Heritage Language Education Network

Heritage Language Education Network’s mission is to improve and expand opportunities for multilingual children to develop the language(s) they speak at home. Through outreach, we encourage the Eindhoven community and beyond to recognize, value, and support the supplementary education that heritage language programs provide. Mainstream schools are usually not responsible for teaching multilingual children in their home language, for instance how to read or write in the home language. As a result, HL programs pop up all over Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and most countries across the world. What are they? Heritage language programs, also called “mother tongue” schools, allow children to develop a language that they speak at home, but are not able to study at school. In the Netherlands and many other countries, heritage language programs are usually non-profit initiatives founded and operated by parents from a non-majority language community to maintain the language and culture of their heritage. Lessons take place after school or on the weekend. At HLE Network, we envision a world where multilingual children have the opportunity to develop the language that they speak at home through an effective education program. The HLE Network brings together heritage language programs and provides opportunities for networking and professional development. We reach out to the public about the importance of understanding, recognizing, and supporting this valuable form of education. The platform was run under the name Heritage Language Schools Eindhoven (HLSE) from 2019 to July 2021. In July 2021, the foundation Heritage Language Education Network (HLE Network) was created.