Móðurmál represented at international conference in Reykjavík

Móðurmál was represented at the international conference Learning Spaces for Inclusion and Social Justice that took place in Reykjavík between 15th and 17th October 2015.

The conference was a conclusion of a three-year Nordic project and the key speakers were famous researchers in the fields of multiculturalism, heritage language education, social justice and citizenship education, James Banks, Jim Cummins, Anne Phoenix and Gert Biesta.

Móðurmál was represented with a booth on the first two days of a conference and two pieces of research on heritage language teachers’ views and long-distance heritage language teaching.

Presentation for guests from Germany

Móðurmál and the Multicultural Council of Reykjavík, represented by Renata Emilsson Peskova and Marina de Quintanilha e Mendonca, welcomed seventeen guests from German preschools and humanitarian organizations.

The mutual exchange of experiences and new ideas about inclusive multicultural education took place on October 8th 2015, in Gerðuberg, and was organized by CHANCENGLEICH in Europa e.V. / Equal Opportunities in Europe, an organization that promotes i.e. inclusive education, intercultural communication and transnational exchange.

This is the second time that Móðurmál and the Multicultural Council welcome guests from Germany and present their activities.

European Day of Languages 26th September –- Café Lingua

On Saturday 26th September, Café Lingua was held in the City Library in Gerðuberg.

It was devoted to a presentation of a wide spectrum of languages used all around Europe as well as in Iceland. Café lingua took place under the patronage of City Library of Gerðuberg, School and Leisure Department of Reykjavík and Móðurmál.

It started with the Lithuanian children’s choir that sang and taught visitors a traditional Lithuanian song. After that, a new Polish theatre group Pleikhús presented some toughest Polish tongue-twisters with a lot of humour. In the end, children and all guests were amused by the performance of magician Einar the Unique.
Czech, Lithuanian, Polish, English, Italian, Arabic and Móðurmál presented their languages and the computer platform of the Council of Europe devoted to the European Day of Languages.

The goal of the European Day of Languages is to highlight language diversity in Europe and the importance of learning more than one language.

Project Without Borders: Cooperation of the Czech society TÉKÍS and NGO Radka

Three representatives of the Czech organisation RADKA visited the Czech society in Iceland TÉKIS from the September 25th to November 2nd.

The common project Without Borders, supported by the Nordic funds, is a year project which aims at the exchange of good multicultural practices in schools, culture and society. Their schedule led them, among other things, to kindergartens and primary schools, Móðurmál classes, Café Lingua, cultural meeting Flying Carpet, AUS volunteer exchange organisation.

They met the Czech community in Iceland and shared knowledge about the organisation of volunteer work. This is the third visit of RADKA in Iceland and representatives of TÉKÍS and cultural and education experts from Iceland will conclude the common project in February 2016.

The mutual dialogue and exchange have benefited all participants of the project. Maternity, educational, social and volunteer organisation RADKA has already launched Café Lingua and Flying carpet programme in the Czech Republic.

Which elements they will establish in North-West Bohemia this time?

Kæri fésbókarvinur – Dear Facebook Friend

Dear Facebook Friends (please share)
Móðurmál does ambitious work for multilingual children, their families and society. We would like to encourage you to get acquainted with our activities at modurmal.com and show us support by becoming a member. We are looking for volunteers who could help us with the homepage, translations, organization of events, mother tongue teaching, looking for grants etc. We offer great experience and access to training.

Thank you ❤️

Kæri fésbókarvinur (viltu deila?)
Móðurmál, samtök um tvítyngi, sinnir metnaðarfullu starfi í þágu fjöltyngdra barna, fjölskyldna þeirra og samfélagsins. Við viljum bjóða þér að kynnast starfsemi okkar á www.modurmal.com og sýna okkur stuðning með því að gerast félagi. Við erum að leita af sjálfboðaliðum sem geta aðstoðað við heimasíðu, þýðingar, skipulag viðburða, móðurmálskennslu, leit af styrkjum osf. Við bjóðum skemmtilega reynslu og aðgang að fræðslu.
Með þökkum, Móðurmál

Professor Ina Druviete from Latvia gives a lecture on bilingualism to Latvians in Iceland

On September 6, the Latvian school in Reykjavik, Latvian group in Móðurmál, invited the Latvian speaking community to a lecture given by a well known linguistic specialist in Latvia, Ina Druviete, who was the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia in 2004–2006.

To begin the lecture Ms Druviete spoke about psycholinguistic theory and social aspects of language learning, paying attention to the important role of attitude to a certain language and motivation for learning it. Unfortunately, the low motivation for the ability to know or learn Latvian language is not only a problem among Latvian people living abroad, but also in Latvia itself, which should become a political matter. When we look at the statistics of world languages, we see that the Latvian language is not a small language and it is not on a verge of disappearing, so it’s disappointing that this myth of the extinction of the Latvian language is actually very strong in Latvian minds.

We as parents and teachers are very much responsible for making children understand that language is a valuable thing and knowing Latvian can bring them lots of benefits. Ms Druviete also showed us research results that indicate that bilinguals and multilingual are not only cognitively smarter but also socially and emotionally smarter than monolinguals. One of Ms Druviete’s objects of interest is Latvian language schools abroad, so for her, this was a chance to meet Latvian people in Iceland, learn about the Latvian school in Reykjavik and its experience. She revealed she has learned new valuable information to use on her further work and research in linguistics.

Professor Ina Druviete is visiting Iceland these days to work as a guest professor in Icelandic Language Institute. This lecture was given in cooperation with Latvian school in Reykjavik and was her voluntary work that we appreciate a lot.

We also thank Gerðuberg Multicultural Centre and Móðurmál for their support in organizing this event.

Successful Móðurmál Conference

The summer course organized by Móðurmál last weekend, 21st and 22nd of August was a sheer success! 🎉 Thank you for your contribution, dear participants, organizers and lecturers.

There are mainly two themes that we would like to celebrate:

Firstly, this was the first time that the course was open for Reykjavik preschool and school teachers, and professionals in leisure centres. Reykjavik Department of Education supported Móðurmál summer course and aims at mediating more information about mother tongues to educators and professionals.

Second, the honorary guest Deirdre Kirwan spoke wholeheartedly about the integrated approach to language learning which brings success to students in her school. The plurilingual environment is a great way to encourage students to express themselves in all their languages but also to analyze the similarities and differences between their own mother tongue and other languages.

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