Vocabulary is the basis for receptive and productive language use. Influential theories on second language acquisition and learning consider vocabulary and grammar to be complementary, rather than opposing elements of language. Vocabulary is viewed as an integral component of learner grammars that is worth promoting and consolidating in the foreign language classroom. In recent years, digitialisation has seen the development of many learning apps and platforms that provide new opportunities...

The aim of the DiCoi project is on the one hand to produce teaching material from recordings of authentic conversations (spoken language corpora) and on the other hand to describe the longitudinal development of interaction skills (over 2 years) from recordings of free interactions. Spoken language corpora can be used as a resource for foreign language teaching with the aim of providing exposure to the authentically produced but contextualised target language.

How can inequalities (in terms of social class, language, ability, race, gender) be addressed in the classroom by focussing on social processes and encouraging students to reflect on possible ways of challenging them? This question is explored in the project carried out in collaboration with the University of Teacher Education Fribourg.

The project looks at learning and teaching German as a Foreign Language in Israel, where after 1945 the German language was looked down upon and where learning German still does not seem self-evident today. Proceeding from the historically complex relationship between Germany and Israel and situated at the interface between sociolinguistics and foreign language didactics, the study addresses the so far underexplored question of who is nowadays learning German why, where...

Literacy courses designed for adult migrants have been offered for decades in countries experiencing significant immigration. The recent past has seen an increase in research on the teaching and learning processes that are involved in successful and sustainable literacy development for adult migrants in a non-native language and that therefore should be taken into account in literacy classes; nevertheless, significant research gaps remain. Current practice in literacy development for...

The aim of this project is to investigate the potential uses of research corpora in teaching. This long-term project is carried out in collaboration with other research groups in Switzerland and France, in particular in Lyon as part of the project CLAPI-FLE http://clapi.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/FLE/projet_clapi_fle.php.

Financed by Fond d’Innovation de la Faculté des lettres, University of Fribourg The aim of this project is to test the use of the digital collaborative writing tool FRAMAPAD https://framapad.org to support the note-taking skills of allophone students attending courses in the humanities.

In collaboration with the University of Teacher Education St. Gallen (PHSG) and the Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI)  

In the spring of 2017, the CDIP/EDK assessed for the first time the basic skills in the first foreign language of schoolchildren at the end of primary school. On the basis of this assessment, the “Passepartout cantons” (the six cantons on the French-German language border) investigated how well the targets were achieved in French. The Research Centre on Multilingualism had the responsibility of developing test tasks for this purpose, and the project Task Lab was conducted in the scope...

Concluded at the end of 2013, the project "Italiano ricettivo" developed the teaching material Capito?, which is intended for use either in classroom settings or as self-study tools. The aim of  Capito? is the development of receptive skills in Italian, allowing learners to gain access to the language and culture of the Ticino (and Graubünden). Concentrating on receptive multilingual skills advances a form of communication based on mutual ability to understand one another and...