Programmes

The Foreign Language Centre of the University of Pécs submitted a LINGUA-D project proposal called “Equal Rights for the Less Widely Used and Less Taught Languages of the EU” in July 1999. The aim of the three-year project is to extend the already existing ECL exam standards to all the official languages of the EU. The project proposal was approved by the commission in charge in Brussels and a significant grant was awarded for the implementation of the project.

Our partners:

Aarhus Universitet Inst. for Nordisk Sprog og Litteratur, Denmark
Helsinki Business Polytechnic (Helia), Finland
Université Stendhal- Grenoble 3 Centre Universitaire d’Études Francaises, France
IIK Berlin, Germany
Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Letras, Portugal
Göteborgs Universitet Institutionen för svenska spraket, Sweden

Goals:

Based on the negotiations with the universities representing the LWULT languages of the EU, that is the Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Danish, Portuguese, and French partner institutions, and with their active co-operation we plan to set up a language teaching and examination centre network where the languages of the partners would be taught mutually and where the principles of the already existing (English, German, Greek, Spanish, Italian, and Hungarian) standardised ECL language tests would be applied to the above listed EU languages.

In accordance with the unification and harmonisation efforts of the EU and the principles of the maintenance of national linguistic identity we would mutually launch comprehensive language courses in the languages of the EU. The task of each university participating in the programme and representing one of the LWULT languages would be to design the curricula, the comprehensive preparatory course materials and based on the standardised methods to construct the language proficiency tests for their own language and to make these available to the partner institutions.

We would like to achieve equal linguistic chances by mutually extending and facilitating the learning opportunities of the LWULT languages of the EU.We would like to motivate learners to learn the LWULT languages of the EU, and in order that the acquired language knowledge could directly be used, we plan to co-operate with organisations (E.g.: Chamber of Commerce, foreign firms, joint ventures, etc.) interested in the co-operation of the countries in question.

Expected results:

• Modular language course system for the above mentioned LWULT languages of the EU, for that
• Curricula,
• Adapted course materials,
• Standardised ECL language tests with complex documentation, audio and video recordings, and software needed for the administration of the tests.
• Making the above materials available for all the co-operating institutions within the framework of the regional language teaching and testing network in each country which is co-ordinated by an international consortium that is to be established from among the representatives of the institutions participating in the project.