LINEE News
5^th Issue, October 2009

Most EU students learn two foreign languages

“In the EU in 2007, 60% of students in upper secondary education studied two or more foreign languages”, says a news release issued by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. One third studied one foreign language, while 6% did not study any foreign language at all.

In the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Finland, all students in upper secondary education study two or more foreign languages.

At the other end of the scale, 51% of upper secondary school students in the UK do not study any foreign language.

The Eurostat study also shows the dominance of English in EU states: “in all Member States for which data are available, English is the most studied foreign language in upper secondary education, except for Luxembourg, where English, French and German are equal and Ireland and the United Kingdom, where French is most common.”

Furthermore, “in fourteen of the twenty one Member States for which data are available, English is the most commonly spoken foreign language among adults aged 25 to 64 years. Russian is most common in Bulgaria, the Baltic States and Poland.”

More figures are included in the news release available at here (news release issued on 23 September).

Award for LINEE Researcher

Patrick Stevenson, professor at the University of Southampton and member of LINEE, has received the distinguished Jacob- und Wilhelm-Grimm-Preis 2009 by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst: DAAD).

Patrick Stevenson’s research of the German language is considered the most outstanding and multi-faceted outside of Germany. The DAAD furthermore highly estimates his efforts to integrate ad connect German linguistics in international sociolinguistics and linguistics in general.

LINEE congratulates Patrick Stevenson on his achievement and award.

New Corresponding Member

Prof. Erika Werlen (Bergische Universität Wuppertal, BUW) is the first “corresponding member” of LINEE. She contributes to research in the area of “Language and Economy”. In addition to Erika Werlen, the following researchers have been offered the status of corresponding members:

• Elena Ioannidou (University of Cyprus) and
• Werner Wiater (Universität Augsburg).

LINEE Training

Doctoral students gathered during a LINEE Training Institute in Prague and received inputs from renowned experts: Richard Baldauf, Miroslav Hroch, Aneta Pavlenko, Ingrid Piller, Leoš Šatava and Glyn Williams. Their talks and other activities are summarized in a report available here.

Learning Mobility of Young People

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on mobility with the aim of boosting the opportunities for young people in Europe to develop their skills and knowledge by going abroad.

The EC will take into account the results of this public consultation to shape future policies in this domain.

EU citizens who have experienced mobility in their career are invited to take part in this consultation and give their feedback on essential questions such as: How can we convince more young people to go abroad for learning? What obstacles there are at present?

Participate in the consultation here.