Less Widely Used and Lesser Taught Languages (11 May 05)
Date: 11 May, 2005
Location: CILT, London
Event type: Resource day
Past event summary
This event, held in conjunction with our partners at CILT, the National Centre for Languages introduced attendees to the range of resources available in the Library at CILT, including the Higher Education Resources Collection and also focussed on teaching and learning materials available for Less Widely Used and Lesser Taught (LWULT) Languages, both European and non-European.
Who was this event aimed at?
Anyone, particularly from the HE sector, working or teaching in a Languages Resource Centre involved in LWULT languages. The event may also been useful for those in Language Colleges, FE, AE and Continuing Education sectors.
| (Group A) | (Group B) | |
| 13.45 - 14.15 | Services and facilities offered by CILT Tour of the CILT Library, including HE Resources Collection. |
Question and Answer session An opportunity for users to discuss their needs with Subject Centre and CILT staff. |
| 14.15 - 14.45 | Question and Answer session An opportunity for users to discuss their needs with Subject Centre and CILT staff. |
Services and facilities offered by CILT Tour of the CILT Library, including HE Resources Collection. |
| 14.45 - 15.15 | Coffee and time to browse the Library and Resources | |
| 15.15 - 16.00 | eEuroInclusion - Developing a pan-European network of LWULT Language Resource Centres Michael Hammond, CILT, the National Centre for Languages This presentation is an introduction to the eEuro Inclusion project, which gives less widely used less taught (LWULT) languages in Europe a stronger voice by bringing together LWULT Language Resource Centres (LRC) from a large number of European countries. This is necessary if LWULT languages are to contribute fully to the future educational and cultural heritage of Europe. eEuro Inclusion gives LWULT LRCs greater visibility at the European level. eEuro Inclusion has two main target groups: LRCs that provide LWULT language services and potential seekers of these services. For more information, visit the eEuroInclusion webiste (www.eeuroinclusion.org) |
|
| 16.00 - 16.45 | Languages of the Wider World - a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Professor Michael Hutt, School of Oriental and African Studies This presentation will introduce the audience to the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning recently awarded to SOAS and UCL. This Centre sets out to develop, promote and enhance the teaching and learning of all of the languages within its remit, so that students in Higher Education and in the wider community of learning can gain a fuller, richer understanding of this rapidly globalising but still hugely variegated world. A key dimension of the CETL's work will be research into new ways of learning and teaching languages. In this way, as well as equipping all the students taught in and through the CETL better to understand the global world in which we live, it will provide them with a range of new skills and prepare them for careers working across countries and across cultures. For more information, visit the see SOAS CETL website (www.soas.ac.uk/ltu/cetl) |
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| 16.45 - 20.00 | Library open until 8pm | |
Event report:
by David Newton
The event has provided me with new and valuable information.
This popular event attracted not only delegates from the HE sector, but also from AE and FE institutions, private and governmental language teaching units and members of local LEAs.
The first half of the afternoon consisted of two Resources and Information sessions. David Newton (CILT, the National Centre for Languages) gave a talk on the work and facilities offered by CILT, followed by a tour of the Information and Resources Library, with particular focus on the LWULT language materials available. Alison Dickens (LLAS) introduced attendees to the work of the Subject Centre, in particular research projects and materials relating to LWULT languages and the contents of the HE Collection within CILT's Library.
After some free time to browse the Library and its materials and a coffee break, the afternoon presentation session began.
eEuroInclusion - Developing a pan-European network of LWULT Language Resource Centres
Michael Hammond (CILT) gave a talk about the eEuroInclusion project (www.eeuroinclusion.org), a Romanian-led effort whose mission is two-fold:
- to raise public awareness on the importance of learning these languages by facilitating free access to information and opportunities for LWULT language teaching and learning;
- to bring the language resource centres involved in LWULT language teaching together in a pan-European virtual network fostering communication and cooperation.
Although the project's web site has a few design and teething issues, the audience generally recognised the validity of the aims of the project. These aims are:
- to provide the public with general information on LWULT European languages and with a comprehensive guide for LWULT language services in Europe
- to help all those interested in learning a LWULT language to find where and how they can exercise their interest
- to assist the providers of LWULT language services gain more visibility at European levell
- to encourage dialogue and cooperation among LWULT language resource centres in Europe.
Download: eEuroInclusion's PowerPoint presentation (50Kb)
ATLAS (A Taste of Languages At School) project
At short notice, we were pleased to invite a second speaker, Terry King (UCL), who spoke of the ATLAS (A Taste of Languages At School) project (www.ucl.ac.uk/atlas), whose aims are to interest school pupils in taking up a new language at University. This has been done via the route of introducing pupils to a choice of LWULT languages (which they are less likely to have come across before). The project currently has such taster websites for Czech, Danish, Polish, Portuguese and Russian, it being hoped to include more in the future.
Attendees were very interested in this project, particularly in view of the recent moves to create more vertical collaboration between schools and universities.
Download: the Atlas project PowerPoint presentation (1Mb)
Languages of the Wider World - a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
The final speaker of the day was Michael Hutt (SOAS), who gave a very well-received presentation on the new Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), entitled "Languages of the Wider World" (www.soas.ac.uk/ltu/cetl), which was recently jointly-awarded to SOAS and UCL.
As the CETL is still very much in the early stages of its development, this presentation looked at the current activities at both SOAS and UCL involving LWULT languages, with a look ahead to how all of these would come together under the umbrella of the new CETL. The main aims of the CETL are:
- to develop new multi-media language learning resources
- to promote the study of less commonly taught languages
- to develop resources for the learning and teaching of UK community languages
- to design and provide training courses
- to enable us to upgrade language learning facilities at SOAS and UCL
- to provide a focal point for research in the teaching and learning of less commonly taught languages
As well as attracting a great deal of interest from the audience, the speaker welcomed and found useful the opportunity for the project's first public talk, and the CETL's willingness to do this for us was greatly appreciated.
Download: SOAS's CETL PowerPoint presentation (1.8Mb)
