Welcome to Eurydice Voice’s spring edition!
This time, we have a wealth of information, data and reflections to share with you. Our overall topics today are languages and mobility, two very connected and important dimensions within the European education landscape. Indeed, two recent Eurydice publications deal precisely with these two aspects. The 2022/23 background report on the Mobility Scoreboard is being released today along with an updated web presentation, while the recent Key data on teaching languages in Europe is still fresh off the printer.
These two publications look at some crucial policy developments across Europe, measuring what countries have done and are doing to support foreign language teaching and mobility in education. Taking macro-objectives into account, these reports provide a very good overview of where we stand, and can help to understand how far Europe as a whole is promoting diversity, mobility and cultural exchange.
To summarise the main findings and highlight the connections between mobility and language learning, we bring you an interview with our in-house analysts who have coordinated these two publications: Nathalie Baidak and Anna Horvath. They especially consider the problem of disadvantaged student groups in accessing language learning and cross-border mobility.
Finally, a Focus On article by Aislinn Curran reflects on whether starting foreign language teaching earlier in schools is actually a sensible policy choice. Indeed, while it appears that the age at which students are learning a new foreign language is getting younger, the quality of teaching makes the real difference.
We hope you will enjoy our newsletter!
Mobility Scoreboard: Higher education background report -2022/2023
Studying abroad is a major boost in the life of many young people. Experiencing new places and people expands their horizons, helping them appreciate other cultures, learn languages, and gain a wider, more global perspective. When overcoming challenges of living and studying in another country students grow personally and academically. Transnational mobility broadens their social networks, shapes skills relevant for their future careers and creates new, sometimes unimagined opportunities.
The Mobility Scoreboard provides an overview of how easy – or difficult – it is to embark on studies abroad from European countries. Six key areas enabling outward learning mobility are covered: information and guidance, foreign language preparation, portability of grants and loans, support for disadvantaged learners, recognition of learning outcomes through the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and recognition of qualifications. The learning mobility conditions are colour coded into five categories from green (the best) to red (the worst).
This third edition of the mobility scoreboard is the last one under the 2011 ‘Youth on the Move’ Council recommendation, which established it as a tool for monitoring the progress made by European countries in facilitating learning mobility. The online interactive tool allows comparison over three time points: 2016, 2019 and 2023.
The analysis is based on qualitative data gathered by the Eurydice Network on top-level policies and measures, mainly in tertiary education. All 27 EU Member States are covered as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Türkiye.
More
Language learning and mobility: what is happening in Europe? – Special interview with our authors!
Eurydice’s two most recent publications are Key data on Languages and the Mobility Scoreboard. Although often considered as separate education policy challenges, the topics are strongly inter-related, so we have taken the possibility to explore some issues with Nathalie Baidak, coordinator of the Key data Languages report, and Anna Horvath, coordinator of the Mobility Scoreboard… More
Focus On: Is younger always better? – Focus On article
The age at which children in Europe are learning a foreign language is getting younger. In 2002, the Barcelona European Council called for further action ‘teaching at least two foreign languages from a very early age’ to improve the mastery of basic skills in education.
The 2023 edition of Key data on teaching languages at school in Europe has found that, since then, around two thirds of education systems for which there are data have lowered the age at which children begin to learn a foreign language. Now, learning at least one foreign language is compulsory before the age of eight in most education systems, and even before the age of six in six education systems.
A common belief is that when it comes to foreign language learning, younger is better. But is this true in the context of European school education?