Through the European Charter Classroom Activities (the ECCA project), schools can work on activities from the European Charter for Regional Languages of Minority languages in the classroom. The ECCA project aims to develop classroom activities and bringing young people and teachers from different language regions closer together through an exchange program.
What are we doing?
Developing classroom activities
ECCA language campus
In February 2019 the Council of Europe developed a tool for European schools in order to be able to work more actively on the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages. Meanwhile, this tool, the so-called ‘educational guidelines to bring in linguistic diversity in the classrooms’ is being translated into several different languages.
During the first edition of the ECCA project, three digital lessons (English/Frisian/Dutch) were created and made available to be translated and used by all the partner schools. The lessons can be downloaded here: https://ecca.edufrysk.nl/.
During 2023, the ECCA partners are also invited to use and develop the Classroom Activities published by the Council of Europe and to propose new ones to be shared with other schools.
The ECCA project brings young people and teachers from different language regions together. By looking at the way language is handled in another country, you also find out more about what you feel and think about your own language. Why do young people in Udine and Fassa Valley still speak Friulan and Ladin with each other in their schoolyard, instead of just Italian? And what is it, that makes Catalan and Hungarian young people of Romania proud of their language? In the present edition of the ECCA project, the activities are focused on the organisation of a Language Campus with the different schools involved. The ECCA campus will take in the Balaeric Islands. By meeting local people in a country where a language is spoken that is, like your own language, not the only language in a region or country, you get to find out more about what language can mean.
Sharing experiences and feelings with people speaking also a regional language next to other languages, you can understand the added value of pluri- and multilinguilism.
Which schools are joining?
News
Young Europeans celebrate their languages at the Balearic Islands
From 12 – 15 May, 24 young people from 8 different language regions came together to celebrate their languages in the Balearic Islands, Spain. After entering the ECCA competition earlier this year, the young people aged 14 to 17 years old along with their teachers, joined the ECCA campus, part of the European Charter Classroom Activities (ECCA) project. The project aims to show young Europeans the value of having more than one language.
ECCA rap
During the ECCA campus the young people followed a language focused itinerary by taking part in various activities. Besides hiking, following an Improvisation Theatre workshop and celebrating a music night with music in their own languages, one of the activities was to produce a multilingual rap. The rap ‘this is my language’ has been recorded and produced by a local Catalan company (@swingmallorca @andrewbflatvega) and can be heard on: www.thisismylanguage.eu.
The project leader of the ECCA campus Ypie Boersma (province of Fryslân) said: “I guess in the whole world this is the only existing rap in our 8 languages: Welsh, Frisian, Hungarian, Ruotsinsuomi, Catalan, Basque, Ladin and Friulian. For me it was really great to see that while having fun with each other, young people from all over Europe could experience that they really are able to cross borders with their own language.”
MoJo
Besides producing a rap during the ECCA campus the participants followed the Mobil Journalist (MoJo) workshop. They created a news item for representatives in Europe about what should be done for their language. The Catalan representatives from Andorra, Cerni Roig, Esther Claveri and Carla Iglesias mentioned in their MoJo video that they would like their language not to be seen as a minority language. Catalan is the official language in Andorra and spoken by 10 million through 4 European countries. Esther Claveria: “Catalan is an essential part of our life. We don’t like to think that we are smaller than other languages because we don’t feel like that.”
ECCA project
Through the European Charter Classroom Activities (the ECCA project), schools can work on activities from the European Charter for Regional Languages or Minority languages in the classroom. The ECCA project aims to develop classroom activities to bring young people and teachers from different language regions closer together. The ECCA project is made possible by a grant through the Network to Promote Language Diversity (NPLD) and contributions from the participating NPLD partners.
Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity
The NPLD is a European wide network, working in the field of language policy and planning for languages across Europe. NPLD’s members include governments both national and regional, universities and associations. The ECCA project is specifically made possible by the following partners: Province of Trento/Ladin Cultural Institute “majon di fascegn”, Agjenzie Regjonâl pe Lenghe Furlane (ARLeF), Partium Christian University, Xarxa Vives d’Universitats, Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Welsh Government, Stockholm University and the Province of Fryslân.
