Multilingual Education and India

Dear MLE friends, A new recourse on endangered languages is available. Check it out: UNESCO launches the electronic version of the new edition of its Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger on 19 February The Atlas, presented on the eve of International Mother Language Day (21 February), enables searches according to several criteria, and ranks the 2,500 endangered languages that are listed according to five different levels of vitality: unsafe, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered and extinct., youth and the private sector. The work carried out by the more than 30 linguists who worked together on the Atlas shows that the phenomenon of disappearing languages appears in every region and in very variable economic conditions.

Dear MLE friends, Today is the International Mother Language Day! See the UNESCO announcement below.

Dear MLE friends, The India MLE video has now been added to the YouTube list. It is a good link to pass on when you do advocacy with policy makers.

Dear MLE friends, Most MLE efforts take place in primary schools. The government of India has now put the “school reports charts” of most(?)  primary schools in India on line. Check out the schools in your project.

Dear MLE friends, In depth training on MLE is not yet available in India . Hence I forward this opportunity in Thailand . It is a 4 weeks course which is part of an MA programme at Payap University in Chiang Mai. It will be taught by Dr Dennis & Dr Susan Malone who have extensive experience in MLE, including running workshops in India .

Dear MLE Friends, Even though the ASER report is not directly MLE related, since it is such basic information for anybody with an interest in Education, I am sure most of you will be interested to get a copy. You can download it from: http://www.pratham.org/aserrep.php

Dear MLE friends, It is not to often that languages conferences are hold within our region. This year there will be one in B’desh. The website says: 8th International Language and Development Conference Dhaka , Bangladesh from 23 to 25 June 2009. The conference has a strong focus on providing a forum for examining important issues related to language policy, language learning and language teaching in the context of the developing world and, in particular, from the perspective of policy makers, language and literacy educators, development professionals and donors.