The Northern Ireland Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (NICILT) opened in 1995. It is located in the Graduate School of Education (GSoE) of Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and is a partnership between CILT, the National Centre for Languages, and QUB, with funding from the Department of Education for Northern Ireland.
NICILT aims to serve all sectors and stages of education in Northern Ireland and to support the implementation of local and national objectives in language learning and teaching.
This support is given through the following services
- Information provision
- Support for research
- Teaching and in-service provision
- Promotion and communications
These services are available to
- Teachers and learners
- Lecturers and tutors
- Language inspectors and advisors
- Teacher trainers
- Researchers and students
- Head teachers, parents and governors
- Employers
- Business language trainers
- Libraries
in fact, anyone with a language interest or concern.
As part of the Graduate School of Education, we have a particular role in supporting the staff and students of the Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course in the GSoE. This is the only languages PGCE course for post-primary teachers in Northern Ireland. Specific methods courses are provided in French, Spanish, German intermittently, and Irish, which provides a particular link to the CRAMLAP project.
CILT, the National Centre for Languages and commercial publishers generously donate resources for display and consultation in the NICILT Resources Centre.
Following the merger in 2003 of CILT and the Languages National Training Organisation (LNTO), NICILT collaborates more closely with Language Network Northern Ireland (LNNI) on languages in the workplace.
A full description of NICILT services can be found at www.qub.ac.uk/edu/nicilt .
NICILT’s partnership with CILT www.cilt.org.uk provides links and collaboration with Scottish CILT (SCILT) in Stirling www.scilt.stir.ac.uk and CILT Cymru in Wales www.ciltcymru.org.uk, as well as the regional Comenius Centres in England www.cilt.org.uk/comenius/
This parnership allows NICILT and its users access to the wider expertise of the CILT network across the UK and internationally. CILT organises conferences and training events, and is one of the country’s main language publishers. All CILT publications are available for reference and purchase through NICILT.
CILT, the National Centre for Languages
www.cilt.org.uk
CILT was formed in 1966. It merged in 2003 with the Languages National Training Organisation (LNTO), which focused on languages in the workplace and business, to form CILT the National Centre for Languages.
CILT, the National Centre for Languages is the UK Government’s recognised centre for expertise in languages. It seeks to promote a greater national capability in languages, supporting and developing multilingualism and intercultural competence in all sectors of society.
CILT serves education, business and the wider community with
- specialised and impartial information services
- high quality advice and professional development
- expert support for innovation and development
- quality improvement in language skills and service provision.
CILT manages major national and regional initiatives in support of languages. It works closely with partner organisations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and supports language networks throughout the UK.
It is a key partner in the implementation of national languages strategies and plays a significant role in the unfolding international languages agenda. CILT is the UK contact and co-ordinator for many European initiatives (www.cilt.org.uk/europe), including the European Award for Languages, the European Day of Languages, and is the nominating authority for the UK to the Council of Europe’s European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in Graz, Austria.
CILT, the National Centre for Languages, and CRAMLAP
Of particular relevance to CRAMLAP are the CILT services in support of Higher Education and Community Languages.
CILT Support for Higher Education
www.cilt.org.uk/he
CILT, the National Centre for Languages, is committed to working with others to support quality teaching and learning of languages in HE throughout its range of activities. CILT offers a wide range of facilities, services and events, and is also involved in a wide range of projects. It houses the Higher Education Resources Centre within the CILT resources library and has a partnership with the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, based in the University of Southampton, which supports teaching and learning in Higher Education. CILT, the National Centre for Languages and the Subject Centre will assist in the dissemination of the CRAMLAP project.
CILT publishes the Higher bulletin which contains information and articles on language teaching and research of interest to the higher education community. It is published three times per year, during the Spring, Summer and Autumn terms.
http://www.cilt.org.uk/he/bulletin.htm
CILT Support for Community Langusges
www.cilt.org.uk/commlangs/
Community Languages are languages spoken by members of minority groups or communities within a majority language context. Some of these are languages which have been used for hundreds of years in Britain, others are of more recent origin.
CILT, the National Centre for Languages aims to support Community languages through
1. providing information
2. supporting professional development at all levels
3. facilitating networking between colleagues
CILT publishes the Community Languages Bulletin which is intended for teachers, managers and governors in schools and colleges where community languages are taught. CILT, together with partners Scottish CILT and CILT Cymru, are conducting a survey of provision for learning community languages across the UK, the results of which are due to be published on 26 September.
