ABSTRACT
The European Day of Languages is celebrated each year on September 26th. If this date falls on a weekend, then the Monday closest to the 26th is chosen for the celebrations. The European Day of Languages is a Europe-wide celebration of language and culture and involves 47 countries.The Council of Europe, together with the European Union, initiated the concept over ten years ago and the celebration is co-ordinated in the UK by CILT, the National Centre for Languages, part of Cf BT Education Trust (see useful web addresses in the accompanying DVD materials). The first European Day of Languages was held in 2011, which was the EuropeanYear of Languages.All languages are involved in the celebration,not just European ones and the day has its own dedicated website (see list of useful websites in the material for this project on the accompanying DVD).The idea is simple but effective and each year all participants have great fun celebrating the language(s) of their choice.The European Day of Languages has three main objectives as stated by the Council of Europe (see useful web addresses in the accompanying DVD materials) which are to raise awareness of:
■ Europe’s rich linguistic diversity, which must be preserved and enhanced; ■ the need to diversify the range of languages people learn (to include less widely
used languages), which results in plurilingualism; ■ the need for people to develop some degree of proficiency in two languages or
more, to be able to play their full part in democratic citizenship in Europe.
