By David Crystal. So the phone rings and it’s a journalist from the Daily Mirror, wanting me to comment on the story circulating in the press, which claims that the origin of the Australian accent lies in the drunken speech of the first convicts. I commented, all right. I used an ancient linguistic technical term: it’s complete bollocks. Rubbish, I added, helpfully. More...

In the framework of the European Commission’s 2015 focus on "Translating Europe" the Office of the European Commission in Vienna and the Language Network Graz organised a panel discussion on the topic "Multilingual Europe: Translating in and for multilingual communities". In recent years communities have become more aware of the acute need for interpreters and translators in Public Services and that a more professional approach is needed in this sector. The City of Graz has offered an "Interpreters’ Pool" for some time and the University of Graz is for the third time offering a course on Public Service Interpreting as well as being involved in publishing a "Training Handbook for Interpreters in asylum procedures". More...

XIV CercleS International Conference 2016 "Enhancing learners’ creative and critical thinking: the role of university language centres"
The conference will take place on 22-24 September 2016 at the University Language Centre, University of Calabria. The event aims to create an occasion for scholars, practitioners and project managers to share ideas about research and didactics related to language learning and teaching. It will focus on three strands: Applying research to pedagogical practice - Giving learners a multicultural voice - Giving University Language Centres an international voice. More...

The 47th Meeting & Conference of ALTE (The Association of Language Testers in Europe) will take place in Perugia, Italy, from 11-13 November 2015.  The theme of the conference day on 13 November will be "The concept of quality in language assessment". 
ALTE is a member of the ECML Professional Network Forum and has invited Sarah Breslin, Executive Director of the ECML, to give a plenary talk entitled "Quality in language education and the role of the ECML". More...

An Intergovernmental Conference on "The language dimension in all subjects: equity and quality in education", organised by the Language Policy Unit of the Council of Europe, took place in Strasbourg on 14-15 October 2015. The ECML contributed to this major event which focused on the teaching and learning of the language(s) for schooling. Significant work carried out by the ECML in this area was highlighted in the presentation of the Centre. All presentations of this event can be accessed through the programme. More...

The 2015 European Day of Languages offered a showcase for a wide variety of creative initiatives around the globe: A huge number of events celebrating languages and language diversity took place on or around 26 September. Depending on your interests (and transport!) it was possible to attend a series of workshops in Belgrade, a language fair in Strumica ("the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"), express language courses on trains between Clermont-Ferrand and Vichy, a sign language event in Belfast, a language festival to promote the multiple home languages of the children in Luxembourg, literary flashmobs in 13 cities of South America or to try out "surviving shopping in a foreign language" in Sofia or "speak dating" in Hong Kong. Migration this year was a frequent theme with many activities focusing on integration and the teaching methods required to rapidly develop basic communicative skills for new arrivals in the language of the host country. More...

The European Language Gazette, the ECML's e-newsletter, provides up-to-date news about the ECML (events, projects, resources), the Language Policy Unit and other relevant sectors of the Council of Europe, as well as our partners. It focuses on national developments in the field of language education in the member states and beyond.

Contents

Focus on

• "Languages at the heart of learning" - European Centre for Modern Languages adopts a new programme
• EDL 2015 celebrated in over 47 countries on 5 continents

What's new?

• Babylonia dedicates an issue to pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures
• EFSLI Newsletter: Results of the ECML project "PRO-SIGN-Signed languages for professional purposes"
• EPOSTL: first ECML publication in Persian
• Language Policy Unit: Intergovernmental Conference on "The language dimension in all subjects: equity and quality in education"
• Pestalozzi Programme: developing competences for democracy

What is coming up?

• Take part in testing descriptors for Competences for Democratic Culture
• 47th Meeting and Conference of ALTE "The concept of quality in language education"
• 22nd ICC Annual Conference 2015 "Languages at work 2020"
• XIV CercleS International Conference 2016 "Enhancing learners’ creative and critical thinking: the role of university language centres"

National developments in the field of language education

• Austria: ÖSZ Sprachbox 2/2015
• Denmark: new ECML project publication database in 4 languages
• Switzerland: specific competence profiles for language teachers, report on plurilingual education in history, new ECML national contact point

European Commission

• ET2020 Working Group on transversal skills (8-9 October, Brussels, Belgium)
• Multilingual Europe: Translating in and for multilingual communities (27 October 2015, Graz, Austria)
• Multilingual classrooms
• Languages and employability. More...

Translated into Persian by Mr Majid Elahi Shirvan, Assistant Professor, University of Bojnord, Iran.
Building on insights from the Common European Framework of Reference and the European Language Por tfolio as well as the European Commission-financed project European Profile for Language Teacher Education – A Frame of Reference (Profile), EPOSTL seeks to help prepare students for their future profession in a variety of teaching contexts. The EPOSTL can also facilitate discussion of aims and curricula between teacher educators working within different national or European contexts.
The EPOSTL can now be downloaded from the ECML website in 15 language versions.

Connected links:

EPOSTL in Persian: 

برنامه اروپایی برای دانشجویان آموزش زبان های خارجی (EPOSTL publication). More...