Background

Multilingualism is a way of life for many Europeans, and that number is increasing all the time. The EU has 24 official and working languages, and recognises more than 60 regional and minority languages. Immigration and freedom of movement are bringing more and more people into contact with different languages, across different age groups and in different cultural contexts.

AThEME was a 5-year collaborative research project (2014 – 2019) studying multilingualism in Europe. The starting point for AThEME researchers was to try and reconcile how this range of individual and social factors influence multilingualism. The researchers looked at all types of languages and all types of speakers in order to increase our understanding of what it means to be multilingual in today’s Europe. But the project also aimed to make sure these findings weren’t just locked away in universities but are used to make a real difference to the everyday lives of Europeans. Researchers in the project worked to make sure their findings have real impact at the local, national, and European levels.

Objectives

Researchers from 17 partner institutions across eight European countries worked together:

  1. investigating cognitive, linguistic and sociological issues in multilingual Europe
  2. assessing existing public policies and practices within the areas of education and health
  3. contributing to evidence-based policy making, raising awareness of multilingualism among policy makers, health professionals, academics and educators

Selected Key Publications

European Policy Brief: Regional Minority Languages

European Policy Brief: Communicative Impairment

European Policy Brief: Heritage Languages

European Policy Brief: Cognitive Aspects I

European Policy Brief: Cognitive Aspects II

Report on design of new teaching methods and remediation tools for dyslexia

Recommendations for multilingualism and developmental communicative disorders

Funding

The project received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 613465

Partners

People

Prof. Patrizia Cordin
Full Professor of Historical and General Linguistics, University of Trento / Director of Bilinguismo Conta Trento More
Prof. Ermenegildo Bidese
Associate Professor of German Linguistics, University of Trento More
Prof Antonella Sorace
Professor of Developmental Linguistics, University of Edinburgh / Founding Director of Bilingualism Matters More
Francesca Foppolo
Professor of Linguistics, Bilingualism Matters International Board Member More
Dr Tihana Kraš
Branch Director; Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Department of English Language and Literature) / University of Rijeka More
Dr Branka Drljača Margić
Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Department of English Language and Literature) / University of Rijeka More
Dr Paola Medved
Dr Maša Plešković
Dr Katarzyna Przybycien
CEO of Bilingualism Matters
Prof. Tanja Rinker
Professorship for German as a Foreign Language / Didactics of German as a Second Language More
Prof. Maria Vender
Temporary Professor of Historical and General Linguistics, University of Verona More
Dr. Maaike Verrips
Director BM@NL, De Taalstudio More
Prof Ludovica Serratrice
Professor Bi-Multilingualism, Director Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism, University of Reading More
Prof. dr. Penka Stateva
Branch Director, Professor of Linguistics at University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia More
Prof. dr. Arthur Stepanov
Professor of Linguistics at University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia More
Asist. dr. Matic Pavlič
Asistant professor at Pedagogical Faculty, University of Ljubljana More