Projects
Two projects funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, «Sprachland – Promotion of Multilingualism through Linguistic Landscape» and «Multilingual Education Spaces – Integrative Language Promotion through Language Landscape», aim, on the one hand, to promote the home languages and individual multilingualism of students, and on the other, to enable cooperation among the multi-professional team. This team consists of teachers of heritage language (Heimatliche Sprache und Kultur [HSK]), class teachers, lecturers and students. In addition, the projects aim to exploit the potential of linguistic landscape as an educational tool and to introduce possibilities for its use in the classroom. The projects focus on individual class projects, in which learners, closely supervised by multiprofessional teams (class teachers, HSK teachers, students and lecturers), explore linguistic signs and sounds in public space and in their own living environment. The focus lies not only on the observed languages and the children's family languages, but also on the phenomenon of language and the semiotics and multimodality associated with it. The results of the projects are fed into the swiss-scape website on an ongoing basis.
Project «Sprachland – Promotion of Multilingualism through Linguistic Landscape»
As part of the project «Sprachland – Förderung der Mehrsprachigkeit durch Linguistic Landscape» [Sprachland – Promoting Multilingualism through Linguistic Landscape] (2019-2021) of the University of Teacher Education Schaffhausen, linguistic landscape classroom projects were carried out in primary schools in the canton of Schaffhausen, in collaboration with teachers of Russian and Chinese HSK lessons. This project was also responsible for the development of the swiss-scape interactive website, which documents the results of the project and offers hints and materials for the didactic implementation of linguistic landscape.
Aims of the project
- Promote students' home languages as well as their individual multilingualism through the conscious observation and analysis of visible linguistic signs in public spaces
- Promote multilingualism through the exploration of different linguistic signs
- Encourage deep reflection on linguistic and local identity (dialects and idioms)
- Foster outdoor learning through the exploration of social linguistic spaces, geographical spaces such as a neighbourhood, and the virtual space (website with photos of signs in public spaces and their interpretation)
- Decode images, text and "messages» in public spaces (promoting visual literacy)
- Reflect on languages and linguistic diversity (language awareness)
- Promote cross-curricular competencies such as self-regulated learning
- Explore the linguistic soundscape (deep listening, song compositions)
- Promote exchange and cooperation between the various institutional stakeholders: heritage language and classroom teachers, lecturers and students, as well as cantonal managers responsible for the heritage language courses, the so-called "multi-professional team»
- Promote the integration of heritage language teachers into regular lessons
- Teach the specialist basics of multilingual didactics (introduction of linguistic landscape as a method in multilingual didactics)
- Promote an equitable approach to linguistic and cultural diversity
- Develop a public website using photos and the creative works of the participating classes and with the didacticisation of linguistic landscape
- Develop appreciation of the pupils' family languages
- Raise awareness of visible multilingualism in public spaces
Our team
The multi-professional project team consists of teachers of the local language and culture (HSK), class teachers, lecturers and students from the Schaffhausen University of Teacher Education.
Project management: Prof. Dr. Edina Krompák
Teachers and lecturers: Sarah Li, Yulia Eckert (HSK), Gabriela Reiner, Vanessa Procopio (class teachers), Lisa Wepfer, Ivana Milosavljevic, Dr Thomas Meier, Philipp Saner (PHSH)
Students of the Schaffhausen University of Teacher Education
Project «Multilingual Education Spaces – Integrative Language Promotion through Language Landscape»
The project «Multilingual Education Spaces – Integrative Language Promotion through Language Landscape» (2022–2024) is a follow-up project to the project «Language Landscape – Promoting Multilingualism through Language Landscape». The project is being implemented in the cantons of Lucerne and Schaffhausen in collaboration with the University of Teacher Education Lucerne (Leading House) and the University of Teacher Education Schaffhausen. The involvement of the teachers of heritage language (HSK) is done by the Albanian and Portuguese coordinators. In addition to the publication of the results on the swiss-scape website, an interactive and multimodal exhibition on the topic of «Multilingualism and Linguistic Landscape» will be conceived and carried out within the framework of the project in cooperation with libraries. The aim of the exhibition is to make sustainable use of the results of the project and to expand the educational space of schools.
Aims of the project
- Promote cooperation among HSK coordinators, HSK teachers, DaZ (German as a second language) and regular classroom teachers, as well as lecturers and students of the participating universities of teacher education
- Promote the integration of HSK teachers into the mainstream school
- Present further training for HSK teachers in the area of linguistic landscape as a pedagogical resource in language support
- Promote individual and social multilingualism among students
- Expand learning and educational spaces through cooperation with libraries
- Further develop and maintain the «swiss-scape» website
Our team
Our multi-professional project team includes coordinators and teachers of heritage languages (HSK), class teachers, lecturers and students from the University of Teacher Education Lucerne (PHLU) and the University of Teacher Education Schaffhausen (PHSH).
Project management: Prof. Dr. Edina Krompák
Teachers and lecturers: Philipp Saner (musician, lecturer PHSH), Dr Maria de Lurdes Santos Gonçalves (coordinator for Portuguese HSK courses, Camões Institute), Dr Vaxhid Sejdiu (Coordinator for Albanian HSK courses), Dr Silvia Frank Schmid (Lecturer PHLU), Patricia Schubiger (scientific assistant), Anabela Carvalho and Paula Rodrigues (teachers for the Portuguese HSK courses)
Co-leaders of the Interbiblio: Cristina Vega and Ilena Spinedi
Students: Naima Käslin (PHLU), Luana Vögeli (PHLU), as well as students of the University of Teacher Education Schaffhausen