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DISCUSSION FORUM

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of multilingualism. Apart from your responses to the questionnaire you can check what European citizens say when discussing the questions:

Do you experience problems in your everyday life that are due to language difficulties?

TASKS

Unit 1. Linguistic diversity and multilingualism

1. Compare these two websites to see different languages in the world. Which are the main differences? Which one do you like best? Discuss these questions in the classroom and in the Forum 2 

The Ethnologue Linguamon

2. Endangered languages. Watch these videos and discuss the aims of the National Geographic project and the they use.

Endangered languages Dying languages

3. Look at this interactive map and find information about languages at risk and complete task 2.

Interactive map of languages at risk

Unit 2. Language planning: theoretical approaches and research methods

1. Task : Answer these questions about Basque using your own words, You can find information here

Right to use the Basque language

a. Must road traffic signals be written in Basque in the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre?

b. When and where can Basque be used in the European Union?
c. Can I choose not to learn Spanish at all or not to learn Basque at all in the Basque Autonomous Community?
d. Do the functions of the social services include that of guaranteeing citizens? choice of language?
e. On what is the right to receive social services in the Basque language based?

2. Find out which languages some people around you speak by using: 1) street measurement (20 people); 2) a short interview (3 people). Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both methods.

Unit 3. Minority languages and languages of wider communication in Europe

1. Answer the following questions on European languages

a. Which are the languages spoken in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria?
b. How many official languages are there in the European Union?
c. How many countries are there in the Council of Europe?
d. What is the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages?
2. Summarize the introduction of one of the following Mercator dossiers:
-Romani and Beash
-Frisian
-Welsh
-Sami
-Galician
-Catalan

4. English and Multilingualism in the world

1. Pleasediscuss the following points (150-200 words for each question):

a) Similarities and differences between multilingualism in Europe and outside Europe, particularly in Africa and India

b) When you look at the different videos which are the main differences between education in the Basque Country and in Africa or India?

2. Read the narrative by Chimwemwe M.M. Kamanga ( In Todeva & Cenoz, 2009) and discuss  1) the number of languages an individual can learn; 2) being multilingual in Africa as compared to being multilingual in Europe; 3) the way languages can be learned (things that can help) (Total 500 words)

Unit 5. The sociolinguistic situation in the Basque Country

1. Which are the main challenges of using Basque as the language of instruction? Just give a list of the main challenges nowadays and the main challenges in the past (Zalbide & Cenoz, 2008)

2. When was the most recent sociolinguistic map of the Basque Autonomous Community published? Please give the link to this publication and to a newspaper article discussing it.

Unit 6. Language planning in the Basque Country

1. Explain the different levels of selection related to immigrant students according to (Etxeberria & Elosegi, 2008)

2. Look at interactive mapand give two examples of municipalities with a high percentage of immigrants and two with a very low percentage (give the name of the municipality, and the percentage)