Following a meeting in Graz (Austria) in October 2000, APIGA has joined two European projects within Lingua A. These projects originated as a result of 2001 having been declared 'European year for Languages'. The proposals were accepted in December 2001 and work is now in progress. Members of APIGA have taken up responsibility for each of the projects but contributors are welcome. If you would like to become involved in any of these two European projects, you can call or write to APIGA for details.

LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTRES (LRCs)

The project's goal is to produce and distribute a good practice guide, translated into many languages, including Galician, on running places like the APIGA library or a self-access centre at a school or university. So far, we have been asked to participate in a needs analysis to highlight what we do best (promote innovative language teaching practice and maintain contacts with other bodies) and to target where we need to improve (perhaps reaching a wider public, say beyond Santiago, and helping professionals keep up with their English after university and initial training). Participants in this project will help each other improve their service, sharing expertise.

A possible outcome of this could be to pilot something in the Ferrol area, with various organisations (APIGA, the University's Fonoteca and Language Workshop, CEFORE and EOI) collaborating to rationalise resources and to share authentic materials. Therefore, ELT professionals could maintain contact with the English-speaking world and have more resources at their fingertips, without having to travel to Santiago. If this idea takes off in Ferrolterra, it may also work elsewhere in Galicia.

If you have an interest or experience in running a resource centre, or if you would like to become involved in what's going on in Ferrol, please contact Ana Demitroff at LRC@apiga.org.

EUROBUS

Eurobus' goal is to facilitate the access to existing language learning resources (language schools) via a web site. The project, though European in outlook, is regional in its impact. Thus, the two publics we will be addressing work/live in Galicia, The Czech Republic, French-sepaking Belgium, the south of The Netherlands, and the Helsinki area of Finland. We're aiming at two publics: on the one hand, language schools, who will be interested in appearing on a EU-sponsored web site which collects all information related to language teaching institutions in the aforementioned areas and with a quality label. On the other, it will embrace first-time job seekers, school drop-outs, immigrant workers and whoever feels the need to learn another language.

This project now has two main concerns: elaborating the criteria for defining quality in teaching setups as different as an official languages school, a small private academy or a course offered by a trade union. Afterwards, it will reach the intended audience through the Internet and other means.

If you are interested in collaborating with this project, write to Xosé Calvo at eurobus@apiga.org.

If you work for a language school in Galicia and would like to be listed on the datebase you should also contact us at the same address.