For further information or to contact a representative from your region directly, please get in touch with the project leader, Ypie Boersma, y.boersma@fryslan.frl +31 615855947. For more information about the ECCA project visit www.thisismylanguage.eu
The following schools participated in this first ECCA campus: Scola Ladina de Fascia, Istituto Statale di Istruzione Superiore “Magrini Marchetti”, Ady Endre Higschool, Escola Andorrana de Batxillerat, Salesianos Barakaldo, Ysgol Garth Olwg, Sverigefinska skolan and CSG Bogerman Balk.
Crossing language borders with the ECCA campus
From 12 – 15 May, 24 young people from 8 different language regions will come together to celebrate their languages in the Balearic Islands, Spain. After entering a competition earlier this year, these students aged 14 to 17 years old along with their teachers, will join the European Charter Classroom Activities (ECCA) campus.
What is the ECCA project? It’s a project where schools can work on activities from the European Charter for Regional Languages or Minority Languages in the classroom throughout the year. The ECCA project aims to develop language focused classroom activities and bring young people and their teachers from different language regions closer together. In our world there are now more than 7000 known living languages. 60 of which are regional or local languages spoken in Europe by around 40 million people. The ECCA project wants to make young Europeans aware and proud of their regional language and to raise awareness that there are more languages than the 24 official languages recognised by the European Union.
ECCA competition
Different schools all over Europe participated earlier this year in a competition organised by ECCA. In different classrooms across Spain, Italy, Wales, Romania, Sweden and the Netherlands pupils were asked to answer the following question: why should people visit your language region? The 24 young people selected were judged to be the most creative and were awarded with this opportunity to join the ECCA campus and to cross borders with their own language.
ECCA campus
During the ECCA campus this weekend participants will follow a language focused itinerary by taking part in various activities in their different languages. For instance, they will create a rap together in 8 different languages. They will also learn how to become a Mobil Journalist (MoJo) by creating a news item for the Council of Europe about (and in) one of their languages. The ECCA project is expected to bring together young people to share experiences and their feelings about speaking a regional/minority language, and to bring positive awareness about the added value of bi- and multilingualism.
Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity
The ECCA project is made possible by a grant through the Network to Promote Language Diversity (NPLD) and contributions from the participating partners. The NPLD is a European wide network working in the field of language policy and planning for languages across Europe. NPLD includes governments both national and regional, universities and associations as its members. The ECCA project is specifically made possible by the following partners: Province of Trento/Ladin Cultural Institute “majon di fascegn”, Agjenzie Regjonâl pe Lenghe Furlane (ARLeF), Partium Christian University, Xarxa Vives d’Universitats, Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Welsh Government, Stockholm University and the Province of Fryslân.
Results of the ECCA
The results of the ECCA campus can be viewed on social media on Instagram (thisismylanguage.eu), Twitter (myeulanguage) and in 8 of the languages participating on the website. In September, the month of the European Day of Languages a results summary of the project will be presented to the representatives of the Council in Europe in Brussels.
For further information or to contact a representative from your region directly, please get in touch with the project leader, Ypie Boersma, y.boersma@fryslan.frl +31 615855947. For more information about the ECCA project www.thisismylanguage.eu
The following schools will be participating: Scola Ladina de Fascia, Istituto Statale di Istruzione Superiore “Magrini Marchetti”, Ady Endre Higschool, Escola Andorrana de Batxillerat, Salesianos Barakaldo, Ysgol Garth Olwg, Sverigefinska skolan and CSG Bogerman Balk.
Result: which pupils from which schools have been selected to join the ECCA campus?
Today, on the day of International Happiness, we are announcing who from the 8 different language regions can travel to the Balearic Islands to participate in the ECCA campus, following the competition we launched last month. They were asked to answer the question ‘Why should people from all over the world visit your language region?’ in a creative way such as a video, a drawing or another creative outlet.
