Celebrating languages and cultures:

Abstract

This article gives an account of the development of an event designed to motivate teacher trainee students to learn languages. The event was planned and organised by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at the Faculty of Primary and Pre-school Education, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE TÓK). The department’s intention was to play a proactive role in enhancing students’ language education by crossing the boundaries of formal foreign language courses. The initial concept was to hold a language fair like a pop-up event that would be easily noticeable throughout the building, flexible for participants and cater to the students’ individual needs. Entitled ‘Drop everything and learn/teach languages’, this event was held on September 26th, the European Day of Languages, as introduced by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2001, the Year of European Languages (Council of Europe, 2001). The European Day of Languages aims to draw attention to the importance of language learning, promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, and encourage lifelong language learning in and out of school. The title of ‘Drop everything and learn/teach languages’ was additionally inspired by the ‘Drop Everything and Read’ programme initiated to promote sustained silent reading.