Edinburgh Multilingual Stories Festival 2019

Thanks to everyone who joined us at the 2nd Edinburgh Multilingual Stories Festival (EMSF) from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th of November 2019. Around 400 people, including school groups and community groups, came to Summerhall for our annual Edinburgh festival celebrating languages.

This year, we were delighted to partner with the research project Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (MEITS) and co-host their UK touring pop-up museum of languages on its Edinburgh stop. The project has created fun, hands-on activities for all ages to explore and learn about languages.

In the run up to EMSF we also had a series of workshops in a local Edinburgh school where pupils learned about bilingualism and language learning research, then created art works based on their own experiences. These fantastic works were on display throughout the Festival and provided a discussion point for visitors, many of whom came to browse for books in our free multilingual book swap.

At ‘Kinetic Reading: Language Learning Through Movement’ children aged 9 to 11 had the opportunity to be led by a professional dancer exploring dance and language learning, in an innovative workshop funded by Creative Multilingualism.

One of the highlights of the festival, funded the ESRC Festival of Social Science, was the talk ‘More than one language: what parents and teachers need to know‘ by Professor Antonella Sorace. Around 50 people attended and there was a valuable questions and answers session after the talk to raise individual concerns.

Photos from EMSF 2019 are available on our Facebook album. The full programme and further details are here.

Keep up to date with plans for next Edinburgh Multlingual Stories Festival by signing up for our quarterly email newsletter, or following us on social media.