This doctoral thesis used qualitative research methods and adopted an exploratory-interpretative approach. Although conducted as an independent study, it forms part of the RCM project “Innovative forms of assessment (IFB)”, a quantitative study that aimed to better understand the validity of new, scenario-based task and item types.

When asked about their goals, students learning a foreign language generally say they want to speak the language. Despite the value placed on speaking, however, various studies on the foreign language competence of Swiss school students reveal that many learners have difficulty in meeting the learning outcomes set for spoken language (Peyer et al. 2016, Wiedenkeller/Lenz 2019).

On behalf of the Lia Rumantscha (umbrella organisation of all Rhaeto-Romanic associations), the Institute reviewed and assessed sociolinguistic literature to identify potential measures to foster Rhaeto-Romanic or other (autochthonous) minority languages in diaspora communities.

The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) planned to verify how well students are mastering the Basic Competences (educational standards) in foreign languages for the second time in spring 2020. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, classroom teaching in schools was prohibited from mid-March to mid-May. As the verification could not be carried out as planned, the EDK decided to postpone it to 2023.

The aim of this project is the empirically-based development of assessments to test the profession-specific language skills in teachers of French, English and Italian as a foreign language in primary and secondary schools.

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...

Project conducted by the University of Teacher Education Schaffhausen (PHSH) and the University of Teacher Education Graubünden (PHGR) Texts in the social sciences at schools are often difficult even for children with average scholastic abilities; weak learners or children who speak German as a second language are over-challenged. Consequently, internally differentiated texts – i.e. different versions of the same content – are necessary to create an inclusive learning environment....

This project was dedicated to measuring students' compentences in French in the skills listening, reading, speaking and writing by the end of primary school as well as by the end of the 8th class. In order to compare results, the 8th-class students' skills in reading and writing in Englisch were also tested. Analyses focused on whether aspects such as number of teaching hours and different variables related to students and teachers influence the students' competences in foreign languages....

This project was realised within a DORE project of the University of Teacher Training Valais and examined the influence the bilingual study requirements have on future teachers’ ability to acquire professional skills. Valais students’ skills in German and French were assessed before and after the two-semester exchange at the institution’s location in the other linguistic region of the canton.