Languages of schooling and the Language Education Policy Profile: the case of Lombardy Gisella Langé gisella.lange@istru

1. Ministry of Education, University and Research Lombardy Educational Authority Languages of schooling and the Language Education Policy Profile: the case of Lombardy Gisella Langé gisella.lange@istruzione.it

2. LOMBARDY Population: 10.065.440 Area: 23.859 kmq Foreign language teachers: 10.258 1 million students

3. http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Lombardy_Profile_FR.dochttp://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Lombardy_Profile_FR.doc http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Lombardy_%20Profile_EN.doc www.progettolingue.net

4. Scope of Lombardy Profile • Importance of policy analysis at a time of change • Awareness raising on specific issues including • promotion of plurilingualism • diversification of the range of languages • Process supported by Italian national authorities • possible contribution of the Profile to a policy debate at national level

5. Suggested Actions • Policies and curricula linked to contexts: • Schools in context – significance of school headteachers • Learners and their ‘language history’ • For region: regional council/centre – policy and curricula for region (regional devolution) • For (groups of) schools – policy and curricula for context and for learners (school autonomy) • For learners – planning for own learning (learner autonomy)

6. After the Profile (2006) Øpolitical changes at national level Øregional devolution on the way Øimplementation of the School Reform Law voted in 2003 Ønew documents of reference at national level that take into consideration the CEFR and the E.U. Recommendation on the 8 key competences Øcritical remark:more focus on English than on plurilingualism at national level

7. Consequences of the Profile Holistic/global approach Plurilingualism Coherence Qualitative improvement Curriculum and syllabi development Indicators

8. A new Department within the Lombardy Regional Education Authority Area Multilinguismo e Internazionalizzazione

9. Language learning (1) • Developing common templates for language curricula • Favouring languages of origin • - Arabic in primary schools • - Rumanian in primary and secondary schools • Improving foreign language learning by starting at an • early age • - English as 1st foreign language at primary school, but also • other languages in some schools

10. Language learning (2) • Improving foreign language learning by focusing on • meaningful contents • - promotion and expansion of CLIL/EMILE or bilingual • courses (tandem teaching: subject teachers and FL • teachers) • - improvement of intercultural competences in international • cooperation (e.g school exchange, educational stays, • international projects, internships) • - international diplomas (ex ESABAC), language certificates, • language competitions and other language projects

11. Language learning (3) • developing student autonomy • using the European Language Portfolio, • special projects (ex. Certilingua, etc)

12. FOREIGN LANGUAGES up to 2006 English = from primary school to upper secondary school French, German, Spanish = in all lower and some upper secondary schools Russian = in some upper secondary schools Arabic, Chinese, Japanese mostly in extra-curricular courses in upper secondary schools

13. FOREIGN LANGUAGES after 2006 English, French, German, Spanish Russian: same as before 2006 Arabic, Chinese, Japanese mostly in extra-curricular courses in upper secondary schools BUT now also in curricular courses ARABIC offered inPRIMARY schools ROMANIAN offered in PRIMARY, Lower and Upper Secondary Schools

14. The Profile brought together teachers from languages of schooling (especially what we call Language as Subject i.e. teachers of Italian) and Foreign Language teachers: • descriptors of competences for Italian as a • subject and Italian as a foreign language • have been developed • certifications for Italian as a FL are been • introduced

15. Teachers of other subjects • know what the CEFR is • show great interest in the way levels, • descriptors and competences are defined in it • are trying to describe and grade competences for their subjects… • CLIL/EMILE training activities favour awareness and cooperative work on language learning…

16. Summing up • Visible short and medium term consequences • Ongoing public debate, conferences, round tables, • articles, etc. • General understanding of the importance of plurilingual education and languages of schooling • More attention to the linguistic integration of young and adult migrants • Relevant effects on curriculum development • assessment • vulnerable groups • (chidren of migrants) • institutions

17. Parents Journalists Publishers Politicians Administrators Languages of schooling University Professors Inspectors Headteachers Teachers Trainers Cultural Agencies Associations Trade Unions World of work

18. Next project in Lombardy… Languages of Schooling

19. 2009: European Year of Creativity and Innovation

20. S L O G A N