Supporting the language(s) of schooling 
The ROADMAP - a web-based, user-friendly and customised self-assessment tool to foster school development

The ECML offers its member states European expertise in language education adapted to the concrete needs and specific contexts within individual countries. This bilateral support in a range of key areas helps strengthen the cooperation between member states and the ECML by taking the expertise gained from ECML projects directly into member states. ECML experts work with national authorities and local experts to devise and implement in-country activities, tailored to the particular context and target audience.  For 2025 a number of new areas are on offer which  build on the results of projects run within the Inspiring innovation in language education programme (2020-23). Please note that activities offered in cooperation with the European Commission are subject to a separate Call for requests which will be issued in late November.

The  following  ECML training and consultancy activities are on offer for 2025:

• Plurilingual and intercultural education: teacher and learner competences
• Steps towards implementing plurilingual and intercultural education
• Plurilingual and intercultural education in early language learning
• The CEFR Companion Volume: Mediation and other key concepts – Focus: teacher and learner competences  
• The CEFR Companion Volume: Mediation and other key concepts – Focus: curriculum and evaluation
• Learning environments where languages flourish – Focus: Plurilingual and intercultural education
• Learning environments where languages flourish – Focus: Early language learning
• Action research communities for language teachers
• Fostering digital citizenship through language education
• Language for work – Work-related second language learning for adult migrants and ethnic minorities
• Beyond CLIL – Pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning
• A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling

Details of the proposed activities, practical information and the application form can be found here: www.ecml.at/Trainingandconsultancy.

Requests for a Training and consultancy activity must be submitted via the national ECML representative in the Governing Board. Educational professionals interested in a particular activity should therefore contact their national representative.

The application deadline for 2025 is 15 November 2024.

Date: 16 and 17 November 2023
Venue: Lycée Hôtelier International de Lille
Local organiser: Emmanuel HAUCHARD, CASNAV coordinator, Académie de Lille
ECML moderators: Nermina Wikström (Sweden) and Sophie Babault (France)
Participants: 23 teachers of various subjects (literature, English, physical and sports education, German, earth and life sciences), senior education advisers, teachers of French as a language of schooling, CASNAV academic advisers (trainers)

The inclusion of newly arrived allophone pupils in school is now a principle affirmed by academic directives and accepted by all members of the educational community. However, the objective of acquiring the French language – the language of schooling – sometimes means that other languages present in schools are overlooked. Yet knowledge and use of many languages designated as 'foreign' are not restricted to the minority of children from families that have recently arrived in France.

Thanks to ROADMAP/FEUILLE DE ROUTE, we can initiate a collective process of reflection involving all staff, as well as parents and pupils themselves. The self-assessment tool is easy to use, and invites the various players to consider all the languages involved as potential levers for learning, while strengthening the cohesion of the educational community. The practices proposed at the end of the diagnosis are inspiring and adaptable to different local contexts. With the support of ECML experts, the approach is easy to adopt and is showing promising results.

Emmanuel Hauchard, coordinator of the CASNAV of the Académie de Lille

• More information about this ECML training and consultancy offer for member states: "Supporting the language(s) of schooling – The ROADMAP – a web-based, user-friendly and customised self-assessment tool to foster school development"

“Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences” – Join the livestream!

The conference represents the culmination of the four years of work of the ECML’s “Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences”  programme, involving, among others, 9projects, 1think tank, 12offers of training and consultancy (TaC) and a series of initiatives developed with the support of the European Commission.

The conference is aimed at all language education professionals and in particular at ECML stakeholders, policy makers and persons with a professional focus on the practice of language education (curriculum development, teacher education, material design…).

The programme involves plenary presentations, speeches, a round table, a series of smaller workshops for the presentation and discussion of programme outputs and outcomes as well as envisaged links to activities in the 2024-2027 programme.

The workshops on the second day of the conference will be organised thematically:

• Language teacher and learner competences,
• Transversal dimension of language education / Competences for life and work,
• Plurilingual and intercultural education,
• Languages of schooling; language in subjects.

Within each given theme there will be a focus on the completed project resources and related TaC activities from the current programme. Presenters will focus on the inspiring and innovative aspects of their TaC activity/new resources and will consider how the different approaches and materials presented in their thematic session complement one other.

This will also be an excellent opportunity to get a preview of the new ECML programme “Language education at the heart of democracy” (2024-2027).

In order to ensure access to a wider audience, the event will be streamed in both working languages (English and French) and the recordings made available on the ECML website.

