From 27 to 30 June, Silvia Ruiz, technician at the CLIK's Area for Multilingualism, traveled to Switzerland to discover the country's linguistic reality and to present the UPF's trilingual model at the 2017 Staff Training Week organized by the University of Lausanne (UNIL).

University of Lausanne (UNIL)

Brigitte Forster, director of the Centre de Langues at the University of Lausanne, explained the language policy of her university to the CLIK's Area for Multilingualism. "At UNIL, most courses are taught in French," Forster said, "only in some master programmes do we use English". The international students know this and take advantage of the varied training offered by the Language Center to improve their French. "We work very systematically in the development of the four basic language skills. At the end of their studies, students obtain a linguistic portfolio which they can use to accredit their level of languages ​​in any Swiss university," she adds. At UNIL's Centre de Langues students can learn German, Swiss German, English, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

University of Fribourg (UNIFR)

Bernhard Altermatt is a researcher at the University of Fribourg and a specialist in sociolinguistics, multilingualism and linguistic policies in countries with minority languages. In Lausanne, he met Silvia Ruiz to better understand the linguistic model of UPF and to propose eventual future collaborations with the Area for Multilingualism. "In Switzerland the universities are mostly monolingual in the language of their respective canton. Only in the case of the University of Fribourg, the Distance University of Switzerland and the Haute Ecôle de Gestion business school can we speak of bilingual (French and German) models, and even in the latter, a trilingual model (with English)," he explained. "The UPF model is very interesting. In Swiss universities we do not have a centralized linguistic policy and it is the faculties themselves that decide how to configure their linguistic offer according to the professors at their disposal and the guidelines from the rector's office". Altermatt is keen on visiting Barcelona in the near future and to initiate eventual collaborations with the UPF in the field of language policy.

Switzerland

With 8.2 million inhabitants, Switzerland is one of the most interesting countries in Europe in terms of language policy. Swiss German (spoken by 63.5% of the population), French (22.5%), Italian (8.1%) and Romansh (0.5%) live harmoniously, although they do not always interact. The use of each language is limited, mainly, to its corresponding canton.

The country is divided into 26 cantons and each of the federal governments is responsible for determining the language policy of their territory. Three of these cantons (Bern, Freiburg and Valais) are bilingual (German and French); four others, French-speaking; one (Ticino) is Italian-speaking; and Romansh is spoken mainly in the canton of Grison. In the rest of the cantons, Swiss German is the predominant language. In primary education and a part of secondary school all Swiss students learn all four languages, albeit in different degrees according to the canton where they reside.