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Recommendations
Language teaching and learning
27. The Vienna Manifesto makes specific proposals for how
a reform of language teaching can result in a wider range
of languages being learned more effectively, see the nine
topics listed under point 5. These build on ongoing experience,
a range of types of innovative and inspired foreign language
learning that is already taking place in Europe . This should
be analysed more intensively prior to popularization in an
accessible form for parents, teachers, and decision-makers.
28. Publications on language learning topics for the general
public are needed. An admirable model of writing of this
kind is A parents’ and teachers’ guide to bilingualism,
by Colin Baker , which is written entirely as responses to
typical questions, grouped under section headings entitled
Family questions, Language development questions, Questions
about problems, Reading and writing questions, and Education
questions (Basic education, types of bilingual education,
achievement and underachievement, language in the classroom).
29. Dissemination of good practice, sharing information on
resources, teaching materials, software, methods of language
learning, and internet facilities, is also now widely available.
Many countries have national information centres, such as
the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research,
CILT, in London . The exchange of experience across national
borders should be intensified, as a supplement to the work
of the British Council and the Goethe Institut (which function
independently, though mainly state-funded), French linguistic
advisers (who are attached to embassies), and other national
language promotion bodies. These fund useful activities,
but their role is to strengthen a particular national language
(English, Spanish, …), and commercial interests are
increasingly involved, education being a key field of activity
for corporate globalization (as seen in Chapter 3).
30. As a means toward diversifying language learning, it
has been suggested, often by French sources , that the criterion
of different linguistic families ought to guide a choice
of two foreign languages in school, e.g. one Romance language
and one Germanic language (or with enlargement, one Slavic
language). The same argument might be advanced when and if
the EU decides to consider formally restricting the number
of working languages in its institutions. Diversification
can alternatively be promoted if a geographical criterion
is used, for instance the learning of the language of a neighbouring
community (e.g. Czech or Hungarian in Austria). Another possibility
is for minority and majority children to learn an immigrant
language (as in the two-way programmes that are successful
in the USA ). All of these lines of argument can contribute
to ensuring that a range of languages is learned.
31. An increasing number of EU countries are experimenting
with various types of bilingual education, and with the teaching
of certain subjects through the medium of a foreign language
. Some of the most successful results are achieved in Luxembourg,
where education effectively makes most school-leavers trilingual
in the mother tongue, French and German . Also extremely
relevant as a model for imitation elsewhere are the ‘European
schools’, intended mainly for EU employees, and that
exist in 6 countries, in which the education is given in
two languages and an additional foreign language is learned
to a high level .
32. If a wider range of languages is learned more successfully
in school, there could be more reciprocity and diversity
in students travelling for higher education in other member
states. The schemes funded by the EU (Erasmus, Socrates)
can promote the learning of all EU official languages, but
when students who do not specialize in a language go abroad
for a term, or even a year, their stay may strengthen their
competence in English rather than in, say, Dutch or Finnish.
The figures for foreign students in Britain show that study
abroad is big business for Britain.
33. Higher education institutions should be encouraged to
formulate a languages policy for their activities, covering
teaching, research, publications, and professional development
in a broad range of languages, and partnerships that can
strengthen multilingualism and plurilingualism .
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