Conference web page: English – French

Conference programme: English – French

Join the live streaming here – no registration required: English – French

#ECMLCELVconf2023

Date: 3-4 October 2023
Venue: National Education Institute, Slovenia
Local organisation: Barbara Lesničar, National Education Institute, Ljubljana
ECML experts: Nermina Wikström (Sweden), Selin Öndül (Switzerland)
Participants: teachers of English (primary and secondary schools), senior advisers from the National Education Institute

Two experts from the ECML’s Roadmap project, Nermina Wikström (Sweden) and Selin Öndül (Switzerland) together with the National Education Institute of Slovenia, carried out a two day workshop entitled "Supporting the language(s) of schooling". The content of the workshop was focused around three goals: to get an overview of the ROADMAP project; to build a common understanding of the whole school approach and of language awareness; and to deepen knowledge for using ROADMAP tool and the resources. All three goals are key for the successful learning of learners with different language backgrounds. 

The participants had an opportunity to try out web-based materials and activities (such as the ROADMAP tool’s coordinators’ package, self-assessment tool, promising practices). These were all based on the whole-school approach which helped them to understand the various dimensions connected to the language development of all learners. The aim was both, to demonstrate and raise awareness of how important the support in academic development in all school subjects for learners with an L1 other than the language of schooling is on one hand and on the other hand to set up a school development plan.
Day 2 of the workshop was dedicated to the customized report which was generated through the self-assessment tool the participants tried out during day 1. The customized report has many benefits for the whole school approach. It reduces the work done by the coordinator, gives systematic feedback, is neutral, uses real data, and connects the levers of progression directly with the promising practices. 

This event has allowed participants to familiarize themselves with the basic concepts of whole school approach for learners whose L1 is not the same as the language of schooling and to set up a whole school development plan.

Barbara Lesničar, local organiser

• ECML project website (available in English, French, German, Finnish and Swedish): A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling

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Slovenian version

ECMJ in dve strokovnjakinji iz projekta Roadmap, Nermina Wikström (Švedska) in Selin Öndül (Švica), so skupaj z Zavodom RS za šolstvo izvedli dvodnevno delavnico Supporting the language(s) of Schooling. Vsebina delavnice je bila osredotočena na tri cilje in sicer seznaniti se s projektom Roadmap, zgraditi razumevanje celostnega pristopa šole in jezikovne zavesti ter poglobiti znanje za uporabo orodja ROADMAP in virov. Vsi trije cilji so ključni za uspešno učenje učencev z različnimi jezikovnimi ozadji.

 Udeleženci so imeli priložnost preizkusiti spletna gradiva in dejavnosti (paket za koordinatorje, orodje za samoocenjevanje, obetavne prakse), ki temeljijo na celostnem pristopu, kar jim je pomagalo razumeti različne razsežnosti, povezane z jezikovnim razvojem vseh učencev. Namen je bil po eni strani prikazati in ozaveščati o tem, kako pomembna je podpora pri akademskem razvoju pri vseh šolskih predmetih za učence katerih prvi jezik se razlikuje od učnega jezika, po drugi strani pa vzpostaviti šolski razvojni načrt.
Drugi dan delavnice je bil posvečen poročilu, ki je temeljilo na orodju za samoocenjevanje, ki so ga udeleženci preizkusili prvi dan delavnice. Takšno prilagojeno poročilo ima številne prednosti pri uveljavljanju  pristopa na ravni šole. Zmanjša delo, ki ga opravi koordinator, daje sistematične povratne informacije, je nevtraleno, uporablja resnične podatke in vzvode napredovanja povezuje z obetavnimi praksami. 

Ta dogodek je udeležencem omogočil, da so se seznanili z osnovnimi koncepti celostnega pristopa za učence, katerih prvi jezik ni enak učnemu jeziku in oblikovali celosten razvojni načrt šole.

Barbara Lesničar, local organiser

• ECML project website (available in English, French, German, Finnish and Swedish): A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling

Date and venue of the event: 28-29 June 2023, Zentrum für Sprachbildung, Berlin, Germany
Local organiser: Mr Mehmet Fatih Özcan (Senate Department for Education, Youth and Families, II D 5.2, Advisor for multilingualism / Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Familie Berlin, II D 5.2, Referent für Mehrsprachigkeit
ECML experts: Sophie Babault (France) and Selin Öndül (Switzerland)
Participants: 25 headmasters, (heritage & foreign language) teachers, language development coordinators, subject unit managers, senate administration’s project and programme coordinators and support

The two-day ROADMAP Training and Consultancy workshop, together with the development teams within the framework of the quality label project "Multilingual School" and the expert group II D 5 of the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family, highlighted areas with high potential for implementing multilingual projects.

