CG Summer School on European Multilingualism
17 July 2018
The first Coimbra Group Summer School on European Multilingualism took place from 7 to 14 July at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. This initiative, organised within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA107, brought together 26 students and 17 staff members from CG Universities and universities in the Western Balkans with the aim of exploring innovative approaches to language teaching and learning.
This was an initiative of the Development Cooperation Working Group, which identified the University of Novi Sad as the institution with whom many CG Universities already cooperate. The Chair of the Development Cooperation Working Group, Filippo Sartor (University of Bologna), presented the Coimbra Group and the activities of the Development Cooperation Working Group at the official opening of the Summer School on 7 July.
The programme of the Summer School consisted of various modules combining both theory and practice, with multilingual and multicultural approaches to language teaching and learning being accompanied by workshops on translation. There were four groups of languages: French-Serbian, German-Serbian, Italian-Serbian, Spanish-Serbian. In addition to these languages, participants were offered the opportunity to learn about Less Widely Used and Lesser Taught languages (LWULT) and their important role in keeping language diversity and the world’s multilingual heritage. Two LWULT Workshops offered were on Hebrew and Modern Greek.
The outcomes of the Summer Schools have extended well beyond its pedagogical purposes, as not only has it provided participating staff and students with useful pedagogic tools, it has also contributed to supporting foreign languages teaching and learning in the Western Balkans and helped students and staff experience internationalisation at home.
The participating staff from Coimbra Group Universities said that this close collaboration with the staff from the University of Novi Sad has enabled them to observe and understand the concrete needs and the issues faced by the host university’s staff when it comes to modernisation and internationalisation of the curriculum. They found this experience very fulfilling and they would be in favour of repeating it in 2019, possibly in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We would like to thank:
- the staff from the participating Coimbra Group Universities: Claudia Borghetti (University of Bologna), Carmen Caballero Navas (University of Granada), María Herreros Marcilla and María Ángeles Recio Ariza (University of Salamanca), Jelena Petrović (University of Graz), Licia Bagini, Freiderikos Valetopoulos and Sanja Bosković (University of Poitiers)
- the staff from the University of Novi Sad: Pavle Sekeruš, Tatjana Djurin, Tamara Valčić Bulić, Nataša Popović, Borislava Eraković, Zoran Velikić, Aleksandra Blatešić, Mario Liguori and Bojana Kovačević Petrović
- the Development Cooperation Working Group, for taking this initiative forward
And a special thanks goes to Sanja Bosković, Associate Professor in language and civilization at the University of Poitiers and Vice-Chair of the Development Cooperation Working Group, for the coordination of this successful Summer School.
Coimbra Group Summer School on European Multilingualism – Programme
