Page 3 - BRIDGES - ISSUE 7

"I am confident that in a society in gogy and Education and the EFL
whichknowledge,skills,andabilitiesare State School Advisor Angeliki
tools towards the communication of Deligianni.
people, your Balkan Symposium will It is because I was directly involved
contribute to the exchange of ideas in both as a school advisor and as the
the Balkan countries with the use of TEUTchair person in organising this
Englishes asa lingua franca" Symposium that the BRIDGES
Managing Editor invited me to write
Philippos Petsalnikos the editorial for this issue.
Deputy Ministerof Education
(From his opening remark at the 1st The EYL2001 is organised by the
Balkan Symposium)
The 1st Balkan Symposium

on

m
"Cultural UnderstandingThroughEFL

Teaching: AMeetingPointforBalkanCountries" mm
mt ·

m ·

Council ofEurope (CoE) and theEu-
This BRIDGES issue is, as promised, ropean Union (EU) with UNESCO
dedicated to the 1st Balkan Sympo- playing an active role as well. The ba-
sium with the theme "Cultural Under- sic principle of the EYL 2001 is that
standing through EFL Teaching: A languageskills are important for mu-
meeting point for Balkan Countries".It tual understanding,democraticstabil-
was held in Alexandroupolisfrom 27- ity, employment and mobility. It aims
29 last April and was inspired by the at raising the awareness of and pro-
followingwordsofVygotsky: moting the linguistic heritage of Eu-
rope, at motivatingEuropean citizens
"It is through language that culture is to learn languages and at promoting
transmitted, thinking develops and lifelong language learning as a way of
learningoccurs. " understanding thesocial, political and
economicchanges affectingour life.
The Balkan Symposium which was Further information on the EYL2001
incorporated into the official events is available on the CoE/EU website:
list announced by the Greek Ministry http://www.eurolang.org
of Educationand Religious Affairs, in
view of the European Year of Lan- In view of the EYL2001 celebration
guages (EYL) 2001, was attended by we took the initiative to organise the
alarge numberof studiousparticipants 1st Balkan Symposium on promoting
and eminent speakers from various cultural understanding through Eng-
areas of Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia lish Language Teaching (ELT). The
and Turkey. It was organised by English language isviewed as a Lingua
TEUT, the Balkan Society for Peda- Franca, a neutral language in the area

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