The participants discussed and visualised the overlaps between multilingual and intercultural education in terms of content and subject matter, in particular in ensuring awareness and equality of the languages of the students and the school.  In this context, the participants developed methods to reflect on the promotion of multilingualism in school development processes and lesson development. The varied application possibilities offered by the ROADMAP self-evaluation tool and database clearly demonstrated that the ambitious quality label project "Multilingual School" can draw on already established and freely accessible resources of the European Centre for Modern  Languages (ECML) as a sold basis for a piloting exercise in the 2023/2024 school year at 7 participating schools

Participants emphasized that the tools provided by the ECML would both simplify processes to determine potential developmental areas and provide abundant data and examples of reporting and evaluation.They also mentioned that it was necessary to include both Berlin-specific school structures and, in particular, multilingual questionnaires in the self-evaluation tool.

In summary, the participants received extensive training and became fully acquainted in the use of the ECML tools - in particular in the self-assessment tool, as well as in conceptualization of a customised roadmap to implement development modules  within the framework of the  “Multilingual School” quality seal.

Mehmet Fatih Özcan

• Resource website “A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling” (available in English, Finnish, French, German and Swedish)
• ECML training and consultancy offer for member states: “Supporting the language(s) of schooling: The ROADMAP – a web-based, user-friendly and customised self-assessment tool to foster school development”

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(Deutsch)

Der zweitägige Training and Consultancy ROADMAP Workshop hat gemeinsam mit den Entwicklungsteams im Rahmen des Gütesiegel-Vorhabens „Mehrsprachige Schule“ und der Fachgruppe II D 5 der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Familie potenzielle Schwerpunkte in der Einrichtung von mehrsprachigen Angeboten sichtbar gemacht.

Die Teilnehmer:innen diskutierten und visualisierten die inhaltlichen und fachlichen Überschneidungen zwischen mehrsprachiger und interkultureller Bildung, insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund des Bewusstseins über, der Gleichwertigkeit von und der Haltung gegenüber der sprachlichen Vielfalt in der Berliner Schule und in der Lebenswelt der Berliner Schülerinnen und Schüler.

Die Teilnehmer:innen entwickelten in diesem Zusammenhang Methoden, um die Förderung der Mehrsprachigkeit in Schulentwicklungsprozessen und zur Unterrichtsentwicklung zu reflektieren. Das vielfältigen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten des Selbstevaluationstools und der Projektdatenbank des Wegweiser-Programms verdeutlichten, dass das ambitionierte Gütesiegel-Vorhaben „Mehrsprachige Schule“ auf bereits gefestigte und freizugängliche Angebote des Europäischen Fremdsprachenzentrums (EFSZ) zurückgreifen kann, um im Schuljahr 2023/2024 an 7 teilnehmenden Schulen pilotiert werden zu können.

Die Teilnehmenden bestätigten, dass die bereitgestellten Tools des EFSZ und die damit zur Verfügung stehenden Daten sowohl die Ermittlung der Weiterentwicklungspotenziale der schulischen Mehrsprachigkeitsförderung als auch die Berichtserstellung und Evaluation deutlich vereinfachen würden. Die Teilnehmer:innen fügten an, dass es notwendig sei, sowohl die berlinspezifischen Schulstrukturen und insbesondere mehrsprachige Fragebögen im Selbstevaluationstool einzubeziehen.

Zusammenfassend kann gesagt werden, dass die Teilnehmer:innen im Umgang mit den EFSZ-Tools und ihre Einbindung in das Gütesiegel-Vorhaben umfangreich geschult und weiterqualifiziert werden konnten.

Mehmet Fatih Özcan

• ROADMAP Webseite “Ein Wegweiser für Schulen zur Förderung der Schulsprache(n)” (Deutsch, Englisch, Finnisch, Französisch, Schwedisch)
• Angebot für EFSZ-Mitgliedsstaaten: Training & Consultancy “Supporting the language(s) of schooling: The ROADMAP – a web-based, user-friendly and customised self-assessment tool to foster school development”

The European Centre for Modern Languages is launching a series of 48 national training and consultancy workshops . The workshops which are hosted in member states offer a wide range of European expertise in language education and are adapted to the concrete needs and specific contexts within individual countries. This year represents the highest ever number of events organised according to this format by the ECML and reflects the increasing popularity of the Centre’s training and consultancy activities.

25 of the events will take place within the framework of the “Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning” cooperation action between the ECML and the European Commission. These activities, covering member states of the ECML and the European Union, focus on Relating language curricula, tests and examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference (RELANG), Supporting Multilingual Classrooms and Use of ICT in support of language teaching and learning

The other 23 events targeting the member states of the ECML focus on the following areas: Action research communities, CLIL and beyond – pluriliteracies, Language for work, Language of schooling in subject learning, Plurilingual and intercultural approaches (CARAP/FREPA), The ROADMAP – a self-assessment tool to foster school development, Setting up learning environments where modern languages flourish.

