That was EMRLingua 2023!
05. Dez 2023
2023 is now coming to an end, so the EMRLingua team would like to look back on what has been achieved in recent months. A lot has happened in the area of promoting the neighbouring languages in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. Here is a summary of the most important stages of the year.
The euregional school network is growing!
More schools have become part of the Euregional school network under the labels "Euregioprofileschool" and "Euregioschool". In May and October, the tri-national certification commission once again honoured a number of schools from the Euregio Meuse-Rhine for their commitment to language teaching and cross-border projects. The certificates and plaques were ceremoniously presented in the presence of Euregional decision-makers during the neighbouring language conferences at the Nell-Breuning-Haus in Herzogenrath and the Kloster Heidberg in Eupen.
This year, a total of twenty-two primary and secondary schools were awarded the "Euregioprofileschool" and/or "Euregioschool" labels. The EMRLingua team once again congratulates these institutions on their achievements in promoting the neighbouring languages.
This network is now enjoying such increasing success that it was the subject of a side event at the last Borderland Conference in Nijmegen. Discussions were held there about cooperation between the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, Euregio Meuse-Rhine-North,Euregio Rhine-Waal, Euregio and the district governments of Cologne, Münster andDüsseldorf , as well asTaalunie undDuitsland Instituut. The first steps in communication and information towards schools will be taken at the beginning of 2024.
Who are these schools that are Euregioprofileschool and/or Euregioschool? We have grouped these institutions on a map of the Euregio.
Would your school also like to be part of a Euregional school network with cross-border partnerships? You can find all the necessary information here.
"Woche für Deutsch" in Liège for the first time
This year, the city of Liège celebrated the 120th birthday of Georges Simenon - an ideal setting to talk about the crime novels that originate from the fantasy world of Olaf Müller.
In close collaboration with the University of Liège and the Belgian Association of Germanists and German Teachers, the city organised a literary evening on Thursday 19 October in the city hall dedicated to the crime novel "Rurschatten", written by Olaf Müller. The event was part of the "Woche für Deutsch".
Around 50 attendees from various regions of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine were given an introduction to the crime novel. The author then spoke about his work and read extracts from "Rurschatten". The audience was also presented with excerpts from the novel, which were translated from German into French by students from the University of Liège.
Discoveries beyond (language) borders!
You don't have to travel thousands of kilometres to discover other languages and cultures! The Euregio Meuse-Rhine has the privilege of being able to showcase three different languages, German, Dutch and French, over a small area; the five sub-regions of the Euregio are also located in different cultural spheres. All within 20-40 minutes of each other!
The EMRLingua coordination centre and the project partners were once again able to facilitate cross-border visits or even exchanges for numerous school classes from the Euregio this year. The main task was, and still is, to ease the administrative burden on the coordinators. This allows teachers and pupils to concentrate on the essentials: Practising the language they have learnt in a suitable environment and immersing themselves in a completely different cultural landscape.
This year, several schools were once again able to benefit from EMRLingua's support and allow their classes to discover the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. As a result, 8500+ pupils were moved across national and linguistic borders, a large number of them with ERDF funding.
Interested parties are welcome to obtain information on theEuregional Fund for Mobility in Educational Matters.
GeoRegioEMR and the database: now online!
The digital geography book "GeoRegioEMR" and the database for euregional school material are now online.
The digital geography book for teachers in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine was developed under the patronage of the Aachen Cities Region and the Ministry of the German-speaking Community of Belgium in collaboration with Digitale Lernwelten. This trilingual tool was unveiled to the public on 8 November during the third Neighbouring Languages Conference at Kloster Heidberg in Eupen. Teachers in attendance were then able to gain a more detailed picture by means of trilingual workshops. In the coming months, we will be bringing you closer to the various aspects of GeoRegioEMR.
For its part, the digital database offers teachers a wide range of teaching materials in German, Dutch and French on all topics relating to the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. The uploaded teaching material is aimed at all age groups in primary and secondary schools, and new content is added regularly.
Colleagues united across regions!
Our neighbouring language conferences have a special goal: to bring together teachers from the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. This provides opportunities for Euregional networking and exchange of experience. Several partnerships between schools have already been established in this way.
The workshops organised during the neighbouring language conferences are also an important part of this. Held by experts in the field of language teaching, the participating teachers were able to take away tips and tricks and incorporate other inspirations into their own lessons.
One example of euregional, practice-orientated teacher exchange was the Masterplan Lesson Study, which was held by UCLL professionals over a period of several weeks, both online and in person.
A study for future measures in Euregional language teaching
A major work package of the Interreg V project EMRLingua was the scientific study on bottlenecks and needs for language teachers on the labour market in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. This was carried out by the ITEM Institute ofMaastricht University.
We are delighted to announce that the study is now available to everyone, in paper form and online.
You can view the study via this link .We hope you enjoy reading it!
