February 24, 2025
This is a re-post of an article on the FOHLC Blog.
Someone has come and cut away at the forest, but we must still pave the path!
-Rita Dorneles from Universidade de Aveiro
The start of the journey
On February 6, FOHLC Europe organized another free online Café for people involved in heritage language education. The theme of the 2025 cafés is a "Journey around the World," to hear from educators from different language backgrounds. This time, we heard from Rita Dorneles from Universidade de Aveiro and Juliana Azevedo from the Universidad Internacional de la Rioja / Universidad Internacional de Valencia, who talked about their experience with training educators of Brazilian Portuguese as a heritage language.
Paving a path
Rita and Juliana were exceptional in articulating why it is a tricky task to prepare individuals to educate children in a heritage language. It is more than just learning a language, the lessons must be engaging, and the teachers must be willing to share what works and what does not work in order to develop a pedagogy for this target group. There have been positive developments, but there is still a lot of work to be done:
In true South American imagery, Rita proclaimed, "Someone has come and cut away at the forest, but we must still pave the path!"
Despite the challenges faced, the discussion was uplifting and full of hope. By working across countries and languages, we can continue bringing educators together to support each other. Many thanks to our special guests Rita and Juliana, as well as to organizers Jessika and Tereza who helped make this session possible.
Stay connected
The FOHLC Europe initiative helps give visibility and credibility to this vital education sector. Our next FOHLC Café will take place on Thursday, May 22, and everyone is welcome: teachers, community organizers, and anyone interested in multilingualism. Follow FOHLC Europe on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Blogger to stay connected and support this growing forum!
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