September the 26th is the European Day of Languages. The Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) created the day on the 6th of December 2001. Its main aim is to encourage language learning across Europe. All Europeans are encouraged to take up a new language. The founders of this day also hope those responsible for providing access to language learning are encouraged to make it easier for people to learn languages.
I would personally like to take the opportunity this blog offers me to encourage all of you who teach different languages to raise awareness among your students about the privilege they share as citizens of a continent that displays such linguistic and cultural diversity as Europe does.
You can access a huge number of resources on the net but I will facilitate your research by listing some of them:
The European Centre for Modern Languages offers activities in 30 different languages. (The section entitled "Teachers' area" includes plenty of materials to use in class).
The BBC web page
ESL Holiday Lessons Plans
Ready-to-use materials provided by the Council of Europe
Last but not least, this video on "The benefits of speaking different languages" by Mia Nacamulli can be very convincing for adults and students too:
Being able to choose among so many resources, I am sure that we will not miss the opportunity to celebrate this crucial date with our students - not on Saturday 26th though!
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