On 5 March 2025 Manchester City of Languages hosted a half-day conference on directions of language policy initiatives in the UK. The meeting was part of Manchester’s calendar of events for UNESCO International Mother Language Day (IMLD) 2025. Manchester is one of few cities that adopted IMLD into its official civic calendar. The city has …
Manchester City of Languages believes that we should talk about languages in the wider context of a multilingual society; promoting languages is not just about teaching languages as skills to English people, or teaching English to foreigners, though both are important and essential parts of a language policy. Some fifty percent of young people in …
On our YouTube channel you can now view our series on Language Stories. Language is diverse and multi-layered; we use and experience multiple forms of language. In our Language Stories videos. We asked residents of Greater Manchester to reflect on their experiences with different forms of language, and to describe their feelings and experiences as …
A recording is now available of our conference for UNESCO International Mother Language Day 2024 ‘Towards a Multilingual Utopia: How can knowledge lead to action?’, with contributions from: Language teachers Tahera Khanam and Hind Gaily (Manchester) and Sophie Gavrois (Birmingham), moderated by Dr Ian Cushing UNESCO City of Literature coordinators Joakim Albrektson and Hermosa Amor …
Celebrating UNESCO International Mother (and Father) Language Day 2024 This online conference with international participants will take place on Wednesday 21 February 2024 at 4-6.30pm UK time. Registration through Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/towards-a-multilingual-utopia-how-can-knowledge-lead-to-action-tickets-710184469867?aff=oddtdtcreator The conference will feature discussion panels on language teaching, indigenous language rights and the role of language in UNESCO cities of culture. Panellists will include …
In this report, Manchester City of Languages’ Yaron Matras and Santiago Chau Príncipe compare changes to census figures on languages in Manchester between 2011 and 2021. They find increases for a number of languages, and explain them through comparison with other datasets as well as first hand observations in the city’s communities. They also draw …
Continue reading What languages are on the rise in Manchester? Making sense of the census
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