Library project of Móðurmál (Rósa Björg Jónsdóttir, bókasafnsfræðingur)
Individual mother tongue groups are teaching regularly on weekends, and occasionally they organize cultural events, welcome famous guests or take part in international projects. Thank you! ❤️ You are all doing a great job! for children, parents, communities and the whole society, in many ways.
Móðurmál –the Association on Bilingualism– and mother tongue groups celebrate the international mother language day today, together with many in the world.
At the occasion of the day, the children who attend mother tongue classes in Móðurmál at this point were counted; the final number is 650 which means a decrease from the previous year. However, English, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Bulgarian and Indonesian will hopefully start. Also, a new Russian school is joining in the spring. Outside of Móðurmál, other languages are supported by playgroups and parent groups, i.e. Finish and Swedish in the Nordic house.
Móðurmál is celebrating the day on Saturday 24th February, in a collaborative project with the Reykjavík City Library, the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík, the Center of Language and Literacy, and the Cultural Center of Gerðuberg. Six choirs will sing songs in their mother tongues and then one Icelandic song together at the end, it will be possible to write a letter to friends and relatives in other countries and a language tree will be decorated with beautiful words in all world´s languages. There will be creative workshops and karaoke where languages will play the main role. Móðurmál will present its library project.
Vigdís World Language Centre held a symposium Dictionaries: Multilingualism, Translations and Terminology where the importance of dictionaries for linguistic diversity, multilingualism and the bridging of borders was discussed. Móðurmál was there, presenting various bottom-up dictionary projects!
Móðurmál is also taking part in the Finish initiative “Multilingual Month” which collects and highlight various language events and initiative in the Nordic countries. All Icelandic projects celebrating mother languages, registered at Multilingual Month, can be seen here
On Saturday 2nd December 2017 the Choir festival of Móðurmál groups took place in Gerðuberg. Sólveig Simha, the teacher from the French mother tongue groups, coordinated the project.
Children from nine groups took part and sang one to three songs in their language. Represented were the Czech, Filipino, French, Japanese, Lithuanian, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian and Thai groups. In the end, all children together sang two Icelandic Christmas songs.
The meeting was very well attended by children and their guardians and the milieu in the cultural centre Gerðuberg was exemplary.
Congratulations Móðurmál and thank you so much, everyone, who took part! ❤️
The Lithuanian Ministry of Education invited the principal of Lithuanian mother tongue school in Iceland “Three colours” Jurgita Milleriene to hold a lecture about the foundation of mother tongue school abroad.
There are numerous important things to keep in mind while establishing a mother tongue school and making it a successful working school. Jurgita shared some guidelines and talked about the good practice of Lithuanian mother tongue school in Iceland. Lithuanian mother tongue school “Three colours” is a very active, creative and innovative school that a lot of other schools here in Iceland and others abroad are looking at it as an example.
Monika Franciszka Sienkiewicz, the headmaster of the Polish school in Reykjavik, got an honourable mention for promoting Polish culture in Iceland in 27th Zygmunt Gloger Medal and Award Contest (Konkursu o Nagrodę i Medal Zygmunta Glogera).
Congratulations, dear Monika! 🎉 All of us who work with you know how precious your contribution to the Polish school and the Polish community in Reykjavík is.
Samfok –the Association of Parents of Compulsory School Children in Reykjavík–, together with Móðurmál –the Association on Bilingualism–, and individual mother tongue schools organize ten conferences about school matters with a focus on parents of foreign origin in the Greater Reykjavík Area. This school year 2017-18, ten conferences in the biggest languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian, Filippino, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, English, Russian) will be held.
Presentations and discussions will revolve around typical features of schools and leisure centres in Iceland, the collaboration of parents and schools, mother tongues and active bilingualism of children. The presentations will be in Icelandic and interpreted into the language of each conference.
The aim of the conferences is to inform parents and to create a platform to talk together about the school culture in Iceland and the interest, responsibility, and influence of parents on the study and well-being of their children. The conferences will be held at the time of the other tongue classes in Hólabrekkuskóli, Fellaskóli, and Álfhólsskóli on Saturdays and Sundays and take around 2,5 hrs.
All school parents from the Greater Reykjavík Area are welcome.
The project´s further partners and supporters are W.O.M.E.N. –the Association of Women of Foreign Origin, Heimili og skóli– the Association of Parents in Iceland, the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík, the Ministry of Welfare, and Kópavogur.
Móðurmál organised its 5th annual conference on 25th and 26th August 2017. This time, the main theme was the comparison of mother tongue instruction in Sweden, Canada/Alberta, and Iceland. Two professionals were invited from the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, Alberta, and one from the Mother Tongue Center in Lund, Sweden. Dr. Josephine Pallard and Dr. Trudie Aberdeen introduced the Albertan model of heritage language education, its structure, and accreditation process which enables the students of heritage language school to collect credits for their further university studies. Silvia Cordero introduced the Swedish practice in which mother tongue instruction is provided by a regional authority and mother tongue classes take place in schools after school hours.
The conference was preceded by a meeting with City and State representatives at the office of the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík, in which the experts from Edmonton and Lund shared their knowledge about their subsequent models of provision of mother tongue instruction to bilingual children, and the accreditation processes.
At the conference, mother tongue teachers of Móðurmál presented the good practice, research, and projects that took place in the past school year, and the richness and the quality of their work were evident. The conference was finished with a workshop on project based heritage language teaching, given by Dr. Aberdeen. Parallelly with the conference, two author reading sessions took place. The first one was organized by the society Czech in Iceland who invited the author of children´s historical adventure books Veronika Válková. The second session took place at the end of the conference and Abenda Darko from the Ghanaian Móðurmál group read from her new book Folktales from Ghana.
Among guests were mother tongue teachers, school teachers, employees of the City of Reykjavík and researchers from the University of Iceland. The conference took place in Veröld, the house of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, in collaboration with Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Multicultural Understanding; wonderful refreshments were provided by Nice Catering Service.
The annual Móðurmál conference not only provides further professional training to teachers and creates a platform for meetings and discussions of interested participants from different professional backgrounds, but it also gives an excellent opportunity to community leaders, teachers, and artists to present their work.
Móðurmál thanks to the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, the Association of Friends of the Polish School in Reykjavík, Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, and the Department of Education and Youth of the City of Reykjavík for the financial and other support.
Following visits and discussions of representatives of Móðurmál and the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in fall 2015 and 2016, spring 2017, and summer 2017, the two organisations concluded that formal collaboration would strengthen and profit them on many levels.
During the 5th annual conference of Móðurmál, two representatives of IHLA handed over a formal letter from the chair of IHLA Ms Antonella Cortese to the chair of Móðurmál, Ms Renata Emilsson Peskova, that confirmed that the two associations of mother tongue/heritage language school became sister organisations.
Móðurmál and IHLA share common goals and they work towards the same ends, that is to support and promote mother tongues/heritage languages of plurilingual children, and to assist teachers, schools, and families in their efforts to sustain and develop mother tongue/heritage language learning and instruction.
The formal collaboration started with the exchange of expertise and experience of board members and coordinators, but it will also, not less importantly, take place on the individual level, among teachers, groups, between children and communities. The cooperation will continue next spring when a representative of the Filipino group “Inangwika” visits the Filipino community in Edmonton in spring 2018, to plan for further collaboration and strategic steps, and to give a professional development (PD) session for IHLA teachers.
