Research in EU multilingualism and language policies constitutes one of the cornerstones of the project proposed here. The tangible results of our academic research will be presented in a variety of venues, from conferences to scholarly journals. Much more importantly, since we will be working hand by hand with postgraduate students, it is our intention to try to direct their research interests towards this important area of research, increasing the number of Masters and PhD thesis on EU studies delivered in our Faculty of Arts.

In fact, European multilingualism will be conceived of here both as a professionalizing method and a new, interdisciplinary field of research. Within this action-oriented research project, we will analyse some of the different ways the combined effects of EU language educational policies and recent immigration processes have affected this traditionally monoglotic European society. We are especially interested in finding out more about citizens’ attitudes and ideologies towards multilingualism, as well as in the role of multilingualism as a factor of social integration and economic development.

An important part of our research will focus on the analysis of a series of educational initiatives by school teachers within the region of Castilla-La Mancha, including the multilingual education programmes currently implemented in many schools of this region. We will pay special attention to the different ways intercultural communication and dialogue are being promoted among school students, as well as to the role of national and European directives.

We promote direct participation in our research programme of UCLM undergraduate students, who will prepare their bachelor dissertations under the supervision of the three lecturers involved in this project.

Furthermore, postgraduate students writing their Master or PhD dissertations on any of the topics included in this module will be able to cooperate with our project in various ways.