The project "Language of origin and language at school: are language skills transferable?" was initiated to explore potential transfers between the language of origin and the language spoken at school in schoolchildren who attend heritage language and culture (HLC) courses. A particular focus was placed on reading and writing skills.

In cooperation with the University of Lausanne UNIL

The SEM had issued a mandate to the Institute of Multilingualism to develop a quality strategy for fide language courses. The purpose of the strategy is to create a common understanding of fide’s didactic principles and to support the implementation of fide in practices used to support language learning. The evaluation of the introductory fide courses and various comments from educational institutions had shown that fide was still interpreted in a variety of ways.

In line with the growth of linguistically mediated knowledge in the neoliberal new economy, the international health care sector requires some of its workforce to be multilingual, reflecting an increasing multilingualization as a means of economic expansion and localization. Similar to other service-oriented industries that cater to an international audience, language skills and multilingual repertoires mean an added value to the products of health care providers. This invites us to...

This project aims to present a socio-historical reconstruction of the processes, characteristics and modalities that the Italian language (in its varieties) has undergone in the context of its linguistic contact and integration with German and French-speaking Switzerland.

This project aims to describe the development of productive writing skills in children with a Portuguese immigration background living in Switzerland (in the language of origin and in the language of instruction). It is based on data collected as part of the project Language of origin and language at school: are language skills transferable? (HLC) from the work programme 2011-2015 by the Research Centre on Multilingualism. The project will be divided into three stages: