1. 2 We feel part of a multilingual Europe and we would like to give our contribution: for this reason we decided to apply for the European Language label.

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“We feel part of a multilingual Europe and we would like to give our contribution: for this reason we decided to apply for the European Language label.

We believed in our project and in its strong European soul: our idea was confirmed by the award of the European Language Label”

(Kurt Brenner, representative of one of the French promoting institutions)

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• 157: awarded projects and initiatives in the period 1999 - 2011

• 1: National Agency responsible for the implementation of the European Language Label

• 1: main event organized by the National Agency on

the occasion of ELL 10th anniversary

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157 awarded projects in 11 years with an average of 14 awarded projects per year, but with a worrying drop in the past 3 years

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More than half of the projects belong to the compulsory education. Positive results for the initial vocational training and University sectors. Pre-primary education, continuous vocational and tertiary training scored the lowest results.

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French projects focus mainly on the intercultural awareness and the use of relatively innovative approaches in language teaching (TELL, CLIL)

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English represents the main language, but the gap with other languages (German, French and Spanish overall) is less developed

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The national management of the European Language Label in France is under the control of the

“Europe-Education-Formation France” National Agency.

The Agency is a public interest group under the patronage of three different Ministries: the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Labour

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The “Europe-Education-Formation France” National Agency is in charge of the organization of the label campaign.

The Agency is specifically responsible of:

• Management activities

• Promotion activities

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With reference to the Management activity, the National Agency is involved in 3 main actions:

• Creation and publication of the call for proposals

• Selection of winning projects

• Organization of the awarding ceremony

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The main purpose of the call for proposals is to inform about the objectives of the Label and the procedure for the presentation of the candidatures and to provide guidance for the submission of the application form.

The call for proposals is promoted through:

•Organization of events to promote the information about the ELL •Publication of the information about the call for tenders on several websites •Advertising on national press and on Internet search engines

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The French National Agency has implemented a series of procedures aimed at guaranteeing an adequate assessment action:

•Check the eligibility of the applications

•Organization and management of the assessment day

•Creation of the list of the winning projects

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The French National Agency organizes every year an awarding ceremony, which is usually celebrated in the framework of the main language related event organized in France, the Expolangues Fair

The Expolangues Fair is a yearly language fair addressed to students, teachers as well as to businesses and professionals with the aim to promote language learning and linguistic diversity

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On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the European Language Label, the “Europe-Education-Formation France” National Agency decided to organize a special ceremony to award the best language projects which had already received the European Language Label

The awarded projects were inserted in a publication, edited and diffused by the National Agency

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The National Agency implemented a specific section of the National Agency’s web site dedicated to the ELL providing information about the label: who can participate, target languages, selection criteria, how to participate…

On its web site, the “Europe-Education-Formation France” National Agency makes available a specific section containing the Yearly Reports, the main results and the official documents which can be useful for project promoters who intend to submit their application

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In addition to the previous activities, the “Europe-Education-Formation France” National Agency identifies National Priorities that are relevant for the improvement of language learning in France.

The national priorities a project should respect in order to be selected are:

•Innovation

•Consistency

•Transferability

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According to the analysis carried out by the NELLIP Italian team, most of the project promoter decided to submit the application to the ELL in order to:

•Obtain a better recognition of their initiative

•Promote a European dimension of their initiative

•Share innovative practices

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Objectives accomplished: The impact of the ELL on the awarded projects is mainly related to a contribution to the:

•Visibility of the project

•Enhancement of the motivation of the project promoters

•Acquisition of an official and European recognition

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According to the project promoters, the best exploitation and dissemination initiatives are those organized by the National Agency

In particular, the “Label des Label” ceremony was particularly appreciated as it represented a national showcase for the Label winners

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According to the promoters of awarded projects, in order to develop a quality project that can successfully apply for the ELL, it is necessary to:

•Focus on the innovation aspects the project can carry out

•Promote the cultural awareness of the project

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For an effective further implementation of the ELL, it would be necessary to focus on:

•Promotion of the ELL visibility

•Focus on the cultural awareness issues related to learning a language

•Guarantee a better exploitation of the ELL

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Thank you for the attention

Any question?