{"id":49437,"date":"2011-06-03T21:08:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T19:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/?p=49437"},"modified":"2025-10-21T22:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:38:13","slug":"may-30-june-1-2011-unesco-joint-expert-group-meeting-towards-guidelines-on-language-policies-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/2011\/06\/may-30-june-1-2011-unesco-joint-expert-group-meeting-towards-guidelines-on-language-policies-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"May 30 – June 1, 2011: UNESCO joint expert group meeting towards guidelines on language policies, Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, UNESCO<\/strong> brought together some forty international experts over a three-day meeting, with the objective to develop a tool that will help member States assess the language situation in their respective countries, and based on that assessment, create and implement appropriate languages policies and measures.<\/p>\n

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In 2002 and 2003, UNESCO had gathered an international group of linguists in order to develop a framework for determining the vitality of the world\u2019s languages. The expert group had elaborated a landmark paper entitled \u201cLanguage Vitality and Endangerment<\/strong>\u201d (English<\/a>|French<\/a>|Spanish<\/a>|Arabic<\/a>|Chinese<\/a>) which established 9 key factors for assessment ranging from the number of speakers to the presence of the language within the educational system or the media, and including its level of transmission from one generation to the other.<\/p>\n

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Once again this last meeting has been rich in contributions by leading experts including prime figures in linguistics, but also education anthropology, the media and the Internet. These experts represent universities, research institutes, private companies and non-governmental organizations.\u00a0Sorosoro Director Rozenn Milin was one of them as part of the media section.<\/p>\n

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Over three days of substantial debate, the different groups set about revising the framework elaborated 8 years ago, in light of the feedback accumulated since 2003. They also produced a series of guidelines and suggestions geared towards member States for them to act in favor of linguistic diversity.<\/p>\n

The experts attending the meeting largely emphasized the fact that the usual statement of intent wasn\u2019t good enough and that it is high time to act concretely, given the emergency there is to safeguard a diversity that is already seriously damaged\u2026<\/p>\n