{"id":18467,"date":"2006-09-22T17:39:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-22T15:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/?p=18467"},"modified":"2026-06-02T17:55:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:55:46","slug":"multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/sk\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Multilingual neuro-imaging research in Brussels and Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">State of the art and policy implications<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"723\" src=\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-1024x723.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18468\" srcset=\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-1024x723.png 1024w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-300x212.png 300w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-768x542.png 768w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-1536x1084.png 1536w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-2048x1445.png 2048w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-18x12.png 18w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/illustrations\/thank-you-gratitude-appreciation-490607\/\">Download Thank You, Gratitude, Appreciation. Royalty-Free Stock Illustration Image &#8211; Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles<br>Marriott Hotel, Brussels<br>22 September 2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dear Rectors,<br>Ladies and gentlemen,<br>Let me first of all warmly thank the organisers of this event, which gives me<br>the welcome opportunity of addressing the complex issue of multilingualism<br>from what is, for me, a new and different angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>I am sure that we share the view that multilingualism is not a problem, but a<br>richness. Professor Van De Craen, in his introductory remarks, quoted my<br>webpage in Dutch; if you had checked last year, you would have found<br>virtually no Commissioners&#8217; websites in your mother tongue. Now they are<br>all multilingual, some even in 20 or 21 languages. This shows that an<br>enlarged Europe is more European and more complete. This is also why now<br>multilingualism is a policy, not just a technical matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>When I first received the invitation to participate in this conference, it<br>reminded me of a book, Conrad\u2019s Heart of Darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>At the beginning of the novel, before he is sent off to his mission in the<br>Congo, the British captain Charles Marlow is examined by a Belgian doctor.<br>While measuring him back and front and every way and taking notes, the<br>physician explains that he always measures, in the interest of science, the<br>skulls of people leaving for Africa. Marlow takes him for a harmless fool<br>and asks whether the same procedure applies when those adventurous people<br>come back. &#8216;Oh, I never see them,&#8217; answers the doctor; &#8216;and, moreover, the<br>changes take place inside, you know.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Well, it would seem that \u2013 one century after the publication of Conrad\u2019s<br>masterpiece \u2013 the same tradition of scientific enquiry is still flourishing in<br>Brussels, and that research has finally moved into the mysteries of what<br>happens inside the head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>As you can imagine, I am often invited to talk about the importance of<br>languages in the European Union, a fact which confirms that multilingualism<br>is now high on the European political agenda. Language policy, as anybody<br>living in Belgium knows, is an extremely sensitive issue, about which<br>almost everybody seems to have a very firm opinion; at the same time, it is<br>surprising how the entire debate is based on very little scientific evidence<br>and is often driven by emotional, rather than rational, considerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>There are no reliable data, for instance, on the language skills of European<br>citizens. For sure, we have fairly detailed data on the input, such as the<br>number of hours spent in classrooms trying to learn a foreign language. We<br>have data based on self-assessment, such as those collected through our<br>Eurobarometer studies, telling us how well people think that they can speak<br>and understand a foreign language. But we do not know how well those<br>languages taught at school are actually learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>This is why in 2002 the European Council launched a great effort to develop<br>a European indicator of language competence, which will allow us to judge<br>and adjust the performance of our school systems and to discover how<br>efficiently the taxpayers\u2019 money is spent in language education. We are now<br>setting up the Advisory Board which will help us develop the indicator and<br>we hope that by 2008 we will have the first objective data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Through <strong>the Socrates and Leonardo programmes,<\/strong> the European<br>Commission invests over \u20ac 30 million per year in practical projects that<br>stimulate the enthusiasm of language learners and their teachers, not to<br>mention the enormous investment in mobility through Erasmus, the Youth<br>programme, and town-twinning activities. All these activities will continue<br>to be promoted under the new Lifelong Learning programme. Moreover, in<br>the <strong>Action Plan on \u201cPromoting Language Learning and Linguistic<br>Diversity<\/strong>\u201d, the Commission committed itself to undertaking 45 actions at<br>European level between 2004 and 2006. Thirdly, in November last year, the<br>Commission published a Communication on \u201cA new framework strategy for<br>multilingualism\u201d. The strategy sets out the way forward and proposes new<br>actions to be undertaken by both the Commission and Member States. An<br>interministerial conference that I will organise in 2007 will help us take<br>stock of progress made both at national and European level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parents and educators need scientific guidance concerning which languages<br>children should learn at home and at school; in an increasingly<br>heterogeneous society, with growing mobility and linguistically complex<br>situations, people expect specialist assistance concerning the languages they<br>should use with their children, the schools where they should go and the<br>foreign languages they should study. This concerns not only migrants, but<br>also mixed couples as well as people living in areas where regional and<br>minority languages are spoken. Let&#8217;s not forget that Europe has around 80<br>indigenous languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>We want to move the debate on languages out of the quicksands of<br>ideological stances and transform it into an informed exchange of opinions<br>on the advantages and disadvantages of different linguistic choices, of<br>different language policies.