Imagining the future of multilingualism: education and society at a turning point

Abstract

Van de Craen examines the future of multilingualism, highlighting education and society as a turning point and the issues discussed at the 2020 CEL/ELC forum held in Milan Italy. On December 3-4 2020, the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan organized the bi-annual CEL/ELC forum. This event took place in difficult circumstances while Brexit, Covid and pandemic raged and the world is confronted with counter-productive anti-democratic, anti-scientific and anti-multicultural opinions and fake news. As with so many other events, the forum took place in a virtual environment. Despite this, 200 participants had enrolled. The bi-annual forum offers an opportunity to the ELC participants to discuss current European issues related to the area of languages in its broadest sense. In that sense a forum is different from a conference where attention to research results are more prominent.