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SEMLANG - www.semlang.eu
The SEMLANG Summer University July 6th - 10th, 2009

The European context
The Lisbon strategy, designed to make the EU the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world, recognizes the language policy as one of the decisive factors. A means of discovery and exchange, enrichment and mobility, multilinguism is also one of the key elements of the member states’ economic development and the social and politic cohesion of the Union as a whole.

Numerous innovations have been introduced since the year 2000, such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, new learning techniques, more exchange and mobility programmes and the nomination of a European Commissar in charge exclusively of multilinguism.

The importance of language teachers
As they are directly in contact with the learners, the language teachers have a pivotal role to play in order to develop multilinguism on a European scale. Their training must therefore be carefully thought through and adapted to different contexts.

The SEMLANG Summer University
The project is built around the organisation of a Summer University dedicated to language teacher education. It will take place in France, at the Centre international d’études pédagogiques (CIEP) in Sèvres (near Paris), from July 6th to 10th, 2009. The event is supported by seven institutions based in six different European countries.

SEMLANG is financed mainly by funds of the European Union (Lifelong Learning Programme). It is based on the report by Professor Michael Kelly (University of Southampton, UK) to the European Commission, titled European Profile for Language Teacher Education: a Frame of Reference.

SEMLANG aims to improve the quality of language teacher education in Europe, as well as to support the teachers’ involvement in the development of multilinguism.

Main objectives:

• initiating a reflexion upon the status and the role of language teachers in Europe
• making the different teacher education systems better known - optimizing language teacher education through the exchange of best practices
• studying the transferability of the recommendations from the Kelly report to the national level.

The broad issues will be tackled during the conferences, while a series of workshops will be providing a more detailed and diversified approach.

Participants’ Profile
The summer university is designed mainly for policy-makers and expert decision-makers in language teacher education.

Partners
The following institutions are part of the SEMLANG consortium:

• the Centre international d’études pédagogiques (CIEP)
• France the Teacher education school of Venice (SSIS)
• Italy the Austrian centre for language competence (ÖSZ)
• Austria the National centre for language teacher education (CODN)
• Poland the Public service language centre of Vilnius (PSLC)
• Lithuania the Ecole normale supérieure of Lyon
• France the University of Luxemburg – Luxemburg

For more information, please read the Program or visit our website www.semlang.eu or contact us at the following address:

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.