Jubilee festival “Primavera en español”

The 10th annual “Primavera en español” festival (held remotely) will begin on April 20 at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). The jubilee festival of Spanish culture will last for three weeks, and will feature meetings, lectures and creative workshops (program).

“Every spring for the past ten years, we’ve invited the VMU community to not only communicate in Spanish, but also to get to know the cultural diversity of Spanish-speaking countries. We’ve pooled our wisdom and experience gained during this year into the tenth-anniversary festival. That’s why the festival will begin with a scientific conference on the subtleties of the modern Spanish-speaking world. Together with experts from Lithuania and abroad, we will try to summarize the most important issues of the region, including a discussion about Spanish studies in Lithuania,” said Vigilija Žiūraitė, Vytautas Magnus University Spanish language lecturer and one of the festival organizers.

The first week of the festival is sure to delight participants with its rich program. On April 21, translator Nomeda Miselyte-Lukoševičienė, who has translated many popular Mexican telenovels and Spanish films, will share her experience about the way the characters speak Lithuanian. The following evening, in an unprecedented event in the festival’s history, Dr. Lucila Gonzalez Alfaya will invite you to learn phrases from one of the official languages of Spain, Galician, and well as the region’s history. An important tradition of the festival, International Book Day, will be commemorated on April 23, and will feature María Ortega García, a teacher, writer and poet from Spain. The first Book Day at VMU  was celebrated in 2013, when the idea was proposed by the then Kaunas “Žalgiris” coach Joan Plaza, while members of the Miguel de Cervantes Club on gave books and roses to passers-by on Laisvės Alley, following the tradition of Catalonia.

Another “Primavera en español” tradition, the “El mundo hispanohablante y yo” schoolchildren’s Olympiad, will take place on May 5. There will also be no shortage of adventurous events, which are always an integral part of the festival. A reunion of all festival organizers will take place on May 6, and the festival will end with a flamenco concert by performer Jorge Arena.

“Primavera en español” is organized by the Miguel de Cervantes Spanish Language and Culture Club and the Vytautas Magnus University Institute of Foreign Languages, ​​in cooperation with the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Lithuania. The festival, which became an integral part of Vytautas Magnus University in the spring, was organized for the first time in 2011, and is continued yearly by university students and Spanish language lecturers, as well as by international exchange students.

Festival events are open to anyone who wishes to attend. Participants are invited to fill out a registration form to receive reminders about upcoming events. Live events will also be broadcast on the Miguel de Cervantes Club website.

More information about the festival can be found on Facebook.

First student conference “Let’s Grow Together”

Dear students,
Time is flying very fast, and most of you are likely to have prepared great presentations in your chosen language classes. We would like to invite you to actively participate in the first student conference Let’s Grow Together, which will take place on April 29, from 8:00 to 11:00.

 

IFL unclassified student agreement

o Fill in the request form for a language learning and send it to one of the IFL administrators.

o Fill in the electronic request at epasirasymas.vdu.lt (log in using e-banking, e-signature, or your VMU login details).

o After 12 hours, you should be able to open an e-contract at epasirasymas.vdu.lt. Sign the e-contract by simply ticking several boxes.

o During the online registration, log in at studentas.vdu.lt by entering your firstname.lastname (do not use capital letters) and the password. In the tab of the student profile, you will be able to switch from one profile to another, so choose a student number that starts with LK letters and just then register for the language of your choice.

o Log in to the learning platform moodle2.vdu.lt by entering your firstname.lastname (do not use capital letters) and the password and access the course material online.

o During the first two weeks of the semester, follow the information on the studentas.vdu.lt portal because you will have to make a payment through this platform. If there is a sign that you need to make a payment, follow the steps requested in the system to complete the transfer. The price for IFL unclassified students is 127,86 Eur for the whole semester.

Information for International Students

The spring semester 2021 is starting on February 1 online.

6th International Conference Sustainable Multilingualism 2021

The Institute of Foreign Languages of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU IFL), in cooperation with the Language Teachers’ Association of Lithuania, organizes the 6th International Scientific Conference “Sustainable Multilingualism” (Lith. Darnioji daugiakalbystė). The Conference will be held online on June 4-5, 2021. Abstracts are submitted by April 1.

