Press release: 14 December 2010

CILT, the National Centre for Languages, has won a major European project worth £130,000 to promote good practice in community languages across Europe:  ‘Our Languages into Europe’.  Community languages are all languages in use in the UK other than the official languages of the state.

The project builds on the success of the “Our Languages” project managed by CILT in the UK. It created partnerships between 90 mainstream and complementary schools which enhanced the teaching and learning of community languages and promoted social cohesion.  

The new initiative will spread the learning and help shape European policies on the wide range of community languages spoken throughout Europe.  It will be launched with a conference in January 2011 and key themes include the importance of achieving listening; writing; reading and speaking in community languages and of formal accreditation for literacy skills in these languages. Interestingly, research shows that bi-literacy (literacy in both English and the language of the home) improves pupil performance across the curriculum.

Sarah Cartwright, the Our Languages Consortium Programme Manager at CILT, said: “This is a very exciting opportunity for CILT. The project will allow us to share the outcomes of “Our Languages” with new European partners and empower them to initiate similar projects in their own countries. It will also enable us to promote key messages within the UK about the importance of all the languages spoken in our community and how they can bring benefits at this time of economic uncertainty.”

For further information contact:

Erika Cook,
Erika.cook@cilt.org.uk
0207 633 3312