European Day of Languages

Celebrated on 26 September every year, the European Day of Languages (EDL) is designed to promote the importance of language learning and protecting the linguistic heritage. This year the theme is: Languages for Peace.  

The European Union has 24 official languages. These are Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish. 

To get your pupils involved in the event, the Global School Alliance has launched a competition ‘The power of learning a language…’ and are asking students to tell us how languages have the power to bring people together, how learning a language empowers them, how languages will open doors for them in the future,  

The competition is open to schools with students studying a European language worldwide and aims to showcase the magic and importance of language learning. 

• Raise awareness of languages and cultural understanding in schools. 
• Unleash your students’ imagination and let their voices be heard through presentations, artwork, videos, or any creative submission. 
• Embrace diversity and foster a deeper appreciation for different cultures and languages. 
• Win amazing prizes to transform global education in your school.

Deadline to enter is 4th October. Shortlisted schools will be notified by 11th October and the online Awards Ceremony will take place on 17th October to celebrate all of the entries and winners.

What are we looking for? 

We want to encourage our language learners to be creative! Here are some suggestions of what can be produced! 

We think that younger language learners might explore the theme by: 

• designing a poster or a postcard linked to the theme “The power of languages” – postcard template below 
• creating a word cloud about their future using words in the language 
• recording a short video of themselves speaking a language with a friend or member of their family 

Linguistically more skilled learners might approach the theme by talking about : 

• themselves and their friends/family and how their shared language brings them together (including activities they do together) 
• their plans for the future and how they will use their language skills to be successful 
• the power of learning another language and why languages are important 
• how languages are a vehicle for reaching across linguistic and cultural divides.  

Some suggestions:
They can achieve this by creating a poster, presentation, video clip, storyboard, newspaper/magazine article, writing an entry for a time capsule or even a letter to an MP about the importance of language learning in schools.

Find out more and register to join the competition.