[MLE] Overview of MLE Courses and activities

Dear MLE friends,

Several people asked what kind of courses are offered related to MLE. Therefore a page has been added to the MLE-India blog with a list of MLE related courses and events.

[MLE] Funding: Genographic Legacy Fund grants

Dear MLE friends,

Below is a funding opportunity that might be relevant for some of your projects.

[MLE] New World Bank Education Strategy published

Dear MLE Friends,

The World Bank's new education strategy  was published earlier this week. For the first time it includes a statement on the language of instruction. In the section on children between the ages of 6 and 8 it states: "Children in these age groups benefit from the instructional use of their mother tongue, combined with instruction in the dominant language.".

The phrasing seems a bit weak is it leaves space for early exit strategies (meaning a quick transition to the language of wider communication). A study like the one from Kathleen Heugh "Optimizing Learning and Education in Africa – the Language Factor" suggests that only programmes that spend several years in the mother tongue book the success needed.

[MLE] Free access to Routledge education journals till end April

Dear MLE friends,

There are several journals related to Multicultural Education that are of interest to MLE practitioners and scholars. Below is an overview from one particular publisher. The articles can be read on-line for free. But If I understand it right it will only be free till the end of this month. Enjoy it!

Here is the link: http://www.educationarena.com/journals/bySubject.asp?subject=SCED48

[MLE] MLE e-news: Multilingual Education Newsletter - March 2011 - Issue 1

Dear MLE,

A new MLE newsletter has been started by the Asia Multilingual Education Working Group under the Thematic Working Group on Education for All. See below. It seems very worthwhile to subscribe. Thanks to Dave Pearson for the tip.

[MLE] Draft list of all MLE projects in India

Dear MLE Friends,

Over the last few months several people asked me what MLE related projects are actually going on in India. So we have started an overview of MLE related projects. However this overview is (hopefully!) far from complete.

If you know of any MLE related project not yet on the list, please let us know. That way we can make the list more complete and learn from each other. Any other type of feed-back on the posted list is of course welcome too!

[MLE] Moving from "Why" to "How"; CfBT/SC report

Dear MLE friends,
This week a lot of news items were found on the internet related to multilingualism and MLE because of the celebrations on the Mother Language Day. The release of a new report from SC is one that caught my eye because it also has references to India: Reflecting language diversity in children’s schooling: moving from ‘Why multilingual education’ to ‘How?’ by Helen Pinnock . Here is the news release from the CfBT website:

Today, 21 February, CfBT releases new research to coincide with International Mother Tongue Language Day. The research, undertaken with Save the Children, examines how multilingual education in Africa, Asia and Latin America can be made possible.  The research focuses on two well-developed multi-lingual education projects run by Save the Children with local partners in Vietnam and Bangladesh as well as material from government-led projects in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa in India.