Overview – Project description
Today’s European society faces major challenges with far-reaching implications driven by rapid digital transformation and increased mobility, such as linguistic inequality in education, the lack of linguistic diversity in academia, business and governance, the widening technology gap between well-resourced languages and less-resourced languages, biases and stereotyped language (e.g. related to gender, race) conveyed by digital tools and AI technologies. These alarming developments call for urgent action.
MultiLAwa advances pluri-/multilingualism as a key driver of social cohesion and inclusion by promoting Language Awareness (LA) – the explicit and implicit knowledge of language(s) and language use – across individual, institutional and societal levels.
Going far beyond existing research and doctoral training initiatives, the project’s overarching objective is to analyse the interconnections between LA, pluri-/multilingualism and digital transformation, and to translate this knowledge into practical solutions by:
– investigating how LA can serve as a competence for navigating Europe’s digital transition, and how digital progress can foster LA and pluri-/multilingualism;
– developing new theoretical, methodological and empirical foundations for LA in the digital age;
– creating innovative digital resources and guidelines to raise LA and thus enhance pluri-/multilingualism.
Bridging the gap between academia and industry, MultiLAwa brings together 10 European universities and 16 associated partners (including 11 non-academic organisations) in an exceptional multi-stakeholder consortium. MultiLAwa will train a new generation of 14 young plurilingual researchers to become experts capable of addressing language-related challenges in a rapidly digitalising society – contributing to sustainable, inclusive and pluri-/multilingual ecosystems across Europe.
Consortium members
Beneficiaries :
B1 – Université de Lorraine : Prof. Alex Boulton, Prof. Hélène Vinckel-Roisin
B2 – University of Innsbruck: Prof. Laura Giacomini
B3 – University of Vienna: Prof. Eva Vetter
B4 – Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg : Prof. Ludwig Fesenmeier, Prof. Stefan Schierholz
B5 – University of Mannheim: Prof. Henning Lobin, Prof. Johannes Müller-Lancé, Prof. Florence Oloff
B6 – University of Copenhagen: Dr. Lars Behnke, Prof. Petra Daryai-Hansen, Assoc. Prof. Mirjam Schmuck
B7 – University of Milan: Prof. Carolina Flinz (Milan/Pavia), Prof. Fabio Mollica;
B8 – University of Warsaw: Prof. Ewa Żebrowska
B9 – Nova University Lisbon: Prof. Rute Costa
B10 – University of Zurich : Prof. Noah Bubenhofer
Associated Partners :
AP1 – Charles University : Dr. Vitek Dovalil
AP2 – Lexical Computing : Ondřej Matuška
AP3 – Leibniz Institute for German Language: Prof. Andreas Witt, Prof. Angelika Wöllstein
AP4 – Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities: Dr. Lothar Lemnitzer
AP5 – Center for Rhetorical Science Communication Research on Artificial Intelligence : Prof. Annette Leßmöllmann
AP6 – Dudenredaktion Cornelsen Verlag GmbH : Dr. Laura Neuhaus
AP7 – Ernst Klett Verlag GmbH : Petra Bauersfeld
AP8 – Ordbogen A/S : Henrik Hoffmann
AP9 – WeDo – Project intelligence made easy: Mireia Manent, Ángel Honrado
AP10 – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: David Castillo Perra, Dr. Xianhong Hu
AP11 – Ministère de la Culture, Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France : Priscilla Gustave-Perron
AP12 – Observatoire européen du plurilinguisme : Prof. Isabelle Mordellet-Roggenbuck, Prof. Jean-Marc Delagenau
AP13 – Interhome Group : Filippo Boschi
AP14 – Zenter fir d’Lëtzebuerger Sprooch : Dr. Sara Martin, Dr. Sarah Muller
AP15 – Univerbal : Samuel Bissegger
AP16 – Swiss National Bank : Stéphane Carsenty
List of participants :
Network of 10 Doctoral Schools
Management Organisation and Governance
Coordination and Management Team (CMT)
Supervisory Board (Management & Supervision) (SB)
Doctoral Candidate Commitee (DCC)
Research Programme Committee (RPC)
Recruitment, Training and Skills Progress Committee (RTSPC)
Dissemination, Communication, Exploitation, Impact and Public Engagement Committee (DCEIPEC)
International Advisory Board (IAB)
Members of the International Advisory Board
Prof. Claudia Finkbeiner, President of the Association for Language Awareness since 2006 and a member of the Research Committee of the Literacy Research Association in the United States
Prof. Rufus H. Gouws, Professor (emeritus) in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University
Dr. Sabine Kirchmeier, Denmark, President of the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL)
Prof. Georg Rehm, principal researcher and Deputy Director at the Speech and Language Technology Lab at Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz
Prof. Athina Sioupi, Full Professor of Linguistics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of German Language and Literature, Director of the Lab of Language Research and Didactics