Listed below are the schools whose participants were successful in the competition and will travel to join the ECCA campus on the Balearic Islands from 12 to 15 May. If your region is not mentioned below – don’t panic, due to the popularity of the competition some regions need a bit more time and will be announcing their winners later this week. Please keep checking the website for any updates.
LADIN
Scola Ladina de Fascia
Daniele
Nicole
Alice
FRYSK
CSG Bogerman Balk
Jesse
Michael
Ruben
MAGYAR
Ady Endre Highschool
Panna
Kinga
Szabolcs-Péter
CATALA
Escola Andorrana de Batxillerat
Cerni
Carla
Esther
CYMREAG
Ysgol Garth Olwg
Lauren
Ava
Seren
SWEDEN FINNISH
Campus from the Sweden Finnish School of Stockholm.
Dina
Hilda
Sid
EUSKARA
Salesianos Barakaldo
Ander
Ruth
Naiara
FURLAN
ISIS Magrini Marchetti
Nicholas
Caterina
Giorgia
In the place where you are living it is normal to have more as one language. Are you between 14 and 17 years old? Join the ECCA contest! Make with the use of your own language clear in a video, photo, poem or story what makes your region/country with an own language for you a place worth to be visited by the whole world?!
Winners of this contest will be able to join for free the by ECCA at the Balearic Islands organised campus from 12 – 15 May. There will be students involved in this ECCA campus from 8 different European language regions.
Join it!
VISIT MY LANGUAGE REGION!
In the place where you are living it is normal to have more as one language. Are you between 14 and 17 years old? Join the ECCA contest! Make with the use of your own language clear in a video, photo, poem or story what makes your region/country with an own language for you a place worth to be visited by the whole world?!
Winners of this contest will be able to join for free the by ECCA at the Balearic Islands organised campus from 12 – 15 May. There will be students involved in this ECCA campus from 8 different European language regions.
“Language is not just a means of communication, it is part of who you are. The European Charter gives rights to young people in language regions, something they often don’t even know about. This ECCA project would like to bring young people from different language regions together and raise positive awareness about this.”
Ypie Boersma, project-leader ECCA
Province of Fryslân
Archive
Results ECCA project presented in Trento
In presence of different political representatives and the chair of the NPLD, teachers and student from different linguistic regions presented the results of the European Charter Classroom Activities (ECCA) project.
For a short video (1 minute) see
ECCA closing conference on 1 October
On 1 October 2021 the closing conference of the pilot European Charter Classroom Activities (ECCA) project will be held in the province of Trento (Italy). During this conference the ECCA partners will present the results from the ECCA project. Also they will visit Luserna, a small village that is the home of one of the smallest minorities in Europe: the Cimbrians. In 2019 the ECCA project received a grant from the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD). However, due to Covid-19 a part of the activities unfortunately had to be cancelled.
After the closing conference, the partners of the ECCA project will decide if and how to continue with a follow-up of the ECCA project. For more information about the project and the partners involved see: www.thisismylanguage.eu
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81914140161?pwd=cUlTVHM2QUJyMkd1RjJGNDFNT2d3dz09
Meeting ID: 819 1414 0161
Passcode: ECCATrento
ECCA lessons for Frisian schools published
For the ECCA project the province of Fryslân, together with Afûk and Cedin, developed three lessons about the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The lessons are created to stimulate students between the ages of 11 and 16 to think about the place of their own language within the European context. The digital lessons for the secondary schools of Fryslân are all available in three different languages: Frisian, Dutch and English. For more information see: https://ecca.edufrysk.nl/. In September all of the schools in the province of Fryslân will receive the ECCA poster, a map of Europe with all of our languages on it, to be used in combination with the lessons.
Partners of the ECCA project who would like to translate or adapt the lessons, the poster or the flyer about the Charter for their own use, please get in touch with the advisor of the province of Fryslân, y.boersma@fryslan.frl.
