The effects of language exchange at primary school level

Language exchanges are supported by the Swiss government and the cantons as a means of promoting plurilingual and intercultural skills and increasing motivation to learn foreign languages at all school levels. Current curricula also encourage the implementation of language exchange. Nevertheless, language exchange is by no means the norm within compulsory education.

The aim of this project is to evaluate the effect of an exchange setting at primary school level in eastern and western Switzerland that is appropriate to the level and can be implemented at a reasonable cost. The focus is on language learning motivation and the productive language skills of the pupils.