The European Union, with its 500 million citizens, 28 Member States, 3 alphabets and 24 official languages is founded on ‘unity in diversity’: diversity of cultures, customs and beliefs - and of languages. Besides the 24 official languages of the Union, 60 other languages are also part of the EU's heritage and are spoken in specific regions or by specific groups. In addition, immigrants have brought a wide range of languages with them; it is estimated that at least 175 nationalities are now present within the EU’s borders. There is a constant need to address and support the language learning needs of multilingual families in to European societies. The immense multilingual potential of multilingual families is an often underestimated and underused treasure as a means to maintain languages and cultures as a benefit for the Europe. To reach that goal, the project partnership, consisting of organisations from Poland, Italy, Czech, UK and Turkey have merged their collective experience and specific skills in the field of multicultural education. ‘MULTILINGUAL FAMILIES CLUB’ idea is based on the experience of similar institutions that have been established and are successfully running across developed countries in western Europe. Through the use of the resources, the project is going to develop a comprehensive set of tools for: - successful establishing and running of a multilingual club in the countries of Europe and worldwide - activities and games for children and parents designed specifically to promote multilingualism, multiculturalism and to enhance the competences of children and parents in mutual dialogue with others in their languages - methodical guiding for the organizers of the clubs (primary schools, NGOs, leisure time centres, etc.), how to run a club on a daily basis - raising awareness of multilingualism among parents as well as education institutions in the region. The project will contribute to preserving languages and culture of immigrants living in the EU and promoting multilinualism among the European society twofold: a) at the organisational level of institutions working with multilingual families (through adult educators, coaches, trainers and other stakeholders) for whom we will prepare: - Let’s Do It Together! Manual for Adult Educators (IO1) with tips on successful establishing and running multilingual club in the countries of Europe and worldwide; - Let’s Play With Languages! Repository of Activities for Families (IO2) - activities and games for children and parents designed specifically to promote multilingualism and to enhance the competences of children and parents in mutual dialogue with others in their languages; - Let’s Get Multilingual! Methodological Guide for Adult Educators (IO3) with guidelines how to encourage and show parents, how to raise their children multilingually in an informal setting; - ‘Multilingual Families ‘In-Service Training Programme and on-line Webinar (IO6) – to teach adult educators interested in supporting multilingual families in developing their linguistic and cultural potential how to do it professionally with the use of high quality materials developed in that project. It will be one of the major products for exploitation as it will stimulate transfer and implementation of project outcomes and support multilingual families maintain their languages and learn others. b) at the direct beneficiaries’ level of parents with multilingual background. The parents will be provided with supporting materials answering the following key questions: - WHY should we support children’s learning and continuing use of various languages, especially languages of the family? - WHAT can we as parents do to support children in multiligualism? - HOW do we implement real language support so that they learn the family or other languages and retain them? Partners will be offered: - Why and How to be a Multilingual Family? Parents’ Guide On How To Motivate And Engage Children To Use Multiple Languages (IO4) - a guide on understanding why growing up with two or more languages is beneficial and can be a great advantage for children. The resources will be translated up to 15 languages to permit the widest dissemination including LWULT. The project offer will be enriched by ‘Audio-Visual Learning Scenarios on Multilingualism Within the Family’ (IO5) - video testimonials of families successfully bringing up their children multilingually as well as representatives of organisations supporting such families in strengthening their multilingual potential. Additionally a social network of all interested in multilingualism will be created and moderated what will allow sharing experience, answering FAQ related with raising multilingual family and good practices. All materials will be Open Educational Resources (OER) freely accessible. For better sustainability of all produced results will be available at project website at least 5 years after the project end.
The EU, with its 500 million citizens, 28 Member States, 3 alphabets and 24 official languages is founded on ‘unity in diversity’: diversity of cultures, customs and beliefs - and of languages. Besides the 24 official languages of the Union, 60 other languages are also part of the EU's heritage and are spoken in specific regions or by specific groups. In addition, immigrants brought a wide range of languages with them; it is estimated that at least 175 nationalities are now present within the EU’s borders. There is a constant need to support the language learning needs of multilingual families in to European societies. The immense potential of multilingual families is an often underestimated and underused treasure as a way to maintain languages and cultures as a benefit for the Europe. To reach that goal, the project partnership, consisting of organisations from Poland, Italy, Czech, UK and Turkey merged their collective experience and specific skills in the field of multicultural education. ‘MULTILINGUAL FAMILIES CLUB’ idea is based on the experience of similar institutions that established and were successfully run across developed countries in western Europe. Through the use of the resources, the project was going to develop a comprehensive set of tools for: - successful establishing and running of a multilingual club in the countries of EU and worldwide - activities and games for children and parents designed specifically to promote multilingualism, multiculturalism and to enhance the competences of children and parents in mutual dialogue with others in their languages - methodical guiding for the organizers of the clubs (primary schools, NGOs, leisure time centres, etc.), how to run a club on a daily basis - raising awareness of multilingualism among parents and education institutions in the region. The project contributed to preserve languages and culture of immigrants living in the EU and promoting multilingualism among the European society twofold: a) at the organisational level of institutions working with multilingual families (through adult educators, trainers and other stakeholders) for whom following tools were prepared: - Manual for Adult Educators (IO1) with tips on successful establishing and running multilingual club in the countries of Europe and worldwide; - Repository of Activities for Families (IO2) - activities and games for children and parents designed specifically to promote multilingualism and to enhance the competences of children and parents in mutual dialogue with others in their languages; - Methodological Guide for Adult Educators (IO3) with guidelines how to encourage and show parents, how to raise their children multilingual in an informal setting; - ‘Multilingual Families ‘In-Service Training Programme and on-line Webinar (IO6) – to teach adult educators interested in supporting multilingual families in developing their linguistic and cultural potential how to do it professionally with the use of high quality materials developed in that project. Additionally 8 additional webinars were recorded under this result showing a broader view of the issue of multilingualism in the European environment, as well as in the aspect of virtual contacts. b) at the direct beneficiaries’ level of parents with multilingual background. The parents were provided with supporting materials answering the following key questions: - WHY should we support children’s learning and continuing use of various languages, especially languages of the family? - WHAT can we as parents do to support children in multilingualism? - HOW do we implement real language support so that they learn the family or other languages and retain them? Stakeholders as well as target group’s members were offered: - Parents’ Guide On How To Motivate And Engage Children To Use Multiple Languages (IO4) - help to understand why growing up with two or more languages is beneficial and can be a great advantage for children. The outputs were translated to 5 languages and up to 15 predominant migrant languages in partner countries to permit the widest dissemination including LWULT. The project was also enriched by ‘Audio-Visual Learning Scenarios on Multilingualism Within the Family’ (IO5) - video testimonials of families successfully bringing up their children multilingual as well as representatives of organisations supporting such families in strengthening their multilingual potential. Additionally a social network of all interested in multilingualism was created and moderated what allowed sharing experience, answering FAQ related with raising multilingual family and good practices. All materials will be Open Educational Resources (OER) freely accessible. For better sustainability of all produced results will be available at project website at least 5 years after the project end.