UK. So that’s why I’d like to share some insights with you into what’s happening at the Council of Europe, not only as an update, but more importantly because I am struck by the similarities between NALA and the ECML. 

While our membership is at country level, usually via the national Ministry of education or similar, much of our day-to-day work is dedicated to providing advice and support to language professionals across our 36 member states in a range of different ways – through in-country training programmes, through the development of new resources in response to changing needs, as well as through webinars and conferences. Much of what we offer is freely available to anyone working in the field. It’s worth remembering that although the UK is no longer a member state of the ECML, it remains a member state of the wider Council of Europe. 

And that membership matters. In February 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the decision-making body composed of Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their Deputies of all 46 member states, including the UK, adopted a Recommendation on the importance of plurilingual and intercultural education for democratic culture and in so doing, committed to the implementation of this legal instrument. I could dedicate several articles to this Recommendation alone, but for now will simply draw your attention to the fact that this is the first ever holistic Recommendation from the Council of Europe in relation to languages, covering all languages and all fields of education from pre-school to university, both formal and informal, as well as the media, business and wider society. With major implications for all aspects of language education – policy, research, pre-and in-service teacher education, classroom practice. I invite you to think about what this means for you in your specific context and to take a look not only at the text itself but at the series of webinars organised by the ECML to raise awareness of this important political tool as well as consider how it might be implemented. With my “Head of Language Policy” hat on, I’d also like to let you know that we are currently working on a self-evaluation tool for Ministries to help them gauge strengths and weaknesses in relation to this Recommendation, a tool which will also be used to capture inspiring examples of innovation, and which will be accompanied by a Policy Toolbox. 

The Recommendation is also the overarching framework for the ECML’s new 4-year programme – Language education at the heart of democracy. On the website you can see the new projects that started this year on a wide range of different topics with different intended target groups and planned outputs. We have thirteen offers of in-country capacity-building workshops – ECML Training and consultancy – and organise webinars at regular intervals.

The next webinar will focus on AI in language education and will take place on Tuesday 4th February 2025 at 16:00 CET (Central European Time) and you can register here. If you have missed this, it’s always worth checking the ECML website, as they do host past webinars there.

ECML projects result in new resources for language professionals, so which ECML resources might be of particular use to you as NALA members?  People like yourselves are very often the target group for our resources so it’s difficult for me to choose, but in this era of information overload, I’m going to select examples from only three of our nine thematic areas in the hope that these tempt you to set aside some time to explore these themes in more detail.

So let’s begin with two very different examples from the theme of teacher and learner competences. One of the best ways to help teachers reflect on their practice and think of ways to innovate so as to improve the learning experience of their students is through Action Research.  The ECML’s Action Research Resource webpage contains advice on how to help language teachers to engage in action research through the Action Research Spiral and provides them with a helpful checklist as well as success stories to motivate them.

Moving beyond language teachers to the challenging but burning topic of language-sensitive teaching in all subject matters, why not take a look at the ECML Building blocks resource website?  There are six building blocks to explore, taking you through language-sensitive education in school curricula, in teacher education curricula and in teaching practice, with each module offering concrete tasks for advisers, reflective questions and examples of inspiring practice.

And if you’re offering advice at the level of the whole school, you might find the ECML resource website EOL: Learning environments where languages flourish – useful.  This holistic approach sits within the thematic area of Plurilingual and intercultural education.  In addition to the professional development course on the linked Moodle platform, you’ll find a wealth of ideas for helping schools ensure that languages are integral to learning and teaching, including through the use of generative AI.  Which takes me nicely to the thematic area of New Media.

The E-lang citizen resource website includes a pedagogical framework for the development of digital citizenship and a bank of “real-life tasks” for learners in upper secondary. “Real-life” tasks are a motivating way of developing language skills and digital citizenship by enabling learners to (inter)act in authentic situations and to reflect critically on their experience of doing so.  And don’t forget to let your teachers know about the ICT-REV Inventory of freely available online tools and open educational resources (OER) selected by and for language educators.  

I’ve barely skimmed the surface of the ECML’s extensive collection of resources but I hope it’s enough to whet your appetite. You can dip in and out of the thematic areas or search the resource database by title, by theme or by language. Thank you for the important work you do and remember that if you want to stay in touch with language education developments at the Council of Europe, you can sign up to our online newsletter, the European Language Gazette.

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