 The importance of Sustainable Multilingualism

 “Sustainable multilingualism is the process of ensuring the harmonious coexistence of languages in a country, city or institution and human consciousness. It is the education of a multilingual person who, through learning the home language and other languages and his/her intercultural experience, develops and improves his/her general communicative competence. This competence allows improving mother tongue, communicating in several languages, understanding, comprehending the written or spoken text of other languages, and mediating with others who do not speak a common language. The future belongs to multilingual people who have general communicative competence in several languages and are able to use those languages flexibly,” says VMU IFL Prof. Dr. Nemira Mačianskienė, Chair of the Scientific Committee of “Sustainable Multilingualism”.

 VMU IFL organized the first Conference dedicated to multilingualism in 2011. The aim was to contribute to the development of language policy in the country by providing a platform for researchers and language teaching practitioners to discuss the development of multilingualism, i.e. aspects of language preservation and language teaching and learning.

A Wide Range of Conference Themes

“Sustainable Multilingualism 2021” aims at bringing together researchers, language policymakers, language teaching professionals and students, and all the interested in the discussion on preserving and nurturing multilingualism. As the Conference will be held online this year, researchers from all over the world are invited to present their research and insights on the following topics (in English, Spanish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, French, Russian and German):

  • Language policy implementation (regional, national, institutional levels)
  • Language preservation, revitalization, linguistic human rights
  • Less widely spoken & taught languages
  • Minority & regional languages
  • Psycholinguistic perspectives of multilingualism
  • Contemporary Lithuanian language studies
  • Issues in translation and interpreting
  • Virtual language teaching & learning
  • Innovations in classroom language teaching and learning
  • Plurilingual approach to language teaching & learning
  • Linguistically sensitive teaching
  • Content and Language Integrated Learning
  • Intercultural communication in language teaching and learning
  • Teaching and learning mediation competences
  • Formative assessment
  • Language teacher professional competence development

Keynote Speeches Will Be Delivered by World-Famous Scholars

The conference “Sustainable Multilingualism” always receives attention from world-famous scholars and multilingualism specialists. This year’s plenary speeches in English, German and Lithuanian will be given by Ghil’ Ad Zuckermann, Professor at the University of Adelaide (Australia), Britta Hufeisen from Darmstadt Technical University (Germany), Déirdre Kirwan from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and VMU IFL Latin Lecturer, Sigitas Lūžys, the winner of the Martynas Mažvydas Prize. The keynote speakers will present their latest research on the challenges of language teaching and learning as well as translation and the future of a multilingual world.

Submission of abstracts and registration takes place on the conference website.

Fourth Annual Spanish Language Forum at VMU to be Held Virtually

The Fourth Annual Spanish Language Forum in Kaunas (Foro de español en Kaunas) will take place on Saturday, December 5. This year’s international event will be organized remotely and will bring together over one hundred Spanish-language specialists from the Baltic region and other countries.

“For the fourth time, we aim to bring together Spanish language teachers, translators and other specialists to Vytautas Magnus University, where they can share innovative ideas, present research results, and discuss the latest language teaching methods. It is symbolic that this year, when we cannot meet physically, we have even greater opportunities to invite international professionals from all over the world. For example, Saturday’s plenary session will be given by Dr. Macarena Gordillo de Paz from the University of Sydney (Australia),” said Vigilija Žiūraitė, the organizer of the forum and a lecturer at the Institute of Foreign Languages.

The forum programme will include scientific reports, workshops and discussions. Seven guest lecturers from higher education institutions in Spain, Australia, Switzerland, Poland, France, and Lithuania will not only present the latest trends in Spanish language teaching and learning, translation, and other fields, but they will also invite participants to discuss the past year’s innovations in remote and distance learning.

This year’s IV Spanish Language Forum in Kaunas has received the exclusive attention of the Cervantes Institute (Instituto Cervantes)–whose representative from Warsaw, Dr. Francisco Ernesto Puertas Moya–will introduce the features of the official Spanish language test (DELE) to the forum participants.The Cervantes Institute is the state organization of the Kingdom of Spain, responsible for the teaching of Spanish and the dissemination of the culture of Spanish-speaking countries throughout the world.

The worldwide popularity of Spanish, which is the official language in 21 countries, is undeniable. According to the latest figures from the Cervantes Institute, 585 million people can speak Spanish fluently, and another 22 million are learning it as a foreign language. Spanish has been the most popular language among VMU students since the university was re-established in 1989, apart from the English language, which is compulsory. In 2011, on the initiative of VMU teachers and students, the Miguel de Cervantes Spanish Language and Culture Club was established, uniting fans of Spanish culture in Lithuania.

The forum will be held in Spanish. Pre-registration required.

Programme.

