cohesion - European Centre for Modern Languages

developers and authors, so that the pluralistic approaches can be more widely and
effectively integrated into educational practice.
EBP-ICI (coordinated by Claude Cortier) will explore the same issues as CARAP
– especially those related to integrated didactics and intercultural learning – in the
specific field of minority languages. Its starting point will be work done in regions
where minority languages have an important place in primary education – the Val
d’Aosta in Italy, Scotland, the regions of France where minority languages are
spoken – and it will look at ways in which intercultural awareness, awakening to
language in general and inter-comprehension of different languages can enrich the
educative experience and contribute to the safeguarding of linguistic diversity. The
project will seek to extend this experience to other European regions where
minority languages are used and to create networks, supported by a website, where
good practice can be shared and developed further. The networks will be
underpinned by development and communication of the theoretical basis for
plurilingual education and by a practical kit for teachers in these areas.
MARILLE, which Klaus-Börge Boeckmann is co-ordinating, will deal with
another aspect of plurilingual education. In many schools in Europe where there
are large migrant populations the language of education is not the first language of
all the pupils in the class. The project will concentrate especially on the teaching of
this “first language” – called “majority language” in the project – as a school
subject (French in France, German in Austria, etc.) and examine the strategies
teachers can use to include elements of L2 teaching to respond to the learners’
needs. The project will develop a number of practical tools to help to achieve this
improvement – an inventory of good practice in policy documents, curriculum
development, teaching materials, teacher training activities; case studies on how to
transfer good ideas to other contexts in order to improve majority language
teaching with regard for plurilingualism, concentrating on how change and
innovation can be managed and achieved. Rather than aiming at a comprehensive
study, the project will seek to provide detailed contextualised information of
successful strategies which will help others to implement them in a variety of local
contexts.
LACS is coordinated by Terry Lamb and is concerned primarily with how the
ECML’s work can be disseminated most effectively through partnership with
teachers’ associations. In doing this it addresses one of the ECML’s major
concerns – how can its work be more widely known among teachers so that the
resources it provides can be used and developed further. The project is based
initially on collaboration between the ECML and FIPLV (World Federation of
Modern Language Associations), but will extend to other associations by looking
at the kind of activities that teachers’ associations can organise to spread ideas and
information on good practice. “The project will map the ways in which a wide
range of language associations are organised (nationally, regionally and locally)
and how they support their own networks of members through practical
interventions (workshops, publications, newsletters, websites and web fora, etc.) as
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