The first class of the early language immersion programme students will graduate
MISA’s language play for kindergartens will be introduced at an international conference
Civic awareness and tolerance themed projects received support
Youth camp organisers received support for teaching Estonian
MISA awaits suggestions from NGOs on how to organise language courses
The winners of the story competition “Estonia’s Positive History” announced
The first class of the early language immersion programme students will graduate
This spring, the first class of the early language immersion programme students will graduate from the upper secondary school and a festive ceremony for the graduates to celebrate this event will be held on 19 June.
The Language Immersion Programme of the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Research organises a festive ceremony for the first class of the language immersion programme graduates in Tartu at which the students, parents, school officials and teachers of the four schools that were the first to join the language immersion programme are welcome.
Tallinna Läänemere Gümnaasium, Tallinna Mustamäe Humanitaargümnaasium, Kohtla-Järve Ühisgümnaasium and Narva Vanalinna Riigikool send off their first class of the early language immersion programme graduates this spring.
“The pupils of the language immersion programme and their study results have been extensively studied in Estonia, and based on the research results we can firmly say that learning subjects in another language within the framework of a language immersion programme does not reduce in any way the depth of knowledge of subjects; on the contrary, the average study results and skills of the language immersion programme students are better than those of regular students,” commented Natalja Mjalitsina, the Head of the Language Immersion Programme at MISA.
Altogether, 82 students of the early language immersion programme graduated this year, 11 with a gold medal and 10 with a silver medal.
Jaak Aaviksoo, Minister of Education and Research, John Morrison, Ambassador of Canada and Tõnis Lukas, a member of the Riigikogu, will extend their congratulations and good wishes at the ceremony. Gerry Connely, who in 2000 acted as the representative of Canada and made an agreement on the implementation of Estonia-Canada language immersion, will also congratulate the programme graduates. Irene Käosaar, Head of the General Department of the Ministry of Education, will introduce the research and examination results of the students. The festive event at the Ministry of Education and Research will be followed by a reception of the Ambassador of Canada at the Tartu Botanical Gardens.
Language immersion is a form of learning that enriches bilingual education to enhance the better learning of Estonian as a second language. Language immersion aims at ensuring equally good skills in mother tongue as well as in Estonian and foreign languages. Language immersion is implemented in Estonia as a national programme financed and supported by the Ministry of Education and Research from 2000. To date, 38 kindergartens and 36 schools have joined the language immersion programme and around 5,000 pupils and 1,000 teachers participate in the programme.
For additional information, please contact: Natalja Mjalitsina, Head of Language Immersion Programme at MISA, tel 659 9854, e-mail natalja.mjalitsina@meis.ee
MISA’s language play for kindergartens will be introduced at an international conference
An international conference on the topic of plays “26th ICCP World Play Conference” will be held on 18−19 June at Tallinn University where Lea Maiberg from Tähekese kindergarten in Tallinn and Hedi Minlibajeva from Vindi kindergarten in Tallinn will introduce a set of the language play created for the language immersion programme.
The language play comprises playing cubes based on books, a methodical guide and speech cards. The objective of the play is to support language learning and the development of children’s speech, attract interest for the Estonian language and facilitate the acquisition of language through playful activities. The objectives of the national curriculum for childcare institutions were taken into account when the learning aid was created.
The creation of the language play was financed by the Ministry of Education and Research.
For additional information, please contact: Svetlana Belova, Language Immersion Programme of MISA, Coordinator, tel 659 9848, e-mail svetlana.belova@meis.ee
Civic awareness and tolerance themed projects received support
The Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) supported events and materials that help increase young people’s civic awareness and tolerance to the tune of around 25,000 euro.
Kohtla-Järve Ahtme Gümnaasium, Tallinna Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival MTÜ, MTÜ Tartu Koidu Keskus, Narva Humanitaargümnaasium, SA Eesti Inimõiguste Keskus, Kanepi Gümnaasium, Lohusalu Kool, Narva 6. Kool and Kammeri Kool received support from MISA through this project competition.
The objective of supporting these activities is to enhance the knowledge of students about Estonian society, add value to Estonian citizenship and being a citizen, keep alive the Citizen’s Day tradition, improve tolerance in a multicultural collective and offer the young people of different ethnic nationalities opportunities to make contact with each other and participate in developmental activities.
Through this competition, civic awareness and tolerance themed events and materials are supported, including the organisation of multicultural events, cooperation between the young people of different ethnic nationalities, creation of topic-related learning materials and tools, etc.
Implementation of the activities is supported by the Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of “Estonian Integration Strategy 2008−2013”.
For additional information, please contact: Toivo Sikk, Multicultural Education Unit, Coordinator, tel 659 9850, e-mail toivo.sikk@meis.ee
Youth camp organisers received support for teaching Estonian
With the support of the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA), seven organisations will organise Estonian language instruction activities in summer camps designed for young people whose home language is other than the Estonian language.
The objective of the activities is to build young people’s confidence in speaking Estonian and managing in an Estonian-speaking environment. The target group of the competition is 7−18 year olds that live in Estonia and speak a language other than Estonian at home and their peers that speak Estonian as a mother tongue and act as support persons.
Through this competition round, a total of 27,000 euro was allocated as support by MISA to FIE Jaan Olesk, MTÜ Fän Clab, Tallinna Õismäe Vene Lütseum, Tartu Vene Lütseum, Semolen Koolitus OÜ, Lastekaitse Liidu Lastelaagrite OÜ and MTÜ Õppe- ja arengukeskus ME. The only organisation of Estonian language instruction at already planned camps is financed through this project.
