International Conference in Davos

Multilingualism and Linguistic Minorities in a Global Context

For a long time, linguistic and cultural diversity, the promotion and preservation of minority and endangered languages, have been at the center of interest for research, practice, and development worldwide. Other key topics include the recognition of sign languages in society and education, communication between linguistic communities, and the role of digitalization in this context. The issue of indigenous and migration-related linguistic minorities in various contexts will also be widely discussed.

The conference in Davos marks the 10th scientific meeting under the patronage of the international consortium «Multilingualism as a Chance». After previous events in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria, it will be held in Switzerland for the first time.

A Platform for Diverse Issues
«The canton of Graubünden is particularly well suited as a venue due to its multilingualism,» says Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Todisco, Head of the Italian and Italian Didactics Department at the University of Teacher Education of the Grisons. He is organizing the conference together with Prof. Dr. Edina Krompák, Head of the Institute of Language Learning and Teaching and Educational Linguistics at the University of Teacher Education Lucerne. Todisco is positively surprised by the great response: «More than one hundred representatives of minority languages from all continents have already registered. We expect up to two hundred participants». Krompák emphasizes the urgency of considering minority languages in the educational context, reflected in the strong international response to the conference. The program provides a platform for researching and understanding the various dimensions of multilingualism, minority languages, language promotion, language preservation, and sign languages in a global context. Furthermore, the impact of digital transformation, particularly artificial intelligence, on multilingualism promotion will be explored. The revitalization of endangered indigenous languages worldwide will also be addressed.

Still Available Spots
The conference is aimed at professionals in research, education, and politics, as well as teachers, students, and other interested individuals dealing with (socio)linguistic, educational policy, and didactic issues related to multilingualism and minorities in the broadest sense.

For more information and registration: phgr.ch/minority-languages

Facts about Language Diversity

• There are currently around 7,000 languages in the world.
• Of these 7,000 languages, 6,300 are minority languages.
• The three most spoken languages are English (approximately 1.4 billion speakers), Mandarin (approximately 1.1 billion), and Hindi (approximately 600 million).
• French is among the ten most spoken languages worldwide (274 million speakers), German ranks twelfth (160 million), Italian twenty-ninth (68 million), while Ro-mansh, with only 40,000 speakers, is a very small community.
• Most European countries have multiple minority languages.
• Switzerland is officially quadrilingual with its national languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh.
• In Switzerland, German is the most spoken language (62.3%), followed by French (22.8%), Italian (8%), and Romansh (0.5%).
• Migration, especially since the 20th century, has enriched Switzerland with addi-tional languages and language varieties such as Portuguese, Albanian, Spanish, BCMS. 23% of the resident population in Switzerland does not have one of the of-ficial national languages as their first language.
• In Switzerland, about 30,000 people speak the Jenisch and Romani languages.
• Around 10,000 people in Switzerland use a sign language.

Contact 

Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Todisco, Professor for Italian and Italian Didactics at the University of Teacher Education of the Grisons, +41 81 354 03 94, vincenzo.todisco@phgr.ch 

Prof. Dr. Edina Krompák, Institute of Language Learning and Teaching and Educational Linguistics at the University of Teacher Education Lucerne, +41 41 203 05 41, edina.krompak@phlu.ch