Swiss language policy aims on the one hand to strengthen the understanding between the various linguistic regions and on the other hand to foster both the formation of the identity of individuals and their mother-tongue and foreign-language skills. The National Research Programme “Language Diversity and Linguistic Competence in Switzerland“ (NRP 56) seeks to establish the scientific foundations for this policy. It is divided into three main areas: clarification of the legal and political conditions to enable action taken in the language policy context to be more effective, better knowledge to encourage linguistic competence and the ability to communicate and examination of the interaction between language and identity.
Framework: CHF 8'000'000
Duration: 5 Years
President of the steering committee: Walter Haas, Departement für Germanistik der Universität, Freiburg
Scientific secretariat: Christian Mottas, SNSF
Start of research: September 2005