European Day of Languages 2020

On September 25, the annual celebration of the European Day of Languages is returning to Vytautas Magnus University. This year, VMU Institute of Foreign Languages is inviting students and pupils to a fun multilingual competition “(Un)Lost in Translation,” which will take place in a virtual space.

The participants are suggested to test their language skills by trying to understand a multilingual text and translate it into Lithuanian. The team members will meet in virtual rooms, where they will have to listen to parts of the text told in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian and combine them into a coherent text in Lithuanian.  The team that will manage not to get lost in translation and convey the content of the story as accurately as possible will win the competition.

In addition, various companies will share stories about situations related to “translation errors” and the need for language skills. The participants of the event will be able to communicate with the representatives of the companies and ask questions.

Programme of the event:

8:30-10:30 meeting with the representatives of the companies:

9:00-11:00 multilingual translation competition “(Un)Lost in Translation”

  • Competition for VMU students and pupils
  • Results and awards will be announced on Tuesday, September 28, on the website of the Institute of Foreign Languages http://uki.vdu.lt/. Presentation of prizes to the winners or their representative upon arrival at the Institute of Foreign Languages, address Gedimino Str. 44 (telephone number for inquiry +37037327845).

We are kindly inviting you to participate in the event, receive positive impressions and win valuable prizes: the prizes of VMU Institute of Foreign Languages are to study the chosen language free of charge; the prize of the European Commission Representation in Lithuania is coupons for books. In order to register for a meeting with companies, click on the link: Meeting with companies. Registration for the translation competition for student teams: Student registration for the competition.

MEETING WITH COMPANIES: PARTICIPATE

Information about COVID-19

In order to prevent the emergence of COVID-19 and its possible spread in Lithuania, VMU calls on its community to be public-spirited and socially responsible, to carry out all actions specified by the National Public Health Center under the Ministry of Health, and to keep up-to-date with information about the virus and its prevention.

Since the health of the community’s members is one of VMU’s top priorities, the studies during this autumn semester will be organized both remotely as well as in lecture rooms. The following changes have been approved: lectures of all A group subjects as well as lectures where the number of students is 100 or more will be held remotely. All other activities will take place in the university’s spaces, in accordance with safety recommendations. If 2-metre distance is not maintained between people in lecture rooms and other learning premises or during events in closed spaces, the participating adult individuals must wear personal protective equipment which covers their nose and mouth (face masks, respirators or other items).

Academic and non-academic staff will work in the university’s spaces until a different ruling is made by the government of Lithuania.

Please remember that events in closed spaces must be organised while upholding the principle of isolated groups, whereas in open spaces a distance of no less than 1 metre must be maintained between participants. If the weather conditions are favourable, events should be planned to take place in the open spaces of the university: the VMU Botanical Garden, courtyards of the faculties, territory of VMU Agriculture Academy etc.

I kindly ask everyone to be mindful of the situation and follow the recommendations that help us remain healthy and reduce the risk of coronavirus infection: maintain a safe physical distance during lectures and seminars, sit in every other seat, wear protective equipment covering nose and mouth (face masks, respirators or other items), wash hands regularly and, if you feel symptoms of cold or other infectious diseases, stay home.

Should you have any questions to IFL administration or your teacher, please first consider writing them an email in VMU outlook or talking on the phone. Only if your question cannot be tackled in a distance way, make an appointment and come to the IFL premises.

Meeting with representatives of Edulinker International Education & Technology, an educational agency in China

The Institute of Foreign Languages, the Centre for Asian Studies and the Career Centre invite you to a meeting with representatives of Edulinker International Education & Technology, an educational agency in China. You will be presented the opportunity for internship or work placement as a teacher of general education in China. Postgraduate students from a variety of specialities will be able not only to gain work experience, discover new multicultural country, but also to receive a monthly payment of 1,500-2,500 euros.

Place: K. Donelaitis st. 52 – 521

Time of the presentation: 10:00 – 10:45, 10 June

Personal consultations 10:45 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 16:00, 10 June

Meeting language: English

Lecturers: 翟清-Lucifer ir 白燕-Olivia

Sustainable Multilingualism 2019

Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL) of Vytautas Magnus University in cooperation with Language Teachers’ Association of Lithuania (LKPA) are pleased to invite you to the 5th VMU IFL and the 13th LKPA international conference SUSTAINABLE MULTILINGUALISM 2019 24–25 May, 2019 Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.

The conference aims at bringing together scholars and language education professionals to share their research insights and discuss the issues relevant to the development of individual and societal multilingualism, including language policy, linguistic human rights, plurilingual pedagogy and language education in higher education.

For more information press the link.