<br>Language teaching, as you very well know, is many things: it certainly is an<br>art and a craft \u2013 and a difficult one at that \u2013 but it is also a profession that<br>can and should be based on the most recent advances of cognitive and<br>medical sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Neuro-imaging techniques, and more generally all research on the complex<br>and fascinating issue of brain-functioning related to languages, can prove<br>extremely valuable from many points of view. Of course, they can help<br>people suffering from aphasia, dyslexia and other communication<br>difficulties, but they can go much further. In helping us understand the<br>dynamics of language, they can contribute among other things to creating a<br>scientific platform for the teaching and learning of languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The European Commission recently published a study on the teaching of<br>languages to learners with special needs. One of the most interesting<br>conclusions, in my view, was that solutions adopted for people with special<br>education needs, such as the Individual Education Plan, were equally good<br>for other pupils, given the wide range of strategies and the various forms of<br>intelligence that come into play when learning languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>What we expect from research in this field, then, is guidance in developing<br>better approaches to language acquisition, approaches that are more effective<br>and more gratifying for the learners and for all those involved. Today\u2019s<br>conference is an important step in this direction, breaking the traditional<br>barriers between \u201chumanities\u201d and \u201chard sciences\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Science and technology should not be regarded with suspicion by members<br>of the language teaching profession, as they can make their efforts much<br>more rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Comparative anatomy has explained the relative advantage of humans<br>compared to other species when it comes to communication. The lower<br>position of the larynx in the throat, apparently, could be one of the keys to<br>the development of language in the homo sapiens sapiens and ultimately to<br>his extraordinary success, social organisation and bold spread all over the<br>Earth. Genetics is another science which has produced interesting results for<br>historical linguistics. Research on the relationship between human genes and<br>languages has helped to chart the migrations of our ancestors around the<br>planet tens of thousands of years ago as well as to better define the complex<br>genealogical tree of human language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>A better understanding of neural areas involved in speech production and<br>reception can prove useful in several ways: I am told, for instance, that<br>learning a new language can have collateral benefits not only for young<br>people, where early stimulation would result in changes in the structure of<br>the brain, but also for older people suffering from various mental<br>impairments, such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Developments made possible by advances in clinical studies on the brain can<br>also produce remarkable benefits for research on language teaching and<br>learning.<br><br>As you probably know, the European Commission supports the European<br>Brain Council, the umbrella organisation for brain research in Europe,<br>associating neurologists, psychiatrists, basic neuroscientists, patients and the<br>relevant industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>In the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological<br>Development, brain research has been funded mainly through the area called<br>\u201cStudying the brain and combating diseases of the nervous system\u201d, with<br>\u20ac 157 Million for about 50 projects. If we take into account projects related<br>to brain research funded in other areas as well, total funding reaches about<br>\u20ac 250 Million. Projects funded encompass the whole range of brain research,<br>from basic mechanisms of brain function (e.g. memory and learning,<br>synaptic plasticity) to neurological and psychiatric diseases (e.g.<br>Alzheimer\u2019s, rare neurological diseases, depression, addiction, schizophrenia<br>and autism).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The research programmes of the European Union have funded three main<br>types of projects in this area:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Research projects on the basic principles of language acquisition, in<br>particular in early infancy<br>. Through multidisciplinary studies, including<br>neuro-imaging, researchers are trying to decipher the process of language<br>development and acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Research projects linked to language development disorders<br>. Projects on the<br>possible origins of dyslexia, also involving neuro-imaging, were funded<br>under the 5th and 6th Framework Programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Conferences and workshops about language acquisition and disorders<br>.<br><br>In the 7th Framework Programme brain research will once again play an<br>important part: the sub-theme on \u201cTranslational research for human health\u201d<br>of the \u201cCollaborative research\u201d section, for instance, includes the area called<br>\u201cResearch on the brain and related diseases, human development and aging.