1. New media for Multilingualism: Practice and Research Questions 5th EUNoM symposium Cor van der Meer Barcelona, 15 May, 2012

2. Overview Fryslân Mercator Research Social media in Fryslân

3. News “Icelandic is poorly prepared for progress in information technology” “The Galician government will promote the Galician language on the internet” “Digital communication is an enormous enrichment for language acquisition” “Kids get stressed because they ‘need’ to check their ‘mobile’ every minute”

4. Mercator Research Centre Activities: Research Publications Newsletters Regional Dossiers Expert databases Network of Schools Conferences & seminars

5. Conferences 2012 June 20 – 23: International Conference on Language and Social Psychology (ICLASP13) Leeuwarden, Fryslân November: Joint European Expert Seminar with the Basque ministry for education and research

6. Mercator Research Centre - “lead partner” 4 Partner institutes: Aberystwyth – University of Wales Barcelona – Ciemen Budapest – Hungarian Academy of Sciences Eskilstuna (Sweden) – Mälardalen University Since 1987

7. Twitter & Facebook

8. Visit Chinese delegation, November 2010 Where to find Fryslân

9. Language situation Fryslân Approximately 600.000 inhabitants

10. Frisian Language Command 54 % Mother tongue 94 % Understanding 74 % Speaking 65 % Reading 26 % Writing

11. Linguistic Vitality Allard and Landry (1978) Giles and Bourhis (from 1982 onwards) UNESCO vitality index (1993, 9 factors) UNESCO atlas (2009) Euromosaic (7 factors)

12. UNESCO’S LANGUAGE VITALITY INDEX

13. Research questions Language choice for communication on social media: –When (frequency) –How (technology) –With whom (social network) –Why (individual attitude) Language proficiency Language quality

14. Possible effects Language awareness raising in younger age groups than traditional methods Communication outside peer group Increase of writing skills (percentage of self reported language command) Improvement of the image of the language

15. Tri-lingual education

17. Social Media

19. Frisian Twitter Day

20. Safe sex campaign in Frisian

21. E-learning of Frisian Edufrysk, E-learning tool developed in Friesland –For learning Frisian language –Familiarizing with Frisian culture –Initially for age group 16+ –For all proficiency levels –Dutch as medium of instruction –(future plans for an English interface)

22. Edufrysk / Structure Language & culture learning through: –Text (according interest) –Music / songs –Poetry –Games

23. Edufrysk / defined user groups General interested public (30-40 years) New students Students, already following course in Frisian Teachers Young people Root seekers Expert groups Language fanatics

24. Edufrysk / features Personal profiles Virtual communities Expert groups Podcasts Possibilities for software conversion to other (minority) languages

25. Edufrysk / experiences sofar Successful Quick learning Learning strategy is intuitive and analytical Low demand for exams or certificates

26. International Research Project Comparativeresearch Language maintenance Participation Statistics Use of social media in the classroom

27. www.mercator-research.eu mercator@fryske-akademy.nl Köszönöm Haristo Mersi dit Tak Danke Hvala Teşekkür ederim Dzãczi Thank you Tige tank Ful toank Spasiba