2022 Conference
The 2nd annual online FOHLC Europe conference took place on November 11 and 12, 2022.
THEME
Multilingual Children and Multilingual Libraries:
Cultivating Reading Habits in the Heritage Language
The program included keynote speakers, workshops for HL teachers and HL program managers, networking opportunities, and a panel discussion by experts. Topics included how to incorporate literature into HL program curricula, how to build libraries, and how to use existing multilingual digital libraries. Our presenters shared practical tips and inspiring examples of how to get multilingual children motivated to read in the heritage language!
OUR TEAM
FOHLC Europe 2022 was organized by Móðurmál – the Association on Bilingualism, Heritage Language Education Network, Association pour la Promotion et l'Avancement du Multilinguisme - A.P.A.M (Multilingual Café), Association for the Promotion of Polish Language Abroad (APPLA), the Czech and Slovak School Okénko in London, and Agnieszka Pędrak, an independent researcher at Trinity College in Dublin. Meet our team. Email our team.
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Feedback from conference attendees in 2022
Conference Program
Friday, November 11, 2022 (GMT/London time)
17:00-17:05
Welcome
17:05-17:15
Intro FOHLC Europe
17:15-17:55
Keynote talk
Dr. Paul Frank
Finding and Creating Heritage Language Books with Bloom
17:55-18:05
Break
18:05-18:55
Parallel Networking Sessions (teachers & managers & coalition leaders)
18:55-19:00
Closing
Saturday, November 12, 2022 (GMT/London time)
16:00-16:05
Welcome
16:05-17:05
Keynote talk
Prof. Stephen Krashen & Dr. Nooshan Ashtari
Heritage Language Development: The Advantages, the Problems and the Solution
17:05-17:15
Break
17:15-18:50
Parallel Workshops
Workshop for HL teachers
Julliane de Oliveira Rüdisser
How do you incorporate children's literature into your curriculum?
Workshop for HL program managers
Jana Nahodilová
How do you set up an HL library?
18:50-19:00
Break
19:00-19:45
Panel Discussion
Panelist
Dr. Sabine Little
Senior Lecturer in Languages Education at the University of Sheffield
Panelist
Gina Domeniconi
Swiss Institute for Children's and Youth Media (SIKJM)
Panelist
Amina Marix Evans
Kittiwake Trust Multillingual Library
19:45-19:55
Closing
Registration
Registration is closed.
Keynote talk
by Dr. Paul Frank
Friday, November 11, 2022
Finding and Creating Heritage Language Books with Bloom
Dr. Paul Frank
Bloom Library
Paul Frank is the Bloom Program Manager for SIL International and a Senior Advisor for SIL LEAD, Inc., a subsidiary of SIL. Both are non-profit nongovernmental organizations dedicated to serving minority language communities. He has a PhD in linguistics and 40 years of experience in applied linguistic research and the management of development programs in minority language communities.
Dr. Frank is an expert on SIL International’s Bloom software, a Bloom Master Trainer, and an author of Bloom training materials. Bloom is being used around the world to create books in both dominant and non-dominant languages. The online Bloom Library contains more than 11,000 books in over 475 languages.
He was the Executive Director and co-founder of SIL LEAD, and before that he was an international officer of SIL International, overseeing a multi-million dollar annual budget. He has represented SIL International in its interactions with the news media, the international NGO community, and the United States and foreign governments.
Keynote talk
by Prof. Stephen Krashen
& Dr. Nooshan Ashtari
Saturday, November 12, 2022
Heritage Language Development: The Advantages, the Problems and the Solution
Development of the heritage language leads to cognitive, academic and practical advantages, as well as the ability to profit from the wisdom of both cultures, and it has no disadvantages. But all too often, heritage language development stops at the basic level. There are several reasons for this: (1) the use of traditional teaching methods in heritage language classes, and (2) the negative reactions of fluent heritage language speakers, who unjustly criticize imperfections in young heritage language speakers’ speech. But research has strongly suggested that there is a powerful means of developing the heritage language that is not only effective, but also very pleasant: Self-selected pleasure reading in the heritage language. The factor preventing us from taking advantage of pleasure reading is the lack of interesting, comprehensible reading material in bookstores and libraries, a problem that is easy to solve.
