Language Rich Europe (LRE) is a study on multi-lingualism led by the British Council and co-funded by the European Commission between 2009 and 2012. In Spain our partners were the Instituto Cervantes, Universidad de Nebrija, Universidad de Barcelona and the Departamento de Educación, Política Lingüística y Cultura of the Basque Government.
According to Eurobarometer, 83% of Europeans value knowing other languages yet 44% cannot hold a conversation in another language."
With globalisation and increasing migration, multilingualism is critical to intercultural understanding and cohesion in society, job prospects for individuals and competitiveness in Europe.
LRE provides a commentary on current language policies and practices from 24 countries/regions, based on work conducted by our partner network of experts and researchers. It captures good practice and brings stakeholders together face-to-face and on-line to learn from each other.
The project is targeted at decision makers and practitioners in education, business, public services and the media. We also reached out to beneficiaries, teachers and learners of language to help incorporate their views to help inform policies and good practice.
Our online forum is still very much alive and you are invited to join the active discussion and voice your views on the role of languages at our LRE blog.