\u201d<br>The Specific Programme for brain research is rather broad, allowing a large<br>variety of topics to be taken into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Other activities related to brain research are being supported outside the<br>Framework Programme. The European Science Foundation, for instance, is<br>currently funding an important network on \u201cMultilingual multidisciplinary<br>studies on brain and language,\u201d which started in 2003 and will terminate at<br>the end of 2006. This network, which has an important neuro-imaging<br>component, brings together most of the best European specialists in this<br>area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The Commission is well aware, therefore, of the important contribution that<br>scientific research can make to its policies in favour of multilingualism. It<br>would be wrong, however, to see languages as the problem and science and<br>technology as the solution. Plurilingualism in Europe \u2013 as with bilingualism<br>in Brussels \u2013 is a necessity, but at the same time it is the key to new<br>opportunities. True mobility entails multilingualism; we need<br>multilingualism if we want European citizens, not just tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Almost every day, the Commission services answer letters from people who<br>have found the solution to the apparent conflict between a multilingual<br>Europe and too many monolingual Europeans: along with those who suggest<br>English, Latin or Esperanto as a lingua franca for the Union, there are others<br>who look for the ideal solution in technology. Machine translation \u2013 now<br>based on statistical methods and combined with speech synthesis and voice<br>recognition, or with the creation of gigantic corpora, lexicons and<br>dictionaries \u2013 is generally proposed as the answer to all our problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>I would like here to give you some examples of the importance of<br>multilingualism taken from my visit to the US, earlier this year, which will<br>help tripling academic cooperation between Europe and the United States,<br>with whom we always tend to compare ourselves: Georgetown university,<br>where I gave a speech, wants to increase language teaching, and the<br>President himself came out in February with a new strategy for languages.<br>But the diversity of languages is not Babel\u2019s curse; it is also our richness,<br>and we are determined to preserve it. Actually the &#8220;Babel effect&#8221; can exist in<br>the same family, region, nation or among communities, and it depends on<br>the lack of communication, not on the diversity of languages. Europe should<br>be a synonymous of openness: open heart, open mind, empathy and<br>sympathy. In this context, we are persuaded that plurilingual citizens are<br>better able to deal with today\u2019s complex reality, because multilingualism<br>entails a multiplicity of perspectives and an openness to other cultures that<br>would be unattainable through the use of any vehicular language or of any<br>technological device, however useful these can be for facilitating the task of<br>translation between different languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>In Conrad\u2019s novel, Captain Marlow explained that, from his childhood, he<br>had always been fascinated by the white patches and blank spaces \u2013 terra<br>incognita, terra nullis &#8211; that still could be found on the maps of the<br>continents. Today we have extremely detailed maps of the remotest corners<br>of the world, but our brain remains a largely uncharted territory, and the<br>production of language inside our brain remains one of the most fascinating<br>continents to be discovered.<br><br>This is why we will follow with great interest today\u2019s conference and further<br>developments in neuro-linguistics, in the hope that they will help us all to<br>become more multilingual, more flexible, more European.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>I would like to conclude by telling you that on 3 October, I will chair the<br>first official meeting of the High Level Group on Multiligualism, where we<br>will deal with research and multilingualism (other topics, such as the media,<br>business, strategies for language learning, etc.) will follow. We believe that<br>it is important to pull together different types of knowledge, because we<br>need integration and participation, not assimilation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Diverse in unity is the best narrative for Europe in the 21st century. Diversity<br>is growing, that&#8217;s why we need to address unity, through common values:<br>understanding, respect for human dignity, no discrimination. Your work can<br>contribute to this aim.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State of the art and policy implications Universit\u00e9 Libre de BruxellesMarriott Hotel, Brussels22 September 2006 Dear Rectors,Ladies and gentlemen,Let me first of all warmly thank the organisers of this event, which gives methe welcome opportunity of addressing the complex issue of multilingualismfrom what is, for me, a new and different angle. I am sure that [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-18467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Multilingual neuro-imaging research in Brussels and Europe - J\u00e1n Fige\u013e<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/sk\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"sk_SK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Multilingual neuro-imaging research in Brussels and Europe - J\u00e1n Fige\u013e\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"State of the art and policy implications Universit\u00e9 Libre de BruxellesMarriott Hotel, Brussels22 September 2006 Dear Rectors,Ladies and gentlemen,Let me first of all warmly thank the organisers of this event, which gives methe welcome opportunity of addressing the complex issue of multilingualismfrom what is, for me, a new and different angle. I am sure that [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/sk\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"J\u00e1n Fige\u013e\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/p\/Jn-Fige-prv-slovensk-eurokomisr-100064782245760\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-09-22T15:39:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-02T15:55:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-scaled.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1807\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marek Ol\u0161ansk\u00fd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@janfigel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@janfigel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marek Ol\u0161ansk\u00fd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marek Ol\u0161ansk\u00fd\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/sk\/#\/schema\/person\/075ccc066a23cc773101490caf54b374\"},\"headline\":\"Multilingual neuro-imaging research in Brussels and Europe\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-09-22T15:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-02T15:55:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/\"},\"wordCount\":2051,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/sk\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tumisu-thank-you-490607-scaled.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"English\"],\"inLanguage\":\"sk\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/2006\/09\/22\/multilingual-neuro-imaging-research-in-brussels-and-europe\/\",\"name\":\"Multilingual neuro-imaging research in Brussels and Europe - 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