Dr. Kathleen Mc Tiernan

The LIFELANGS Observatory project is establishing a living observatory of shared languages and identities on the island of Ireland. This initiative is a key pillar of the Government"s Shared Island strategy, advancing an all island research agenda that strengthens cross-border ties and delivers real, lasting impact for communities across Ireland and Northern Ireland. Funded under the Emerging Hubs of Excellence Strand, the LIFELANGS observatory will aim to secure a more inclusive and resilient future for all and create a critical mass of interdisciplinary expertise and evidence-based resources in languages, education, and social sciences.

Read with MEE: Read with Multilingual Early Education Erasmus+ project that supports literacy development in young multilinguals aged 2-6, especially those from minority and migrant language backgrounds.

INCLUDEED ("Social cohesion and INclusion: DEveloping the EDucational possibilities of the European Multilingual Heritage") is a multilingual project whose main objective is the integration of immigrant and refugee groups in Europe through one of Europe's main assets: its languages. It involves the participation of leading universities in Applied Linguistic and language teaching. The consortium has previous joint experience in creating high quality materials for the use with groups at risk of exclusion. This project has the inclusion of disadvantaged groups as a central aim of its actions. With this, it responds directly to the priority "Social inclusion", and does so with an innovative approach in two ways: on the one hand, it addresses the sociolinguistic and cultural integration of groups of immigrants and refugees who already have basic linguistic skills in the host language. It is therefore a further step in their process of adaptation to the new environment, acquiring very important skills in the development of their professional and personal activities.

BAQONDE (Boosting the Use of African Languages in Education. A Qualified Organized Nationwide DEvelopment Strategy for South Africa) is collaborative project between European and South African Higher Education Institutions to facilitate and promote the use of indigenous African languages as mediums of instruction in tertiary education. Co-funded by the EU's ERASMUS+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme, BAQONDE aims to guarantee a more (linguistically) inclusive and legitimate access to Higher Education by means of a coordinated inter-institutional strategy that seeks to train lecturers in the use of innovative multilingual teaching methodologies, develop new materials to both train teachers and teach multilingually, and establish a collaboratory network of African Language Development Units (ALDUs) among SA partners. This network of ALDUs will establish an inter-institutional (nationwide) strategy to: 1.Develop and implement a training program (including SA-EU mobilities) for a core group of lecturers from different disciplines to master context-relevant multilingual pedagogies 2.Lead the production of digital subject-relevant multilingual materials for lecturers and students. These resources will be accessible from the project website to optimize the production/usage of materials in different disciplines/languages and harmonize multilingual teaching standards 3. Guarantee a culture of quality during the project and after its subsequent expansion. By fostering a culture of quality and coordinated cooperation, BAQONDE seeks to generate a major short-term impact in the teaching-learning process that will enable a greater long-term impact with far-reaching implications: the intellectualization of previously marginalized languages. This is in line with both the priorities of the country and the principles of equity, as it entails a better assimilation of contents and a greater development of professional competences by L1 African (Bantu) students.

This research project forms part of a large-scale research initiative 'Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community', an AHRC-Funded OWRI Programme, based at the University of Manchester, and in collaboration with the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Its focus is the intersection between multilingualism, language learning and higher education. The constantly increasing voluntary and forced mobility of people resulting from the forces of globalisation and political instabilities in various regions are having a dramatic impact on the linguistic make up of many nation-states, especially in Europe. New forms of linguistic diversity and multilingualism are emerging, involving different linguistic practices. These developments may result in changing attitudes towards multilingualism and in different views about the learning of other languages (e.g., which and how?). To date these issues received limited attention in the context of higher education. As universities play a key role in the preparation of the next generation of global citizens, it is important to examine students' linguistic profiles, language attitudes and language learning experiences as well as to gauge their language learning needs to operate successfully in the linguistically diverse and complex environments created by globalisation.