Exchange programme ECCA project cancelled
Before the start of this summer the ECCA partners finally decided to cancel the 2019 exchange programme of the ECCA project. As part of the project, students from different language regions joined the 2019 video contest and created a video about the meaning of language. The winners of this contest were selected to go on an exchange programme in one of the other language regions. For more information see: https://youtu.be/cHpS6UcYbpo. Because of the reverberations of Covid-19 the exchange programme had been postponed several times. Unfortunately, the organizers finally had to decide to cancel this part of the project. The students involved have been rewarded with an ECCA certificate and/or a voucher instead. Depending on further Covid-19 developments in the next few years, there might be a new ECCA exchange programme for new students in the future.
Visit our ECCA YouTube channel for more new videos
Follow-up on covid-19
Over the last three months, most of the students and teachers who participate in the ECCA project were not able to go to their schools because of the covid-19 virus. All of the participant have been informed that because of the virus we couldn’t go ahead with our planned exchange programme this spring. Together with the NPLD partners involved, we recently decided that we will try to organise the exchange in the beginning of 2021. We will keep the students and teachers informed about further developments through our ECCA newsletter. This summer we hope to be able to get to know each other by arranging some digital ECCA activities. We will publish some of the results of these activities on this website.
Covid-19 comic in our languages
The famous Italian artist Fabio Vettori created a colourful comic about the preventive measures for covid-19. Several partners of the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) have translated the poster with the comic into their own languages and dialects. Sietske Poepjes, Chair of the NPLD: “We think it is very important that the information about the covid-19 crisis is also available in our own languages, like Furlan, Magyar, Catala, Ladin and my own language Frysk. This kind of relevant information should not just be available in official EU languages, but also in the languages of our hearts.”
You can find the comic in the different ECCA project languages here.
FRYSK FURLAN CATALA MAGYAR LADIN ENGLISH
Overview ECCA activities
Although we were not yet able to realise the exchange programme, some classroom activities have been realised in the first part of the school year. For more information about the ECCA programme so far, click on the links.
Influence of the corona virus on ECCA
The ECCA project aims to develop classroom activities and bringing young people and teachers from different language regions closer together through an exchange program. Through the corona virus so far our first part of the exchange program planned for the end of March from Spain and Italia to Romania, has been cancelled. The exchange part for other students and their teachers to different language regions is planned for the coming months, April and May. All the involved NPLD partners are in contact about the follow-up with the schoolteachers, students and their parents. If possible the ECCA program will go ahead, but it all depends on further virus-developments in the whole of Europa. If it will not be possible or reasonable to go ahead with the ECCA program before this summer, we will try to do so in the new schoolyear with the same selected students and teachers. We hope one day we will be able to cross borders with our own languages.
Join our contest and win an exchange!
Do you want to cross borders with your own language? If your school joins the ECCA project and you speak Friulian, Frisian, Catalan, Ladin or Hungarian in Romania: make a short YouTube video about the following question: what does your language mean to you, now and in the future? The person who produces the best YouTube video will be invited to participate in a short student exchange program! In cooperation with your school you will get to go on an exchange program to another linguistic region in Europe for a few days in 2020. You will stay with a family who speaks Friulan (IT), Hungarian (RO), Ladin (IT), Frisian (NL) or Catalan (ESP). Join this contest and cross the border of your own region with your own language!
Kick-off meeting on 15 November 2019 in Brussel
On 15 November the kick-off of the ECCA project will take place in Brussels during a special conference. All NPLD partners who are involved in this project will be present in this first meeting. Representatives from the different schools who are joining the project will also be in Brussels. Speakers at this Conference will be: Mr Sixto Molina, Head of Secretariat, European Charter for Minority and Regional Languages, Mr Fernando Ramallo, Vigo University Spain, and Mr Vicent Climent, NPLD. During this conference we will be exploring how to go ahead with de classroom activities concerning the European Charter and teachers will be trained in this meeting.
Kickoff ECCA programme 15.11.19
Kick-off meeting ECCA 15 November 2019
