International conference on propaedeutical role of Esperanto in learning foreign languages
On April 13, Russian Academy of Education hosted an International conference on propaedeutical role of Esperanto in learning foreign languages. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the initiative of scientists, professional esperantists, to include the language in Russian educational institutions’ curricula.
48 people (among them 26 non-esperantists) from 7 different countries (Hungary, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, the USA) took part in the conference. Representatives from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, Russian Academy of Education, Moscow State University of Linguistics, the State and Moscow Dumas, etc. were invited as well. The mass media was represented with TV (“TV-Center”, “Podmoskovye”) and newspaper ("Rossiiskaya Gazeta”, Gazeta.ru, "The Evening Moscow”, Planedo.ru) reporters. The following special guests were invited to participate in the discussion: prof. György Nanovfszky (University of Budapest, Hungary), prof. Günter Lobin (University of Paderborn, Germany), prof. Akira Morita (University of Nagoya, Japan), assistant prof. Wim Jansen (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Mikhail Linetsky (Kiev State Lyceum #38, Ukraine), Stephen Cobb (USA). The main opponent, prof. I.Khaleeva (Moscow State University of Linguistics), who had negatively commented on the subject, did not participate.
The conference was opened by prof. Nikolay Nikandrov, President of Russian Academy of Education, and prof. Gennady Shilo, rector of Justo University. During a coffee break the representative of the Ministry of Education and Science, Nelly Rosina, made the following statement: “Don’t expect any support from the Ministry and don’t turn to us. We won’t decide on anything”. The conclusion is relatively easy to make why of the nine people recommended by the Ministry and Academy of Education to participate in the conference only two actually made it there and why they avoided taking part in the discussion and resolution making: it was an attempt to boycott the event. However, the attempt failed as after a lively discussion the resolution was adopted by common consent. The resolution pleads for support of experiments which are conducted in Russia and aim to reveal and confirm propaedeutical value of Esperanto as well as to include the international language Esperanto as a propaedeutical facility before learning foreign language.
Using the materials of the conference Justo will publish a book with the speech-texts and a film, which can be ordered later.
