L & B: You’ve been working in university language education for almost forty years. What are the challenges today? What can we do to prepare our students better for a multilingual future?
Wolfgang Mackiewicz: There’s no absolute answer to this question. The situation for graduates of an international university such as Freie Universität is different from that for graduates of a university that is more rooted in its region. However, multilingualism is something that none of our universities can avoid.
Briefly, I would say this:
- The universities need to offer a wide range of language opportunities for non-specialists.
- Incentives to learn languages must be created with credits being awarded for successful participation in practical language modules.
- In the forthcoming review of our Bachelor and Master courses, structures must be made more flexible so that student mobility becomes the norm.
- And they should - I am aware that this view is controversial - in particular promote the acquisition of general language skills which can be further developed.
L & B: How can the next generation be prepared strategically for life and work in a multilingual environment?
Wolfgang Mackiewicz: There are a whole range of such strategies - the strategies that are available in specific cases depend on the context. In general, I think the EU is right in saying that multilingual competence is a key skill for lifelong learning. Language-learning should begin as early as the pre-school stage, and should continue thereafter at every stage in education. This implies that appropriate measures have to be found for those children and young people who were not taught German or were not taught it to a sufficient level in their own family environment. This also means that English is not necessarily the foreign language that must be learned first. All in all, this is one of the biggest challenges in our educational system. Specifically, it also means thinking about bilingual education - and reconsidering the general education of pre-school educators as well as school teachers.
The High Level Group on Multilingualism of the European Commission, however, has correctly pointed out that other forms of language learning must be introduced into educational systems. That is to say, all too often foreign languages are perceived as difficult subjects that you want to be rid of as quickly as possible. The learning of foreign languages needs more than ever to become part of extra-curricular activities - e.g. in the framework of school partnerships, e-mail tandems and language weekends.
L & B: What do you see, in this context, as being the special task of the universities?
Wolfgang Mackiewicz: We talk endlessly nowadays of the internationalisation of our universities - and indeed, there are now more foreign students than ever before at German universities. However, much too little is being done to take advantage of this linguistic and cultural diversity for the development of multilingualism – for instance through of the large-scale formation of language tandems and language trios and the multilingual management of seminars. We must also teach our students how to build on their existing language knowledge by acquiring receptive skills in other, related languages- in the context of accelerated language learning. We must get serious with the systematic use of technological resources. And finally, we need to give students who have a first language other than German but are not literate in that language the opportunity to fully develop their knowledge of their own language.
The universities, however, tend to include language in the soft skills, doing justice neither to their importance in life and work in the 21st century, nor to the intellectual challenge of language learning and multilingual competence.
L & B: How can educational institutions and enterprises, especially SMEs, the key drivers of the economy, work together more successfully? Where are the interfaces?
Wolfgang Mackiewicz: I think that any kind of consultation and cooperation would be a step forward. A few years ago, when we at Freie Universität Berlin started to plan the foreign languages modules in what we called the general professional skills section of our Bachelor degree courses, we first of all made contact with the Chamber of Commerce. Later, we sought direct dialogue with SMEs in the region. From them we were on the receiving end of some harsh criticism - our graduates were not bringing with them the necessary languages, and the languages of which they did have knowledge, they were unable to apply adequately. Nowadays, we regularly seek such dialogue. But we must do more: We must try, by graduate surveys and placement reports, to gain more knowledge about language needs, and especially those of the SMEs.
But of course, these are not just, and not even primarily, challenges for the universities. Our schools need to do much more than they have been doing hitherto. They should invite representatives of SMEs to information events. The existence of local and regional language networks can be an advantage in this regard. That is why I was so thrilled to see Bremen, last September, establish a Language Council with the participation of state government, educational institutions and employers' and workers' organisations.
L & B: What is the role of companies, and especially SMEs, in language training?
Wolfgang Mackiewicz: I’m afraid I don’t have a ready answer for you as yet. The European Commission is currently trying to gain insight, in the context of several initiatives, into language strategies that have been successfully developed and implemented by SMEs. One such initiative is the Business Platform for Multilingualism, which I chair. From previous EU projects, I know that big companies run quite successful training programmes in which the emphasis, quite rightly, is on language and intercultural skills. SMEs are often not able do this on their own. The Business Platform therefore considers it one of its tasks to make successful SME language strategies more widely known - although we are aware that there are in this area no general solutions. In fact I deliberately chose the term language strategies. It's about more than language learning. It is also about the use of language services and technological applications.
L & B: How can more awareness be raised among SMEs regarding the importance of multilingualism?
Wolfgang Mackiewicz: I believe that this is the key question. Recently, I was present at a European Commission event in Brussels dedicated to collaboration between schools and businesses. It was the first of its kind. One of the sessions was devoted to the transversal skills required by business. I was the only participant to point out the importance of languages for employability and competitiveness in a globalised world. My sentiments did not strike a chord with others - on the contrary, a German company representative told me afterwards that English was all that was needed.
There are plenty of examples that demonstrate how the performance of SMEs can be enhanced by specific language strategies - either with new markets being opened up, or economical suppliers being found.
I do not believe that the disclosure of specific examples alone will be sufficient to raise the awareness of SMEs concerning the economic importance of multilingualism. Rather, I believe that we must provide tools to enable SMEs to identify their own needs and select or develop the appropriate strategies for them. This will be one focus of the work of the Business Platform. Here, too, I think, local or regional language networks have an important role to play.
Mr Mackiewicz, many thanks for your time!
April 15th, 2010
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