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.

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....

The SEM had issued a mandate to the Institute of Multilingualism to develop a quality strategy for fide language courses. The purpose of the strategy is to create a common understanding of fide’s didactic principles and to support the implementation of fide in practices used to support language learning. The evaluation of the introductory fide courses and various comments from educational institutions had shown that fide was still interpreted in a variety of ways.

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...

This practical research project, commissioned by the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), grants interested Swiss schools access to the internationally recognised certificate Deutsch for Jugendliche ZD j (German for young people/teenagers, level B1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). The main task lies in informing and advising schools as well as in arranging license agreements for them. In addition, any student who is interested and willing...

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...