The events combine professional input from the ECML and expertise in the member state to initiate quality developments – the workshops can assist in change processes in language education at local, regional and national levels. The first of the events, a RELANG workshop, will take place at the Lithuanian National Agency for Education in Vilnius on 7-9 March.

The ECML offers its member states European expertise in language education adapted to the concrete needs and specific contexts within individual countries.

On 26 January 2023, seven training and consultancy (TaC) teams exchanged their experience in the field of:

• Action research communities,
• CLIL and beyond – pluriliteracies,
• Language for work,
• Language of schooling in subject learning,
• Plurilingual and intercultural approaches (CARAP/FREPA),
• The ROADMAP - a self-assessment tool to foster school development,
• Setting up learning environments where modern languages flourish (online presentation),

focusing on highlights, challenges and learning opportunities, and conclusions for 2023 activities.

The network meeting with the local organisers from Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Slovak Republic and Slovenia took place on 27 January. The participants got an overview of the TaC offers and their benefits from previous experience, national contexts and needs, and the ECML support provided. Individual meetings took place for local organisers with the TaC teams to discuss the organisation and arrangements of their national events planned this year.

In 2023 the ECML will conduct 23 training events in 17 member states:

In addition, up to 25 workshops will be organised in ECML and EU member states through the Centre’s cooperation action with the European Commission – these will be announced shortly.

• More information on the ECML training and consultancy offer

Photo gallery

Date and venue of the event: 30 November - 1 December 2022, online workshop
Local organiser: Anu Halvari, Senior Adviser (Education), Finnish National Agency for Education
Experts and moderators: Katri Kuukka, Senior Adviser (Education), Finnish National Agency for Education, and Nermina Wikström, Director of Education, Swedish National Agency for Education / National Curricula/ Pre-school and Compulsory School.
Participants: Primary and secondary school in Finnish as second language, English language, one head teacher, and special education teachers.

In the wake of two covid-19 years and in the midst of recent game-changing events in Europe, we organized a two-day workshop to introduce the ROADMAP in Finland. On a national level a lot of work has been done to build an understanding of what language awareness means in the context of school. But changing linguistic landscapes in society and at schools needs rethinking in terms of school values, practices and procedures. ROADMAP is a tool to address these concerns, in a very tangible manner.

In practice, the challenge in Finland was to get a sufficient number of participants because of scheduling constraints, possibly also because the main language of the workshop was English. It was therefore decided that the first day would be held in English, the second in Finnish.

The content of the first day was an introduction to the background of the ROADMAP project and the tool itself. At the end of the day, the participants were asked to “play school”, i.e. use the self-assessment tool in practice. Each one chose the role of a different stakeholder (teacher, head teacher, student, parent, other school staff) in the framework of the make-believe ‘Potato School’. Everyone was excited to receive the report.

The next day started with a review of the report and of some promising practices. The second day – which was in Finnish - also included presentations on developing a language-aware school in the context of the Finnish curriculum and on language-aware culture and leadership. Finally, there was also time to reflect on the participants' own school development plans and to sum up the day together.

We held the workshop to a small but inquisitive group of practitioners, with a thought in mind to pilot how best to deliver the ROADMAP in the months and years to come to the Finnish audiences. As workshop organizers we learnt valuable lessons on how to proceed. Most likely the next steps will be addressing especially head teachers, and take the ROADMAP to different stakeholder meetings and in-service training sessions.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) for all the support and flexibility we have been given in organising the workshop.

Anu Halvari and Katri Kuukka

• Resource website “A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling” (available in English, Finnish, French, German and Swedish)

Date and venue of the event: 10-11 November 2022, online workshop
Local organiser: Pernilla Sundström Fast, Head of Unit, Swedish National Agency for Education / National Curricula/ Pre-school and Compulsory School
Experts and moderators: Nermina Wikström, Director of Education, Swedish National Agency for Education / National Curricula/ Pre-school and Compulsory School, and Katri Kuukka, Counsellor of Education, Finnish National Agency for Education.
Participants: More than 40 primary and secondary school teachers in the different school subjects, school leaders, policymakers and decision-takers.

The Swedish National Agency for Education and the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) organised a 2-day workshop entitled “Supporting the language(s) of schooling – The ROADMAP ” as the online session.

