Europe | International Education E.U. Fights to Get Everyone Speaking Same Language on Education By PETER TEFFER MARCH 16, 2014 BRUSSELS — Doris Pack is fully able to converse in English, but she is not complacent. “We all speak English, but I think Shakespeare is turning in his grave if he is listening to me,” Mrs. Pack, a German member of the European Parliament since 1989, told an interviewer recently in Brussels. Mrs. Pack, who also speaks German and French, embodies one of the European Union’s long-term goals. In 2002, government leaders of the member states called for “at least two foreign languages to be taught from a very early age,” and in 2005, the Union’s executive body, the European Commission, declared a long-term objective “to increase individual multilingualism until every citizen has practical skills in at least two languages in addition to his or her mother tongue.” With the accession of Croatia in July, the European Union has 28 member states and 24 official languages. “Learning a foreign language fosters diversity, social inclusion and intercultural dialogue in Europe and beyond,” Dennis Abbott, the European Commission’s spokesman for education, culture, multilingualism and youth, wrote in an email. “But language learning is more than that. In a globalized world, languages are a crucial asset for mobility and jobs, especially for young people.” Though the objective has been restated repeatedly over the past decade in various official commission and European Parliament documents, progress toward the multilingual target, often referred to as “mother tongue plus two,” seems to be slowing down. “Unfortunately, results from recent surveys and studies have been disappointing as far as language skills are concerned,” Mr. Abbott added. A survey in 2011 among 15-year-olds in 14 European countries showed that only 42 percent were at a level termed “independent user,” meaning they knew enough to hold a conversation in one foreign language. Mr. Abbott noted that, while the European Union was a firm supporter of multilingualism and linguistic diversity, it had “no jurisdiction over the content of education — or over national language policy.” Still, from 2007 to 2013, the commission spent around 50 million euros, or about $70 million, a year on language learning projects, he said. Starting this year, and running to 2020, language learning is being bundled with other education and youth programs within the funding allocation for “Erasmus+” a broader successor program to Erasmus, the European international student exchange system. The budget for Erasmus+ is almost €15 billion, about 40 percent more than the previous education and youth programs combined, Mr. Abbott said. However, languages do not have a dedicated budget in the new program, he said. Mrs. Pack, of Germany, said she felt that the commissioner responsible for multilingualism, Androulla Vassiliou, had done little to advance the “mother tongue plus two” agenda, partly because the commission had no power over member state policies and partly because the policy had slipped down on the priorities list. Mrs. Vassiliou has broad responsibilities over education, culture, multilingualism, youth and sports. In contrast, her predecessor, Leonard Orban, whose term ended in 2010, had a mandate that focused exclusively on multilingualism. Mrs. Vassiliou has made five speeches on multilingualism during her term, which ends this year, while Mr. Orban spoke on the issue 117 times, according to the commission’s website. Parliament has shown a similar indifference on the issue, Mrs. Pack said. “We put it on the agenda, M+2, but that was it,” she said. “It is really a little bit neglected.” It is difficult to judge whether the multilingual goals are realistic, said Rick de Graaff, professor of bilingual education at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. The policy of learning the mother tongue plus two other languages “is important as a long-term goal, but it has been defined only very broadly,” Professor De Graaff said. “There are no clear criteria or minimum requirements for member states. What level of language proficiency are we talking about?” The most concrete benchmark proposed by the European Commission is that “at least 50 percent of 15 year-olds reach the level of independent users in their first foreign language by 2020,” Mr. Abbott said. The commission has also urged member states to raise the proportion of students in lower secondary school who learn a second foreign language to 75 percent, from 63 percent. The commission is negotiating with the member states to adopt these benchmarks. Still, “if you want an entire population to fluently speak two additional languages, you have a long way to go,” Professor De Graaff said. “You would need to overhaul the educational system.” Small steps are being taken in some member states. In the Netherlands, a dozen primary schools will experiment with offering nonlanguage classes in English this August. Saarland, a federal state in Germany, wants to be completely bilingual in French and German by the year 2043. Milan Zver, a Slovenian member of the European Parliament and a former education minister, says he sees “an overall positive trend” in the spread of foreign language learning. But government changes can be an obstacle to a long-term policy, he said in an email. When Mr. Zver was minister for education in Slovenia, from 2004 to 2008, in a center-right government, he introduced a plan to make learning a second foreign language compulsory for 12-year-olds. “When the left-wing government took over in 2008, they canceled the obligatory learning of the second foreign language,” he said. Some politicians argue that the European Union should not be setting such goals in the first place. “These types of proposals are supported by people that dream of a united Europe,” said Harry van Bommel, a Socialist Party member of the Dutch Parliament. “It is doomed to fail.” While Mr. Van Bommel is not opposed to learning languages, he said policy makers should be realistic. “Proficiency in the mother tongue is bad enough in the Netherlands,” he said. “And if your mother tongue is English, then it is ridiculous to demand that you speak two additional languages.” In most countries, English as a first foreign language is the current norm. “In the past 10 years, the number of E.U. countries where English is being taught at age 6 has increased,” Professor De Graaff noted. In the face of that reality, speakers of languages other than English are trying to protect or enhance their place in European business and culture. A recent exhibition at the European Parliament building, initiated by Diogo Feio, a Portuguese member, was called “Economic Potential of the Portuguese Language.” To prevent upsetting any members — let alone Europe’s many ethnic minorities — the Union steers clear of advising one language over another. A version of this article appears in print on March 17, 2014, in The International New York Times. Order Reprints|Todays Paper|Subscribe
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 04:31:40 +0000
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