Prof. Stephen Krashen
Stephen Krashen has contributed to the fields of bilingual education, neurolinguistics, second language acquisition and literacy. Many of his books and articles are available for free download at sdkrashen.com. He invites you to follow him on twitter (skrashen).
Dr. Nooshan Ashtari
Nooshan Ashtari has contributed to the fields of technology and language education, sociolinguistics, and heritage language development among others. Her hope is that her research will help ensure that children of immigrants can communicate easily with their parents, grandparents, and relatives in their heritage language.
Workshops
Saturday, November 12, 2022
Julliane de Oliveira Rüdisser
Workshop for HL teachers:
How do you incorporate children's literature into your curriculum?
Julliane de Oliveira Rüdisser teaches Portuguese as a heritage language through the public school system in Tirol, she has started an association that advocates on behalf of immigrants for integration, and – on top of this – she is working on her PhD about the effect that intensive literacy in the heritage language has on school performance. Julliane is also a collaborator in a special council formed by NCoC Bildung im Kontext von Migration und Mehrsprachigkeit (BIMM) that is designing the new school curriculum for HL teaching in Austria.
Jana Nahodilová
Workshop for HL program managers:
How do you set up an HL library?
This workshop will explore the main aspects that need to be considered when setting up an HL library, in particular organizing books, digitization of the library, and choosing and setting up a catalogue and transferring between different systems. We will also discuss examples of good practice in how libraries are run, books acquired and reading in general promoted.
Jana is from the Czech Republic and lives in London. She has a BA in Legal Studies, a MSc in Gender studies, and a MPhil in Czech literature and nationalism. Since 2001 she has taught at University of Bristol Czech language and culture. In 2012 she established the Czech and Slovak School Okénko in London, which she runs and where she also teaches. She focuses on promotion of reading skills and literature for children as well as adults and she oversaw modernization of the library. She is involved with an international project My Czech school, and contributes to an international Czech children’s magazine Krajanek, which focuses on supporting and promoting bilingual education of Czech children abroad. Jana is also a chair of the Association of Czech and Slovak schools in the U.K.
Panelists
Saturday, November 12, 2022
Dr. Sabine Little
Language, identity, and well-being
Dr Sabine Little is Senior Lecturer in Languages Education at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the intersection of language, identity, and well-being, working holistically with children, families, and schools. She convenes the Literacy and Multilingualism Special Interest Group for the UK Literacy Association, and co-convenes the European Educational Research Association’s Network 31: Language and Education.
Gina Domeniconi
Children's literacy promotion
Gina Domeniconi, *1986 in Zurich, studied German literature and philosophy and worked in public and university libraries at the same time. Since 2015, she has been working at the Swiss Institute for Children's and Youth Media (SIKJM) in the area of literacy promotion. She leads the project "Schenk mir eine Geschichte - Family Literacy" (Tell me a story - family literacy) with a focus on first language promotion, in the context of which she trains migrants to become reading promoters, among other things. She is also in charge of the multilingual verse database “Rhythm and Rhymes.”
Amina Marix Evans
Kittiwake Trust Multillingual Library
Amina has spent her whole life with books; working in the library of the Institute of Race Relations, bookshops in Sydney and London, publishing companies in the Netherlands and spending 35 years as a freelance foreign rights agent, during which time she also worked as a freelance editor and translator. When she realized how many people did not have easy access to books, while some publishers were pulping books by the skip load, the idea for Borderline Books was born. The embryo of the project took shape in the early hours of 11 September 2001 after a brainstorming session with Sjaak van Rijn who facilitated the setting up of the project in Leiden. In 2007 she brought the project to the UK where it has flourished. She started the Multilingual Library in Eldon Garden, Newcastle in the summer of 2015. After becoming the first Library of Sanctuary in the North-East, the landlords took the space back in 2021 and it is still awaiting new premises.
Amina was offered – and declined – an MBE in late 2016.
Organizers
