ENSEMBLE
  Whole-School Language Profiles and Policies

 "Fostering plurilingualism"

 

 


October 2006|


December 2005 |


June 2005 |


September 2004|

 

Action Plan |

ECML
Calendar |

   


October 2006: ENSEMBLE Expert meeting in Graz



From left to right: Mr. Calleja; Ms Fleischmann; Ms Young; Ms Norberg; Ms Camilleri-Grima and Mr. Grajal de Blas.

The work of the ENSEMBLE project is now at the stage of preparation for publication. During the expert meeting which took place at the ECML on the 8-9 October 2006, all the material that has been generated throughout the project was reviewed and organised.

The final product will consist of a paper publication and a CD-Rom. The booklet will contain the case studies that were prepared by the team members prior to the workshop. They are intended to be an illustration of practice, and of grounding some of the recommendations presented in the Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe (http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/FullGuide_EN.pdf).

This project is aimed at an audience of head teachers, and special attention is being paid in the compilation of the final product to the needs of this particular group of practitioners. The CD-Rom will be a reader-friendly tool in which the material made available for use by head teachers is presented in an interesting way. It will cover the following topics: the role of the head teacher in language education; the teacher and in-house staff development; involving parents and the community; organising language education through whole-school policy.


December 2005: ENSEMBLE Workshop in Graz

The ENSEMBLE workshop targeted headteachers as key actors in the development of plurilingual education. Team members presented case studies as illustrations of what is already being implemented in order to enhance plurilingualism. They also identified some of the issues that need to be discussed in the light of the Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe.

Workshop participants took an active role in contributing through poster presentations and show and tell activities. This served to enlarge the mosaic of approaches to plurilingual education. A number of activities took place during the workshop to disseminate the ideas presented in the Guide, and participants had an active role to play in group work which looked more closely at the main themes of the workshop, namely valuing all languages, revitalizing minority languages through material development, staff development, and the use of strategies for programme implementation.

See also ENSEMBLE Workshop report


December 2005 Workshop Participants

June 2005: ENSEMBLE team meeting

The team members met on 3-4 June 2005 at the ECML. They welcomed Ms Elisabeth Fleischmann, Head of Graz International Bilingual School, who has now joined the team, replacing Ms Johanna Kapitanffy who has undertaken duties elsewhere.

During this two-day meeting most of the discussions were focused on the workshop activities, especially the link between the plenary presentations and the group work sessions. The team considered it of utmost importance to give space to the participants on the first day of the workshop to discover about each other's schools and language related issues; and on the last day to choose a theme and focus on it for subsequent research and development.

Each of the team members will present a case study in plenary, highlighting issues (given that the full case descriptions will be handed out in hard copy); and will also lead the group work with samples of activities that the head teachers could contribute to and develop. The "Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe" published by the Language Policy Division in Strasbourg is being used to contextualise the work.

It is hoped that the participants will share their experiences, will become more aware of whole-school approaches to language education, and will contribute to the development of tools for use by other head teachers.

September 2004: Expert meeting

The first expert meeting took place at the ECML on the 19th and 20th September. Work by all team members had already started on-line and it became clear that this project consists of three phases:

(i) school-based case studies to be finalised for presentation at the workshop;
(ii) a workshop at the ECML during which the case studies will be presented, where participants will be asked to ‘show and tell’, and where a number of tools for school development planning will be shared;
(iii) the collection of further data from workshop participants for inclusion on the web-site and on the CD-Rom.

The team members had already shared draft case studies on line and during the meeting they were in a position to evaluate each one in detail. It became clear that each case study had an interesting focus and together they provided a cross-section of school contexts and a variety of whole-school approaches to language policy development. The case studies will be presented at the workshop as real instances of language education development. Furthermore, workshop participants (head teachers) will be encouraged to share their own experiences. They will also be provided with a number of tools to help them reflect on their current practices, and to provide support for improved school development planning in the area of languages.