Sinergia-Project of the Swiss National Science Foundation, no. 130457 This project examines dimensions of multilingualism that have heretofore received little attention in research. The question at the core of the project concerns how the areas of competence necessary for learning and using more than one language change and develop over the course of an individual’s lifetime. The linguistic areas considered incorporate the multifaceted nature of language acquisition and use, and cover...

Chunsch druus? (Swiss German for “get it?”) is a learning programme aimed at the general, mainly younger learner who wishes to develop key linguistic competences necessary for coping with the challenges of everyday life in the German part of Switzerland. Integration in the largest sector of Switzerland mustn’t overlook the use of dialect. This does not mean that foreigners, migrants or Swiss who speak Italian and French necessarily need to learn how to speak a Swiss German dialect –...

The goal of the project mandated by the department of education of the Canton of Geneva was to understand the role which available orientation measures, including courses, play in the scholastic and professional integration of young immigrants. Moreover, the project aimed to identify systemic challenges facing such institutions, personnel at the institutions and the immigrants themselves.

This project focuses on the study of multilingualism from the perspective of the recent mobilities and globalisation paradigm. This paradigm takes up the analysis of linguistic practices by mobile people with transnational trajectories such as the immigrants or tourists who come to Spain and need to interact and communicate with civic institutions, on the one hand, and with autochthonous people whose life trajectories are more stable, on the other.

The project examines the German-French language border in Switzerland through the analysis of touristic discourses and activities. By looking at the language border through the eyes of tourism, the project places Swiss multilingualism clearly in the context of globalisation and its related socio-economic changes. The research focuses on two regions situated on the language border in the cantons Valais and Fribourg: the areas of Sierre/Siders and Murten/Morat, where tourism plays a key...