The workshop took place on the 10^th and 11^th of November 2022 and was attended by more than 40 participants who showed a great interest and dedication in the topic. The aim of the experts and moderators, Nermina Wikström and Katri Kuukka, was to give the participants an overview of the Roadmap project, including a presentation of the outcomes of the project, while conducting a training session focusing the hands-on activities related to language development. During the workshop the participants had the opportunity to see some examples of promising practices, use the self-assessment tool in practice, get to know the Roadmap database and to set up the outlines of a school development plan for their own school.

Since sharing thoughts and experiences was an important part of the workshop, the participants had the possibility to discuss different topics in pairs and in smaller groups. The participants discussed the role of language(s) of schooling as a backbone of education as well as the challenges of plurilingual and intercultural education. Other topics were the importance of adapting a whole-school approach, school culture and leadership, the key ideas of the Roadmap-project and benefits for the school, areas and dimensions, self-assessment tool and guide, survey statements and customized school report.

The workshop aimed to provide a “learning by doing-opportunity” as the participants familiarized themselves with the different parts of the user-friendly Roadmap-material, sharing their findings in the common work platform Padlet.

This two-day online workshop received favourable comments from the participants, who stated that they advanced their knowledge and skills, exchanged opinions within the working groups and with the experts and shared ideas and experiences concerning their own involvement in the work with language(s) of schooling. According to the participants` evaluation the workshop provided a good combination of activities and information. The participants found the presented approach and materials very useful for their practice.

In conclusion, it has been a privilege for the Swedish National Agency for Education to take part in this project and to contribute to the Roadmap with our expertise. We are very satisfied with the outcome, and we believe that this workshop will contribute in the most positive way to support the language(s) of schooling. We would like to take the opportunity to thank the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) for all the support we have been given in organising the workshop in Sweden. 

For those countries which have not yet had the opportunity to host this workshop, we strongly recommend it. It was great fun!

Pernilla Sundström Fast

• Resource website “A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling” (available in English, Finnish, French, and German)
• ECML training and consultancy offer for member states : “Supporting the language(s) of schooling: The ROADMAP – a web-based, user-friendly and customised self-assessment tool to foster school development”

 

An Intercultural Look at our Schools Toolkit is an online toolkit for self-evaluation and support for intercultural and linguistic diversity in schools wishing to address inclusion. It was developed in Ireland as a localised version of the self assessment tools established by the ECML project “A Roadmap to support the languages of schooling” (which is available in English, French, German and Finnish).

Set up at the initiative of the Post-Primary Languages Ireland (PPLI) in collaboration with Dublin-Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board (DDLETB) the Irish toolkit aims to:

• raise awareness of the role students’ plurilingual and pluricultural identities and competences play in their learning in a school setting;
• support teachers and school management in facilitating and promoting students’ access to the curriculum;
• encourage schools to cast an intercultural look at aspects of school life beyond the classroom to ensure that all languages and cultures of the school community are included and valued.

The toolkit advocates for a whole-school approach to improvement. It surveys and includes the voices of all members of the school community.

Find out more at : https://ilaos.ppli.ie/

Watch video

Webinar “Roadmap for supporting the language(s) of schooling”

The webinar is intended for all those working in language education and on language-related themes within school development - teachers, teacher educators, school leaders and administrators.

Webinar in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGqMab9rdMM

Local organiser of the ECML training and consultancy events: Alice Micallef, Malta.

Date of the online events: 18-19 November, 11 December 2020.

Participants: 23 participants; education officers for Maltese, English, Science and Maths and the Early Years who support teachers in schools and provide professional development sessions, amongst other work related to curricula, and assessment; heads of school; curriculum education officers working in schools; teachers.

An ECML workshop and consultancy session was organised in November and December 2020 in the context of the ECML training and consultancy offer for member states : “Supporting the language(s) of schooling: The ROADMAP - a web-based, user-friendly and customised self-assessment tool to foster school development”. A project was initiated with stakeholders in state schools with the aim of raising awareness and to help stakeholders work towards a whole-school strategy to support the development of students’ competences in the language(s) of schooling. Stakeholders were familiarised with the Roadmap tools and discussed the specific linguistic support required for learners in local school contexts. This includes learners with a migrant background as well as other learners who require support in one or both languages of schooling. A consultation meeting was held to discuss and plan the way forward in this regard.

The first phase of the project will address the situation in the Early Years and Primary sector and to initiate discussion across school sectors. The Roadmap tool will be used in schools to evaluate and address requirements related to the languages of schooling. Stakeholders from various schools and sectors are invited to form part of the working group with the aim of discussing and disseminating information on the Roadmap project.

Alice Micallef, local organiser of the ECML training and consultancy event

Related ECML resource website

• A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling (available in English, French and German)