FOHLC Europe Blog

At our most recent FOHLC Café , we had a lovely meetup of fourteen professionals in heritage language education, who gathered online from Iceland, Netherlands, France, Spain, the U.S., England, and Ireland. They grabbed a cup of coffee and met up to get inspiration for how to motivate teenager language learners. One solution? Journalism works!   “When teens see a connection between French language and professional opportunities, their motivation increases significantly.” - Stéphanie Adelaide   Our first guest speaker was Danielle Capron in Germany. She teaches French heritage language learners in Frankfurt and was having trouble keeping the older students engaged. There were students quitting when they reached secondary education. Having had experience working at a radio station, Danielle had the idea to start a radio show project with her students. For 6 hours per month they created a program with content, interviews, and music – and once a month the students meet...

On 22nd of March, we proudly opened the doors of Casa do Livro , the first Brazilian community library in London. This milestone marks the realization of a vision that began eight years ago when there was a large book donation made to the late institution, Casa do Brasil. From that moment, the desire to create a dedicated space where Brazilian immigrants and their families could access Portuguese-language books, celebrate their cultural heritage, and foster a sense of belonging began.  Thanks to a renewed partnership with the Wisehands Foundation , that dream is now a reality. Located in the heart of Brent, London , Casa do Livro stands as a hub for learning, connection, and cultural preservation. This space is more than a library—it is a home for our stories, our language, and our collective identity. A mission rooted in access and inclusion Casa do Livro is committed to making Portuguese-language literature, Brazilian culture, and language education accessible to the community. O...

An interview with Constantine Ioannou, Executive Director at the International Languages Educators' Association of Ontario (ILEA Ontario) and key advocate for heritage language education in Canada. The Ontario model of “International Languages” education is admired within Canada – and within Ontario, Ottawa has emerged as the leading example. Discover how the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) uses funding to pay heritage language teachers, while at the same time collaborating with community-based language groups as essential partners. This interview is a re-post from the HLE Network website .    Constantine Ioannou, Executive Director at the International Languages Educators' Association of Ontario (ILEA Ontario) In Ontario, the public school system is responsible for organizing and funding heritage language education: Ontario’s “International Languages Programs” (ILPs) include the teaching of over 70 languages across the province! The Ontario model of the Interna...

  The start of the journey On February 6, FOHLC Europe organized another free online Café for people involved in heritage language education. The theme of the 2025 cafés is a "Journey around the World," to hear from educators from different language backgrounds. This time, we heard from Rita Dorneles from Universidade de Aveiro and Juliana Azevedo from the Universidad Internacional de la Rioja / Universidad Internacional de Valencia, who talked about their experience with training educators of Brazilian Portuguese as a heritage language. Paving a path Rita and Juliana were exceptional in articulating why it is a tricky task to prepare individuals to educate children in a heritage language. It is more than just learning a language, the lessons must be engaging, and the teachers must be willing to share what works and what does not work in order to develop a pedagogy for this target group. There have been positive developments, but there is still a lot of work to be done: In tr...

When the Global Call to Action for Heritage Language Education  was launched in February 2024, it laid a comprehensive roadmap for protecting and promoting linguistic diversity. But maybe you were left wondering:  What can I personally do to help? Now, we’ve made it easier than ever to take action with a handy checklist. This simple guide breaks down some practical steps you can take to support heritage language education in your community. What you can do will depend on your role -- heritage language learner, parent, teacher, journalist, policymaker, etc. -- but we've got everyone covered! Download the checklist below and start making an impact today! Download a pdf By HLE Network

An interview with Drs Indu Vibha Meddegama and Maja Skender-Lizatovic, founders of the Community Language School at York St John University in England By Aga Pędrak When thinking about community-based heritage language schools (supplementary or complementary schools), what we usually imagine is a school that operates outside the mainstream school hours, for example during the weekends or afternoons, and provides mother tongue classes to young migrant generations. In addition to heritage language classes, complementary schools often offer cultural events, extra-curricular classes, seasonal celebrations, history, and geography lessons, and sometimes they also introduce religious education – all of these through the means of the heritage language. According to the National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education ( NRCSE ), there are approximately 3,000-5,000 supplementary schools operating in England. As they exist outside the formal educational system, these schools usually work tigh...

By Jim Anderso n,  Goldsmiths University of London, with schools and universities across the world Community based heritage language schools often experience difficulty in engaging students in studying the HL, especially once they go beyond primary age. There may be a feeling that the language does not connect with their lived experience or with real world issues. The link to culture may feel artificial and unchanging. There may be little opportunity for students to invest themselves emotionally in their learning or to feel the excitement of genuine meaning-making.   Addressing the needs of HL learners The international Critical Connections project, launched in 2012, seeks to address the above issue by involving young people in creating short bi/multi-lingual digital stories around issues which matter to them such as the environment.  It is innovative in bringing together learners of heritage as well as foreign languages in community based as well as mainstream sett...