More pictures from Saturday’s event on heritage language education.
Category: Uncategorized (Page 4 of 6)
Coverage of Saturday’s symposium with Portuguese Secretary of State João Costa on Lancaster University website:
Lancaster’s historic links with Portugal, dating back to John O’Gaunt, were rekindled at the weekend.
The Portuguese Secretary of State for Education, Professor João Costa, visited Lancaster University on Saturday (April 8) to take part in a conference on bilingualism and heritage language learning.
The event, opened in fluent Portuguese by Professor Sharon Huttly, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education at Lancaster University, focused on Portuguese heritage language education across Europe.
It brought together policy makers from the Portuguese Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education, leading academics, journalists, school teachers and parents to discuss current trends and challenges in fostering bilingual competence in English and in the heritage language (the language spoken at home).
The event, supported by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences ‘Impact and Engagement Fund’ featured the presentation of successful case studies, including the innovative and award-winning Native Scientist project and the new Anglo-Portuguese School.
Portuguese national TV (RTP) sent a team to cover the event for a popular early evening news programme which is broadcast worldwide.
Event organiser Dr Patrick Rebuschat, from the University’s Department of Linguistics and English Language, said: “The conference was a big success. It is very rare for parents, teachers, researchers and policy makers to be sitting in the same room and engaging in a very constructive dialogue about education. The event demonstrates again the University’s commitment to both engaging with our local communities and to maintain a strong international outlook.”
Lancaster University is renowned for its research in the language sciences and is currently ranked 19th in the world for linguistics according to the 2017 QS Rankings.
In his keynote speech, Portuguese Secretary of State João Costa emphasized the importance of this initiative and outlined future challenges and opportunities in heritage language education.
The conference continued Lancaster University’s long-term links with Portugal.
In 1986 the then President of Portugal, Dr Mário Soares, who died earlier this year, received an Honorary Doctorate from Lancaster University. The occasion served to celebrate 600 years of the Treaty of Windsor between England and Portugal, the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in existence.
President Soares’ visit was seen as a big event for the City because it marked the first time Lancaster had received a foreign head of state. It was widely covered in the media in the UK and in Portugal.
“Professor João Costa’s visit on Saturday provided an opportunity for us to remember this event 31 years ago and to honour one of our Honorary Graduates,” added Dr Rebuschat.
For more information, please visit the Lancaster University website or email Dr Patrick Rebuschat, p.rebuschat@lancaster.ac.uk
All set for tomorrow’s symposium with Portuguese Secretary of State João Costa and a great line-up of speakers! // Tudo a postos para o nosso simpósio sobre o futuro do português. É já amanhã!
Very pleased to announce that the first symposium of the Lancaster-Ghent partnership will take place on March 23, 2017, at Lancaster University. The topic is “Discourse and Media”; it will feature talks by Lancaster and Ghent staff and students. Participation is free (and includes lunch and coffee break), but registration via Eventbrite is required. Click here to register. If you have questions about the event (or about the new partnership with Ghent), please send me an email (p.rebuschat@lancaster.ac.uk).
I am grateful to the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) Internationalization Fund for the financial support.
For more information, including the schedule and abstracts, please click here.
Very pleased to announce that the Department of Linguistics and English Language has established a new partnership with the Department of Linguistics at Ghent University, and that I will be coordinating this exciting initiative.
Our Departments are particularly well-matched in terms of research areas, ambition, size (staff and students) and orientation (emphasis on empirical language research). This initiative will run for three years (2016-2019); during this period, we will explore joint research projects and potential teaching links, including co-supervision of postgraduate students. The partnership involves both academic staff and students from our institutions.
The cornerstone of our partnership are two annual delegation visits. Each delegation consists of 5-6 members of staff; there will be one Lancaster visit to Ghent every year and one Ghent visit to Lancaster. The host university will organize a symposium around each delegation visit and widely publicize the event. This means there will be six delegation visits (and symposia) in the 2016-2019 period. The first symposium takes place in Lancaster on March 23, 2017, with the second symposium taking place in Ghent in April 18-19, 2017.
In addition, to the annual delegation visits and symposia, there will several individual visits by staff members, and we will maintain an active student exchange program between our Departments. Our Erasmus+ agreements cover two undergraduate and postgraduate students per academic year.
For more information or to get involved, please email me (p.rebuschat@lancaster.ac.uk) or visit our dedicated website.
Today, we enjoyed hosting a large delegation of academics and students from Lausanne University, one of our partner institutions. The Lausanne delegation was led by Anita Auer and Jennifer Thorburn and brought over 20 undergraduate and postgraduate students to our Department. After a tour of the Phonetics Lab and of the brand new EEG lab, we had a chance to socialize over coffee and later at lunch. The visit concluded with visits to two of our classes. We look forward to returning the visit and to welcoming more visitors from Lausanne in the future!
Interesting day spent at the Portuguese Consulate in Manchester last Sunday. Six members of the Portuguese government, led by José Luis Carneiro (Secretary of State for the Communities), came to the UK to discuss a range of topics with the Portuguese immigrant community. Topics during the six-hour session included Brexit and its impact on EU citizens residing in the UK. Greatly appreciated this governmental initiative and the supportive and encouraging discussions.
In addition to the Portuguese Ambassador, Manuel Lobo Antunes, and the Consul General, Carlos Sousa Amaro, the following members of government participated:
- Secretário de Estado das Comunidades Portuguesas, José Luís Carneiro
- Secretária de Estado dos Assuntos Europeus, Margarida Marques
- Secretário de Estado dos Assuntos Fiscais, Fernando Rocha de Andrade
- Secretária de Estado Adjunta e da Justiça, Helena Mesquita Ribeiro
- Secretária de Estado da Inclusão das Pessoas com Deficiência, Ana Sofia Antunes
- Secretária de Estado para a Cidadania e a Igualdade, Catarina Marcelino
Articles on this initiative: Portuguese government press release 1, press release 2, José Luis Carneiro outlining priorities related to the Portuguese diaspora. Brief piece in PÚBLICO. Two pictures, courtesy of the Portuguese Embassy in London.
I am featured in today’s edition of Público, a leading Portuguese newspaper. The article discusses the launch of the excellent GPS (Global Portuguese Scientists) initiative. The GPS is a network that connects scientists based in research institutions in Portugal and Portuguese scientists based abroad (e.g. in Lancaster…). You can access the online version here.
Greatly enjoyed attending an informal dinner to welcome the new Portuguese Ambassador, HE Manuel Lobo Antunes, who took up his post in September 2016. The event was organized by the Consul General, Carlos Sousa Amaro. Wonderful opportunity to catch up with FHM’s Céu Mateus and PARSUK colleague André Castro and to meet many other fellow Portuguese over dinner.
