Meeting of Basque Language Teachers from European Basque Centres in Valencia

On Friday 17th and Saturday 18th October, teachers from the Euskal Etxeak (Basque cultural centres) in Europe met in Valencia. The annual event was organised jointly by the Etxepare Basque Institute and the Laurak Bat Basque centre in Valencia.

The central theme this year was the influence of artificial intelligence on language teaching and on empowering the Basque language’. Coordinated by Kinku Zinkunegi, head of the Euskara Munduan programme at the Etxepare Basque Institute, ten teachers from different Basque centres in Europe took part: Bordeaux, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Valladolid and Valencia. During the 2025-2026 academic year, Basque will be taught in most of Europe’s Basque cultural centres.

In addition to sharing experiences and preparing for the new academic year, Egoitz Etxeandia gave a workshop on the impact of artificial intelligence on language teaching and learning. He also focused on how AI can be used to create teaching materials and simplify administrative tasks. The opportunities, challenges, and transformations that language models (LLMs) present for teaching Basque were discussed.

As in previous years, each teacher presented the work done at their respective centres over the past year. Participants were also introduced to the new INGURA platform, developed by HABE, designed for teaching Basque as a foreign language.

Euskara Munduan Programme

One of the Etxepare Basque Institute’s functions is to promote knowledge of the Basque language among Basque communities worldwide. To achieve this, it runs the Euskara Munduan programme. Currently, more than 70 Euskal Etxeak Basque centres around the world offer classes in Euskara with support from the Etxepare Basque Institute.

The programme has its origins in Argentinan Euskaraz, a project set up in 1990 to revitalise the Basque language at Basque centres in Argentina. Years later, the programme spread to Basque cultural centres in other countries and became known as Euskara Munduan.

The Etxepare Basque Institute has been running the programme since 2018. Its main lines of work are: funding Basque classes taught in the Euskal Etxeak around the world; promoting teacher training; providing Basque centres with teaching materials; and organising official exams to accredit the level of proficiency in Euskara.