Multilingualism in Europe - SALIS
27 March 2003

In less than 18 months' time the population of the European Union will increase by approximately 30% due to enlaergement. During the same time the European Convention for the Future of Europe will have reported to the forthcoming European Intergovernmental Conference on the shape of a future European Constitution. One of the pressing questions in relation with these two epochal changes is a linguistic one: Which language or languages will in fifty years' time be spoken and written in the enlarged and integrated European Union? Will English have become even more prevalent than it is already? Will minority languages have become even further marginalised in the process of it? How will European citizens communicate in an emerging European public sphere? What kind of education do we as European citizens want to provide for our communication needs? Do we want to subscribe to a pragmatist ethos in language education that accepts the overpowering dominance of the global player English? Or do we want to adhere to a more principled ethos of plurilingual education that is in harmony with the basic European ideal of co-operation in equality? Europeans will need to find an answer to these questions in the next while.

On Thursday and Friday of this week, April 10th and 11th, the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, DCU is holding a symposium to explore some of these issues. In the course of the two days, a number of distinguished speakers will reflect on the linguistic future of our continent. The event is centred on the work of the internationally acclaimed linguist Professor Hans-Jürgen Krumm of the University of Vienna who will open the event on Thursday evening, 7pm in QG 13 with a public lecture on "Multilingualism in Europe". It will be followed by a panel discussion chaired by Professor Eda Sagarra, Chairperson of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Other panellists will be Anna Gallagher, NUI Maynooth, John Gormley, td, Nuala Haughey of the Irish Times and the poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. The discussion will provide a timely opportunity for reflection on the role of multilingualism and language learning in a multicultural Ireland that is part of an increasingly integrated Europe.

On Friday at 9.30 a.m., a colloquium on "Foreign Language Teaching: Preparing for Plurilingual Identities" will focus on the necessity of reshaping foreign language teaching as a tool to achieve an adequate expression of the plurilingual identity of Europe. The colloquium will also address the issue of the current decline in interest in language learning at second and third level in Ireland. Participants in the colloquium will be Dr. David Barnwell of ITE, Dr.Nina Lemmens of the German Academic Exchange Service, London, Caroline Nash of IBEC and Dr. Michael Zimmermann of the Austrian Cultural Institute London. Veronica Crosbie of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies will chair the proceedings. The symposium will be concluded by two workshops which will concentrate on some practical educational and political implications of the discussions. The event is sponsored by the Austrian Embassy, Dublin, the Goethe Institute, Dublin, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), London.

Students, colleagues and members of the public are all most welcome to attend the symposium!

related links
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