Language learning for European Citizenship

The field of European citizenship has attracted increasing attention and debate as the need to re-engage young Europeans becomes more evident. Education and particularly language teaching have been frequently cited as potential channels for the educating for European citizenship. This work presents questionnaire and interview data from adolescents in England, France, Ireland and Spain. The study provides a means of better understanding European adolescents' facility for active exercise of their European citizenship and the contribution that Modern Foreign Language teaching to that end. An essential component of the study is data gathered from semi-structured interviews with Modern Foreign Language teachers in the four countries, which investigate their views and insights into the matter of teaching European citizenship through Modern Foreign Languages. While language teaching appears to place greater emphasis on the cultural and social aspects of language learning as opposed to the instrumental, the role of Modern Foreign Languages in equipping students for active exercise of European citizenship seems significantly underdeveloped in all countries and particularly England.

Autorentext

Dr Mairin Hennebry studied at Bath University and the University of Oxford. She is a trained secondary school teacher and has taught in a variety of contexts and countries, at secondary school and university level. Her research draws together the fields of Applied Linguistics, European Studies and Educational Research Methods.