Usually, the activities planned for youth camps that support Estonian language learning also include sports, manual and artistic activities, and drama. For the purpose of learning Estonian, the young people will visit different sights, museums and practice Estonian in a cultural setting by active participation and communication with their peers.
According to the results of the qualitative study on the efficiency of Estonian language camps and the family study commissioned by MISA, non-formal language learning at camps facilitates communication in Estonian between young people. The study revealed that regardless of their ethnic nationality the level of mutual understanding of the participants of Estonian language camps and family study significantly deepened as did their readiness to communicate with people of different cultural and language backgrounds.
Last year, 470 young people were taught Estonian at such camps, among whom were around 200 support students who speak Estonian as a native language and whose duty was to assist the young people that were interested in learning the Estonian language. This summer around 400 young people who speak a language other than Estonian at home and Estonian-speaking support students will engage in the Estonian language learning activities planned at the camps.
The camp activities are financed by the Ministry of Culture within the framework of the action plan of “Estonian Integration Strategy 2008−2013”.
For additional information, please contact: Sandra Nuudi, Multicultural Education Unit of MISA, Doordinator, tel 6599 855, e-mail sandra.nuudi@meis.ee
MISA awaits suggestions from NGOs on how to organise language courses
The Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) awaits additional suggestions on how to organise the language instruction of employees of third sector organisations until 17 June.
Those eligible for these language courses include paid employees whose mother tongue is other than Estonian of culture societies, including ethnic culture societies and their Sunday schools, sports associations and NGOs that work with young people. If an organisation does not have any paid employees, the members of the organisation’s management board will be considered employees.
From this year, MISA organises language courses for people working in third sector organisations with the aim of showing Estonian inhabitants the advantages of a command of several languages and creating conditions for learning Estonian.
The umbrella associations of culture societies, societies engaged in youth work and sports associations are expected to submit suggestions for the organisation of language courses, which means that should a non-profit organisation want to make suggestions it has to turn to the umbrella organisation of its respective field to submit the suggestions in the name of the umbrella organisation.
The length of the Estonian language courses is 60−120 academic hours and they will be held from September 2012 to September 2013. MISA will find the organisers of language courses through a procurement that takes into account the suggestions made by the organisations. Classroom learning must be combined with language learning through the main activity of the organisation. In addition to learning in a classroom, the preferred forms of language learning are also learning trips, in-service training, mentored learning, and study tours. In the suggestion round, the cooperative activities of Estonian-speaking and non-Estonian-speaking employees of associations working in different regions, including joint language courses of different organisations, are preferred.
The idea for the suggestions round is MISA’s wish to consider individual needs and specifics of NGOs.
The application for Estonian language instruction prepared in Estonia by MTÜ Vene rahvuskultuuriliste organisatsioonide ühendus "SADKO" (an association of Russian ethnic culture organisations) was approved in the first suggestions round.
Activities are financed within the European Social Fund programme "Language Learning Development 2011−2013" of the measure “Language Learning Development” of the priority axis “Lifelong Education” of the Human Resource Development Operational Programme.
Please find the suggestions round documents here!
For additional information, please contact: Tea Kotkas, Lifelong Learning Unit of MISA, Coordinator, tel 659 9061, e-mail tea.kotkas@meis.ee
The winners of the story competition “Estonia’s Positive History” announced
Almost 50 works were submitted to the competition “Estonia’s Positive History” organised to collect positive stories about Estonia’s history from which the jury selected four winners and acknowledged three stories.
Half of the stories sent to the competition were written in Russian, and the youngest participant was 10 years old. The authors represented four ethnic nationalities and the stories were sent in from Estonia and abroad.
“We are glad for the active participation, and the range of topics and areas of history discussed was very wide: from the St George’s Night Uprising to Skype. Estonia’s history is seen from very different angles and in fact there are very many positive stories in our history,” said Jaanus Vihand, the main organiser and creator of the history portal Histrodamus.
“Since the times of ancient Greece, history is depicted though revolutionary events,” history professor David Vseviov said and he added: “Usually, such events are conflicts and wars and often the people we know from history were those that held arms. Indeed, the War of Independence was a critical event in Estonia’s history but what is important is to which we turn our attention. We identify ourselves with history and this is why we need to highlight other aspects, such as goodness and humanity, in history.”
Stories about the history of the Orthodox Church in Sillamäe, the history of the Russian Drama Theatre in Estonia, stories about Narva, a thorough discussion about Saaremaa`s history, stories about 20th century currency in Estonia, blockading Moscow’s embassy during the events of the Bronze Night and Estonia’s history through music were sent to the competition. The life stories of regular people, their strong character and positive attitude during the revolutionary events of the last century were also sent to the competition. Stories about the long history of Estonian industries, vocational hobbies and the historic development of rights and laws in the Estonia’s areas were told.
The acknowledged stories about our history are accessible via the history portal Histrodamus www.histrodamus.ee.
The collection of stories about history was financed by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-country Nationals, the Ministry of Culture and the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People.
For additional information, please contact: Jaanus Vihand, MTÜ Eesti Elava Ajaloo Keskus, GSM 502 2016, e-mail jaanus@eestiajalugu.ee
