“Coalition of Positive Messengers to Counter Online Hate Speech”
Since 2016 The Languages Company has been a partner in a EU project – Coalition of Positive Messengers to Counter Online Hate Speech. .
The project involves a consortium of 8 organizations from 7 countries across Europe: Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Czech Republic, Romania, Greece and the UK. Its central aim is to strengthen the response to online hate speech through the active engagement of local communities in creating and sharing powerful counter-narratives against xenophobic discourse. It also aims to provide new data on the scope and impact of hate speech and to exchange best practices among those already working in the field.
Over the past two years we have:
The reports (along with reports from the partner countries) can be read here https://positivemessengers.net/en/library.html
To this end we aim to:
The resources and information developed will be available on line and will be disseminated in a final conference in 2018.
For further details about Positive Messengers contact us enquiries@thelanguagecompany.com.
The Language of Hate – David Crystal lecture
In October Lid King gave a lecture on the language of hate for the Chartered Institute of Linguists and how linguists can help develop a counter narrative, starting with what happens in school.
You can hear the talk here on the CIOL website.
ACCESS THE FREE RESOURCES DEVELOPED BY THE PROJECT:
FREE TEACHING AND LEARNING MATERIALS FOR USE IN SCHOOLS
We have developed a bank of materials for schools to combat hate speech.
These are now freely available here
DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS
Techniques for combatting hate speech using emphathetic listening techniques, proven to be more effective than facts-based rebuttals. Can be especially useful for people working to support refugees and immigrants.
Download the materials here.
‘BE A POSITIVE MESSENGER!’ SCHOOLS CHALLENGE
A ‘homework challenge’ published by the British Council. Suitable for schools, young people and community groups.
Freely downloadable here.
Free classroom resources for MFL from Goldsmiths University of London.
A set of classroom resources produced by Goldsmiths’ 2018 PGCE cohort covering levels from KS2 to KS5.
Freely downloadable here.
NOW AVAILABLE
COMBATTING ONLINE HATE SPEECH :
Draft materials for use in schools are freely available for you to trial. Please contact us for access and further details
Combatting Online Hate speech
Last December Positive Messengers invited Arun Devasia from Hope not Hate to help colleagues working with refugees develop ways of engaging with the perpetrators of hate speech.
At two meetings in January we held seminars for over 80 teachers, student teachers, local authority representatives and others to discuss the impact of online hate speech in schools Eric Murangwa of Survivors Tribune spoke about the impact of Hate Speech on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In a workshop session colleagues worked on some draft materials for use in schools.
Working with partners we organised a social media campaign culminating in Refugee week. This involved monthly ‘hot lines’ on a range of issue and a ‘thunderclap’ of tweets in June which reached over half a million people.
We have also spoken at a number of conference and seminars in the UK and abroad.
2011 – present: Speak to the Future – the campaign for languagesAfter 14 years we have regretfully decided to cut back our activities.
The website will remain live, but untended, until the end of 2022 should you wish to download some of the historic and we think useful documents it contains.
As well as the outcomes of projects such as LUCIDE and Positive Messengers there may be some interest in the reviews of the past, and our thinking on Pedagogy, in particular in the light of current developments.
We would have wished to withdraw on a high note, with many of the challenges of the last decades resolved. Sadly this is not the case.
It will, however, be for a new generation to take up the struggle for greater language capability and the dream of languages for all in a world of mutual respect.