VUB supports multilingualism in Brussels with BeTalky grant

Friday, April 9, 2021 — VUB is the only university to receive a grant as part of the BeTalky 2021-2022 project call. Led by Sven Gatz, minister responsible for the promotion of multilingualism, the Brussels government has approved the proposal for an e-platform, promoted by Rik Vosters and Jianwei Xu of the Linguistics and Literary Studies department. The aim of the interactive and multilingual platform is to map out best practices in home language education - often referred to as heritage language education - and share them between communities. " We collect the latest scientific insights from the literature and translate them into practice using concrete examples from some communities that we include as case studies,' explains Jianwei Xu. "This will allow for an exchange of ideas, methods and teaching practices, and raise the profile of home language education. Smaller communities that do not yet have any offerings can also find inspiration for their own initiatives, learning from the many good examples in Brussels.' Home language teaching is available for many of the more than 100 languages spoken on a daily basis in Brussels, usually outside school or in weekend classes. "Sometimes official bodies take the initiative, as in the case of the Spanish lessons set up by the Consejería de Educación or the secular home language teaching in Arabic offered by VUB with Scholengroep Brussel in the ALEF project,' explains Rik Vosters.