Building European Identity through Foreign Language Education
a Case Study of the Netherlands
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60054/PEU.2023.10.115-122Keywords:
Language Policy, Language Capacity Building, European Identity, European Studies, Dutch StudiesAbstract
Promoting mutual understanding among European Union member states and building European identity in the process has been playing a significant role in European integration from the beginning. Communicating through common language(s) further contributes to the deepening of the consciousness of shared cultural roots and to the expression of shared interests by the member states. Foreign language education is thus a keystone that upholds such capacity of a member state. The current study takes the case of the Netherlands on and argues that in order to facilitate communication between member states and the people in the EU, a practical standpoint of foreign language education is beneficial. Analysis of the Dutch foreign language education policy of the primary, secondary and higher education is done in order to prove this point. Furthermore, building on the existing objectives of the EU is also a key feature of the case of the Netherlands which in turn integrates foreign language education and European identity building as one.
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