In countries with several official languages, language separation often remains a structural principle in institutional education. Co-located schools, in which two autonomously administered schools with different languages of instruction share a physical space, may challenge this separation. Such schools have existed for a long time, but…

The increasing use of English in higher education around the world has prompted a large amount of research into the causes, effects and perceptions of this phenomenon, particularly relating to the introduction of English-medium instruction. While most previous research has focussed on institutions that have effectively 'added' English to existing…

Linguistic minority spaces tend to have a long history of language-ideological struggles that are often fought on the terrain of education, which is further complexified in the light of more recent migration. The northernmost Italian province of South Tyrol is such a space, in which German-language preschools are increasingly attended by children…

The increasing popularity of radical right, anti-immigrant, neo-nationalist movements can be seen as a response to super-diverse and complex migration and globalization processes challenging the ideology of the 'nation-state' and the traditional education system. Based on the question of how English is increasingly viewed as a threat to Swiss…

Purpose: Attempts to cultivate a multilingual mindset in education in South Tyrol find an obstacle in educational norms, structures and policies that divide students into linguistically distinct schools based on their self-identified main language. Education in the region is administered through three separate educational authorities --…

Over the last decade, teachers in Poland have observed an increase in the number of primary school children with bi/multilingual and culturally diverse backgrounds. Regardless of their complex experiences, they face many cultural, social, linguistic and educational challenges upon entering primary school. English teachers are often at the…

This overview of seven years of research on language learning and teaching in Austria reflects a period of steady growth for the language teaching and learning research community, a development due to a national policy agenda aiming for a stronger research base in teacher education. The target languages of the teaching and learning processes…

Like other anglophone countries, the UK is experiencing a language 'crisis', in that fewer and fewer students opt to study a foreign language (FL) beyond the compulsory phase, and that the UK's language skills do not match its economic needs. Despite strong statements of commitments to increase FL uptake, decline in FL uptake in the UK's four…

This article presents the Film in Language Teaching Association (FILTA) project, a community of practice (CoP) whose main goals are first to engage language teachers in practical uses of film and audio-visual media in the second language classroom; second, to value the artistic features of cinema; and third, to encourage a dialogue between…

By the end of the nineteenth century, the relationship between the state, language and schooling had become extremely close: a state was supposed to be "national," and a real nation was supposed to be monolingual. Following the literature on nation-building, it is because schooling was charged with the task of forming such nations that…

This multilingual glossary defines 130 key terms used in European education and training policy. It is an extended and updated version of "Terminology of European education and training policy" (2008) and "Terminology of vocational training policy" (2004). It considers new priorities of European union policy, mainly in skills…

This article explores the impact of language policy issues on program development and management at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich Language Center. Based on the analysis of the language policy approach of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, the article reflects both current practices and policy elements with the help of the…

This paper is concerned with a specific case of L3 acquisition: the starting position for English vowel acquisition by infant German-Italian bilinguals will be investigated in light of prototype theory. The chosen example of triple language contact is characterised by consecutive bilingualism as the basis of L3 acquisition, where the learners' L2…

A discussion of multilingualism in Switzerland begins with a description of the country's linguistic characteristics. Historical Swiss policy recognizing four official languages, one of which (Romansch) is spoken by very few people, is compared with the current situation in which internal and external migration and multilingualism are common. The…

Until 1947, Australia was considered one of the most monolingual countries in the world. However, now there are more than a million bilingual Australians who regularly use a language other than English when talking with friends and families, or on religious or social occasions. (SL)