Heritage Language Blog ~ by HL Global Think Tank & FOHLC Europe

The Sydney Institute of Community Languages Education ( SICLE ) organised the “ Heritage / Community Languages education: New directions Online Conference ” which took place over several evenings in November 2025. The latest research in the field of Languages education, including Community / Heritage Languages and TESOL was shared.   Kati Varela opening the conference on November 4, 2025. There were presentations from new and experienced researchers who talked about a range of topics including assessment, inclusivity, leadership, bilingualism, online learning, teachers’ professional learning, intercultural understanding, entrepreneurship, learner engagement, and challenges in languages education. Each presenter had 30 minutes, including question time, and there were two presentations per evening. These presentations were free and will be available online. We asked our director, Ken Cruickshank, to talk about how the conference came about: Dr. Ken Cruickshank closing the conference...

By Renata Emilsson Peskova Each year on February 21, people around the world celebrate International Mother Language Day (IMLD), in memory of the fight of Bengali people for the recognition of their mother tongue Bangla in 1952. In 2026, IMLD symbolizes the fight for maintaining and encouraging linguistic diversity, closely linked to access to education in a language that children speak or understand (UNESCO, n.d.). This blog post aims to help inform parents and educators, to help them understand the linguistic human rights of children. A better understanding of linguistic rights may help decisions to be made that make schools and communities more welcoming and supportive of heritage languages – and multilingualism at large. Group picture from the FOHLC Café about linguistic rights on February 5, 2026. In honour of IMLD 2026, the Forum of Heritage Language Coalitions (FOHLC Europe) organized a FOHLC Café on February 5 to reflect on the concept of linguistic human rights. It was attend...

In this blog post, we hear from Jana Aguilar Marquez and Michaela Martínez Pauker about a truly fun and creative way to stimulate home language use around the holiday time. These educators run a Czech heritage language project " Pinčlata"  in Germany and have some great tips for parents home with the children over the winter break. They describe celebrating Christmas and work with children who are developing the Czech language, but the idea of getting a magical helper to spawn exciting conversations with your children can also be adapted to other contexts and languages. Many thanks to Jana and Michaela for this fantastic contribution! You may have noticed that in recent years, a new mysterious item has appeared in stores before Christmas: tiny elf doors . They usually hang discreetly among all the artificial garlands, sometimes accompanied by miniature brooms and buckets, skis, and rolling pins. These are accessories for Christmas elves, who have started making their way to u...