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    Grande région

Greater Region

The border region at a glance

  • consists of the territories Lorraine in the French region Grand Est; the areas of Wallonia, the Federation Wallonia-Brussels and East Belgium; the federal states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
  • ~ 11,8 million inhabitants (2023)
  • official languages: French, German, Luxembourgish

(Source: https://www.grossregion.net/Die-Grossregion-kompakt/Die-Grossregion-in-Zahlen) 

Language situation

  • The Greater Region has around 267.000 cross-border commuters, the highest number in the EU. Hence, multilingualism is of special importance and opens up numerous perspectives for the cross-border labour market. In this context, several short- and long-term-projects support cross-border vocational education programmes. To find out more, see: Examples of good practices
  • Language policies focus on communication skills in French, German, Luxembourgish, without excluding further languages taught in the education systems, such as English, Spanish, Italian or Latin. 
  • Although the neighbouring languages are promoted as important for daily (work) life, in reality, language proficiency is very heterogeneous. This makes communication in different parts of everyday life (such as activities, work and education) in the official languages of the Greater Region difficult - especially in cross-border vocational education further support for language learning and teaching is needed.

(Sources: Fehlen 2016; Gengler 2008; Moll 2016; Nienaber et al. 2021 - To find out more, see: Bibliography and annotated bibliography

 

List of stakeholders

Examples of good practices


BRIDGE (project INTERREG)
CAMT (project INTERREG)
Deutsch-französischer Ausbildungszweig Automobil
Grenzüberschreitende Ausbildung Saarland – Lothringen 
SESAM-GR  (project INTERREG)
Grenzgänger (Goethe-Institut in Nancy) 

 

Contact(s) for this resource

Claudia Polzin-Haumann
polzin-haumannmx.uni-saarland.de 
Sabine Ehrhart
sabine.ehrhartuni.lu
Fabienne Korb
fabienne.korbuni-saarland.de

Veronika Lovrits
veronika.lovritsuni.lu
Christina Reissner
c.reissnermx.uni-saarland.de
Elisabeth Venohr
e.venohrmx.uni-saarland.de

References in German and English

Fehlen F. (2016), “Sprachenpolitik in der Großregion SaarLorLux”, in Lorig W. H., Regolot S. and Henn S. (eds), Die Großregion SaarLorLux. Anspruch, Wirklichkeiten, Perspektiven, Springer VS, Wiesbaden, pp. 73-93,

 

Gengler C. (2008), “Die Sprachkenntnisse in der Großregion SaarLorLux/Rheinland-Pfalz/Wallonien: Einige Ergebnisse aus dem Forschungsprojekt ‘Leben in der Großregion’”, in Raasch A. and Wessela E. (eds), Europäische Nachbarschaftspolitik: Soziale Kohäsion durch Sprache. Dokumentation eines Bilanz- und Impulskolloquiums der Europäischen Akademie Otzenhausen, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, pp. 21-26.

 

Gipfelsekretariat der Großregion (2020), Die Großregion in Zahlen, available at www.grossregion.net/Die-Grossregion-kompakt/Die-Grossregion-in-Zahlen, accessed 12 October 2023.

 

Moll P. (2016), “Die ‘Zukunftsvision 2020’ für die Großregion: Warum? Für wen? Mit welchem Ergebnis? Mit welcher Perspektive? Eine Zwischenbilanz”, in Lorig W. H., Regolot S. and Henn S. (eds), Die Großregion SaarLorLux. Anspruch, Wirklichkeiten, Perspektiven, Springer VS, Wiesbaden, pp. 47-72.

 

Nienaber B. et al. (2021), “Using cross-border mobility in vocational education and training in the Greater Region SaarLorLux”, The Palgrave handbook of youth mobility, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK.