The 3 Belgian National Support Services for EPALE invited language teachers in adult education to celebrate World Teachers' Day together on the 5th of October. Theme of the day was 'Belgian Language Teachers Breaking Barriers'. It was a chance for them to exchange and share experiences with language teachers from the other Belgian Communities. 

About 100 teachers joined the event. Together they teach 11 languages. 35 of them teach English, Dutch: 25, French: 18, Spanish: 15, German: 9, Italian: 4, Chinese: 2, Romanian: 2, Arabic: 1, Bulgarian: 1, Catalan: 1.

After a welcome by the 3 Belgian EPALE coordinators and a short introduction to EPALE, keynote speaker Alex Rawlings talked about a world without 'Grenzen'. Alex is a British-born polyglot who has learned 15 different languages, an Oxford University graduate in German and Russian, and published author ('How to Speak Any Language Fluently' and 'From Amourette to Żal: Bizarre and Beautiful Words from Europe'). He became known for his linguistic ability in 2012, the year in which he was named 'Britain’s Most Multilingual Student' in a nationwide competition featured on the BBC. His passion for languages is driven by a passion for people, and a desire to be able to communicate with anyone, anywhere, regardless of whichever language they speak.

Here's a short summary of his keynote speech: Languages define the human experience. At their best, languages are the way in which we communicate our thoughts and feelings to others. Through language, we form connections and share our lives with those around us. But at their worst, languages divide, isolate, and constrain us to only being able to speak to people like us. In his talk Alex pointed out that since time immemorial, and certainly long before the invention of social media, monolingualism is the most dangerous echo chamber known to humankind. Drawing on extracts from his latest book From Amourette to Żal: Bizarre and Beautiful Words from Europe, he showed the colour and joy that speaking multiple languages brings to people’s lives, and argued that if we want to live in a world without 'grenzen' or 'frontières' (borders), only speaking one language just won’t do.

Next Isabel Crespo from Europeana Collections told the audience about how to inspire language learners with digital culture. Europeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitised items – books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools to help you find what you’re looking for. Their dedicated thematic collections on art(link is external), fashion(link is external), music(link is external), photography(link is external) and World War I(link is external) contain galleries(link is external), blogs(link is external) and exhibitions(link is external) to inform and inspire.

During lunch the participants had lots of network opportunities and could visit a resources market.

After lunch they had the opportunity to participate in two workshops (with a choice out of 4):

1. Theatrical improvisation activities in language classes

with Emilie Letertre a former Wallonia-Brussels reader in Romania (2006-2009), where she learned to work with theatrical improvisation. 

The aim of the workshop was to show some reusable theatrical improvisation activities in foreign language classes because this discipline, in addition to promoting the use of language, teaches values ​​like self-confidence, repartee, listening, developing the imagination, creativity and artistic sense, and helping one another.

2. Brussels in dialogue - Challenges and opportunities for language teachers

with Widu De Ridder who has a background in education and works for ‘Foyer vzw’.

‘Brussels in dialogue’ is a methodology for bringing people from many different backgrounds together. It allows them to have a meaningful exchange while increasing their sense of mutual understanding. It is put into practice all over Brussels, in partnership with other organizations, by Foyer vzw, an NGO based in the popular borough of Molenbeek. 

3. Guerrilla literacy learners

with Patricia Huion, E-du-novator, senior researcher and European project writer and manager at UCLL. MA in Germanic Filology (KULeuven) and an MSc in Educational Sciences (KULeuven). 

Guerrilla literacy learners make unorthodox connections to create mistakes. After a very short introduction of the MOOC that discusses the theoretical backgrounds and the methodology of a mistake-driven language learning approach, the participants listened to a rap introducing the mathematician, do-gooder, creative mixer, link these to mistakes students make and rap a few new lines. The session combined a short presentation of the Guerrilla MOOC with an interactive workshop based on a world café and the use of creative languages to discover new examples. 

4. Learning English through folk dances and speaking activities

with Marie Palm, an English teacher and online-course developer.

The objectives of this interactive workshop were to see communication as a whole, to provide an optimal learning environment by meeting the affective and cognitive needs of the students, to promote an engaging learning approach, and to develop and stimulate creativity and imagination.  

Andrew McCoshan, EPALE's thematic coordinator, ended the day by summarizing a previously held EPALE discussion about 'Making language learning the best it can be'. Together with the audience Andrew dwelled on the questions 'How do we make language learning the best it can be?' and 'How do we best meet the needs of different groups for language learning?' He found inspiration in contributions to an online EPALE discussion in which language teachers from across Europe shared their experience in teaching languages to adults and exchanged tips and challenges they have faced. He also put the spotlights on the most interesting case studies, thought-provoking blog posts and helpful resources on the topic of languages and adult education that can be found on the EPALE-platform.