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EU-Speak project

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30 December 2010

Press release EU Speak inaugural workshop November 2010 EU-Speak is a new project which aims to identify, celebrate and share best practice in second language teaching and teacher training for low literate immigrant adults in Europe, and to create new reading materials. It brings together 8 European partners including the founders Martha Young- Scholten from Newcastle University School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, and Bea Groves and Yvonne Ritchie from the Workers Educational Association in Newcastle. The other partners are from universities in Amsterdam, Cologne, Granada, Leipzig and Stockholm, and Funen College in Denmark. The wider partnership includes language practitioners from the higher, further education and voluntary sectors across Europe who work with vulnerable adult immigrants with low oral skills and weak literacy, and members of local ethnic communities. EU-Speak co-founder Dr Martha Young-Scholten said: “We are all committed to the broad and deep education of teachers of low literate immigrant adults. Many of these teachers work part-time or voluntarily. They do a really good job but would do even better and support their students more effectively if they had the opportunity to learn even more how adults acquire literacy and second languages. It’s also very useful for them to learn what social, political, economic and cultural issues are affecting their learners and how to get the best out of classes made up of 15 or more students from 15 different countries and 15 different languages.” EU-Speak held its inaugural workshop at Newcastle University in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in North East England on 5-7 November 2010. Highlights included: - an overview of the work of the Workers Educational Association (WEA) and EU-Speak - a presentation by Dr Martha Young-Scholten on the Cracking Good Stories project, which enables linguistics students to help create new fiction for low literate adult learners. - a presentation by Dr Melanie Cooke from Kings College London about the history of ESOL teaching in the UK. - discussions with members of the wider EU partnership, along with those who work directly with ESOL learners in Newcastle, Nottingham and Dublin. - a concluding presentation on ‘Geordie English’ by Dr Adam Mearns from the Newcastle Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (NECTE) project, which makes research into ‘Geordie’ available to the public through multi-media. EU-Speak member Dee Doyle said: “I teach English as a Second Language on adult refugee programmes in Ireland and really value the opportunity workshops like this provide to meet others in the same field. They have inspired me to create a framework to encourage teachers to take a wide socio-linguistic approach and use student’s existing language skills as learning tools. For instance I say something in English and French. French speakers who speak Swahili convey the message in Swahili. I show Arabic speakers who have learned to read and write Arabic at Qu’ran school the word in my Arabic dictionary. Some of them translate it into Somali. Others translate it into Kurdish. I also use Russsian, French and Somali dictionaries. Our language chain helps build ownership, participation and pride.” During the next 18 months - from January 2011 to July 2012 - EU-Speak partners are planning to hold 6 themed workshops in different locations in Europe. Topics to be covered will include: - the creation of a European level qualification in teaching oral and written second languages to immigrant adults. The aim is to raise teaching standards. This will be led by the Stockholm University Swedish partners, who are developing a teacher training degree for undergraduates specialising in teaching low literate immigrant adults. - the themes and writing techniques needed to create new literature for low literate adult learners. The aim is to enable them to expand their basic reading skills and move more quickly to independent reading. This will be led by the Newcastle University and Granada University partners. The Cracking Good Stories project was started in Newcastle University’s School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics by Martha Young-Scholten and a creative writing colleague Margaret Wilkinson. It is also running in Granada University’s Department of Spanish Language under the fabulous name Historias Cracking Good! - the compilation of evidence-based guidance to policy makers on how government funded language teaching enables immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers to progress to social and economic inclusion, and why it is important not to cut funding for learners who are not seen to be making progress under current testing regimes. Each partner will work with their local equivalents to NATECLA, the national organisation for teachers of ESOL and community languages in the UK, to lobby policy makers and raise public awareness. EU-Speak is funded by the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme the Grundtvig Project through the UK National Agency ECORYS. Grundtvig funds training opportunities for UK non-vocational adult education organisations, staff & learners. For further information contact Dr Martha Young-Scholten at Newcastle University on (+44 )(0)191 222 7751 or martha.young-scholten@newcastle.ac.uk. Background Information EU-Speak is linked to an initiative called Low Educated Second Language and Literacy Acquisition (LESLLA) for Adults. This is an international forum of researchers interested in immigrant adults' oral second language acquisition and it brings together academics with practitioners and policy makers. Both EU-Speak and LESLLA have built on 40 years of largely European research on adult migrants learning second languages without instruction eg: the European Science Foundation project documented the language development of immigrant adults in five European countries. Research in the USA by Larry Condelli, managing director of the Adult Education and Literacy Program in the Education and Human Development Division at the American Institutes for Research, has also been influential. His ‘What Works Study for Adult ESL Literacy Students’ shows how good teaching makes a positive difference and reduces student drop-out rates. The website for EU-Speak is www.handsoffit.co.uk/eu-speak/index.html. The website for LESLLA is http://www.leslla.org/ The website for NATECLA is http://www.natecla.org.uk/ For a copy of Larry Condelli’s research visit http://eric.ed.gov/ The full names of the partners are: * Amsterdam University - Institute for Language Learning for L2 learners * Cologne University – School of Arts and Humanities * Granada University – Department of Spanish Language * Leipzig University – Herder Institute * Newcastle University – School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics * Stockholm University – Department of Language and Language Education * Funen College, Denmark – Adult Education Centre * Newcastle Workers Educational Association – Community Adult Education The provisional workshop schedule is: March 2011 Fyn College, Denmark. Literacy and L1 teaching May 2011 Granada University National Policy, social justice, advocacy, citizenship September 2011 University of Leipzig Teaching and materials November 2011 University of Cologne Sustainability of programmes, testing and assessment February 2012 Stockholm University Teacher training and pedagogy May 2012 University of Amsterdam Wrap up/end of project celebration

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