- Multilingualism in the knowledge economy: labour markets revisited, and corporate social responsibility, 14-15 November 2011. Queen's University Belfast
Multilingual policy in European contact areas, Managing linguistic diversity at work, and Languages and identity were the themes addressed at the third EUNoM symposium that was held in Koper/Capodistria, Slovenia on 19-21 June. Key speakers were Paolo Balboni (Università Ca' Foscari), Venezia), Lid King (The Languages Company, London), and Colin H. Williams (School of Welsh, Cardiff University, UK). Paolo Balboni discussed the quality of policy/ies for multilingual areas and stressed that there are at least 6 different visions of what a multilingual society is; the vision determines the further development of policy. Lid King addressed European language policy and went into the results of the Languages in Europe, Theory Policy Practice initiative. Colin H. Williams, finally, focused on regional and minority languages and how changes in society affect the relationship between selected minority language communities, the state and the international system and globalisation. One of the challenges for Regional and Minority languages is that there is a decline in financial support from the state; another that even though there may be many regulations for RMLs nowadays, the situation and provisions in practice are not so positive.
Plenary discussions were part of the symposium. Items that were discussed included the role of English as a lingua franca and the possibility of stimulating receptive linguistic competence. Abstracts of the keynote and other speakers can be found here. The PowerPoint presentations will be added later.
The next EUNoM symposium will be held in Belfast on 14-15 November 2011 on "Multilingualism in the knowledge economy: labour markets revisited, and corporate social responsibility."
What is EUNoM?
EUNoM is an ambitious European project that looks at multilingualism in the context of globalisation, the information society, and the knowledge economy from various perspectives. It is thus the aim of the project not to look at multilingualism in isolation, but to look at its role in society and its various elements.
EUNoM is a project supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union that will run from 2009-2012. During this period steps will be taken to ensure continuity of the project after the funding period.
http://www.mercator-research.eu/research-projects/eunom
European Universities' Network on Multilingualism (EUNoM)
The fundamental aim of the EUNoM project is to create a sustainable network of Universities each of which either has or is willing, in the medium-term and in view of the results of the first phase of the network, to study ways of articulating an overall, multidisciplinary approach to multilingualism both in academic and organitzational terms.
One of the functions of that position will be to assemble, from among the various components of the existing University structure, the various components of University teaching, research and practice which, together, will constitute a coherent programme of multilingualism and interculturalism. This means that the ‘earlier traditions and configurations’ referred to above will have to be modified.
The project seeks to outline the precise ways in which this modernisation of the University approach to the study of language and culture should occur. It involves addressing issues of curriculum as they pertain to labour market needs; the existing organisational structures; the possibility of developing integrated programmes; relationships to economic development, mobility and language learning; addressing a concern with social cohesion; and developing the network as a strategic priority. To a great extent this will involve a focus on the use of the new technology and the exploitation of the resources of the virtual campus.
To this end, the project has received funding for a three-year period under the European Union's Lifelong Learning programme, from November 2009 to October 2012 (reference 504763-2009-LLP-ES-KA2-KA2NW) to undertake the following activities.
In this website visitors will find an introductory page (EUNOM Network), a statement of our projectobjectives, a list of our full and associate partners, a description of the planned activities, access to registering for our symposia as well as to our discussion forum (take part), and - towards the end of the project - a page bringing together our results.
All members of the EUNoM network hope that the project will attract academics and professionals of different backgrounds. We expect our visitors to discover many new, complex crossdisciplinary ramifications of multilingualism in the knowledge society.
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