EDUCATIONAL ROLE OF LANGUAGE NETWORK (ERL NETWORK)
ERL Network brings together academics whose work and interests combine language and educational science. We (a) carry out international and interdisciplinary studies, (b) systematise research and methodologies applied in pedagogically-linguistic research, (c) engage people from all across the globe, and (d) bring the world of language and the world of educational science closer together.
The ERL Network was established in 2016 on the grounds of the fundamental role of language in education and overall human development:
LANGUAGE UNDERLIES AND BINDS EDUCATION.
Language shapes our understanding of the world. It is not just a tool for speaking about it, but language defines our world and our place in it. Hence. all education rests on language and there is no learning without it. From its omnipresence in education it directly follows that every teacher is a language teacher and language merits a special position in educational systems.
LANGUAGE INTERSECTS DISCIPLINES AND CURRICULA.
In every field language lies at the heart of sense-making and knowledge construction, and it is language that drives instruction and the student-and-teacher relationship. It forms the substance of our beliefs, it regulates our affect, it prompts our actions, and enables our thinking. Leading our holistic development, language needs to be assigned a paradigmatic role in the construction of educational systems and educational linguistic studies must be given an extensively interdisciplinary treatment.
LANGUAGE SHAPES OUR IDENTITIES AND SOCIETIES.
Language is the primary property of individuals and societies. On the level of literacy and oracy it builds the sense of one’s affiliation and a sense of community. It construes one’s personality, underlies our culture, delineates the character and scope of individual- or society-oriented methodology, dominates schooling and all extra-institutional teaching and learning. Accordingly, students and educational systems must be diagnosed, assessed, and enhanced through linguistic measures and lenses.
LANGUAGE DETERMINES PROGRESS AND DEMOCRACY.
Language permits communication and cooperation. As a result, it builds private and professional relationships. It decides about the equality of educational opportunities and brings together groups and nations. Facilitating interpersonal and international understanding, it has the potential of supporting and strengthening sustainability and democracy, and thus of pushing humanity forward. What directly follows is that all educational systems must diversify and expand all forms of linguistic means and activities.
ERL Network forms of the key components of the ERL Framework.
Its grounds and original structure encompassing also ERL Association, ERL Journal, and ERL Conferences are outlined in the video below:
