In Switzerland’s political dialogue, an adequate representation of Swiss language communities in the Federal Administration is considered to be a vital expression of multilingualism in Switzerland. Diverse legal bases and directives have been created and issued in the interest of reaching this goal.

This project commissioned by the State Secretariat for Migration dealt with developing a framework curriculum to promote the language skills of migrants in Switzerland. Development goals for future projects were also defined. To order the document in German. To order the document in French.

This mandate from the cantonal government in Graubünden concerned the follow-up of introducing the newly consolidated written language Rumantsch Grischun to the so-called pioneer communes in the Canton of Graubünden. The communes in question were those with Rhaeto-Romanic schools already teaching Rumantsch Grischun. The long-term plan was to introduce the new language to all Rhaeto-Romanic schools. We evaluatedvarious dimensions resulting from this major change.

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...

This pan-European project was initiated in 2010 by the British Council and aimed at developing an index in order to compare the language environment in 20 European countries. The index captures the following aspects: (foreign) language teaching, languages in the workplace, in the media and in public spaces as well as language policy. Several language types were analysed: official state language(s), foreign languages, regional minority languages and immigrant minority languages....

Commissioned by:  Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) In the spring of 2017, the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education conducted the first ever largescale assessment to measure how well students have acquired the targeted skills in the first foreign language by the end of primary school, as defined by the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education.

In collaboration with the Federal Statistical Office (FSO)

In the interest of advancing multilingualism in public services, the Swiss Confederation is legally bound to promoting federal employees' language skills in Switzerland's official languages. The divisions within the Federal Administration are obligated to ensure that all employees have sufficient knowledge of a second official language and that persons in a leadership role additionally have passive skills in a third official language. To implement these directives, the Federal Administration...

From 2006 to 2009, an official proposal for Swiss educational standards was formulated within the framework of the project HarmoS of the EDK. After concluding the political consultations, the standards required finalisation. To do so, the EDK held an initial seminar on 19-20 December 2010 (second seminar on 12-13 January 2011) to determine the final version (in three languages) of national educational standards for German, French and English as foreign languages at the end of primary...

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...