Developing instruments to promote language skills of migrants (fide)

Promoting the integration of migrants in Switzerland is a legislative objective of the Swiss Federal Council, and the ability to speak one of the country’s languages is regarded as a critical step towards realising this goal. This overarching aim and the federal model “Framework proposal to promote language skills” (Rahmenkonzept Sprachförderung) provided the basis for the Institute of Multilingualism’s “Framework curriculum for promoting language skills of migrants”, commissioned by the Federal Office for Migration (FOM) in 2009. The FOM had requested that the Institute of Multilingualism together with other partners develop further instruments to foster migrants’ linguistic abilities by 2012. The emphasis lay on implementing and firming up the framework curriculum and working closely with people actively involved in the field.