The 23rd annual conference of the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL) successfully concluded in Florence, Italy. The conference addressed the theme: “The role of media in the use of the languages of Europe.”
Hosted by the Accademia della Crusca, the event brought together leaders of national language institutions, representatives of the language services of the European institutions, and researchers from across Europe. The first conference day took place at the Accademia’s historic seat, the Villa Medicea di Castello, where participants also joined a guided tour of the Accademia. Cecilia Robustelli, Deputy President of EFNIL, served as the conference host.
The conference opened with welcome speeches by Nicoletta Maraschio, President Emerita of the Accademia della Crusca; Genoveva Ruiz Calavera from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Interpretation (SCIC); Kezia Pellinghelli from the European Parliament; and Sabine Kirchmeier, President of EFNIL.
The programme featured six sessions. Two keynote speeches set the scene: Alessandro Lenci examined the two-way loop in which languages shape large language models and LLMs in turn shape languages. Britta Schneider traced the relationship between language norming and language technologies from print literacy to machine learning. The following sessions explored three main themes: media and language standards, the effect of AI on language standards and vocabulary, and media, multilingualism and minorities.
Presentations of the three winning theses of EFNIL’s Master’s Thesis Award were delivered on the last day: Stef Accou presented TIPA: Typologically Informed Parameter Aggregation. Martina Magrin discussed how the Progetto Lingua Madre of the Centro Studi Immigrazione of Verona promotes plurilingualism in the schoolscape. Laura Moreno presented her investigation of the linguistic barriers Dutch-speaking patients face in accessing healthcare in Brussels.
Preceding the conference, the EFNIL General Assembly met on 21 October where the Institute of Romanian Philology “B. P.-Hasdeu” in Moldova was accepted as a new member of EFNIL.
The conference closed with concluding remarks by Sabine Kirchmeier, followed by a visit to the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio.
RAI published a report about the conference, which can be accessed here.
The presentations of the conference will be available on our website.