Birthday cake on the Belval site; Credit: Jazmin Campbell

The Institut national des langues (INL) today celebrated its tenth anniversary on its various sites across Luxembourg.

The former Centre de Langues (CLL) became the INL exactly ten years ago today, resulting from the law of 22 May 2009 establishing a National Institute of Languages ​​and the function of Luxembourgish language teacher. The law made the INL a full-fledged administration and expanded its missions. Whilst language teaching continues to be the core mission of INL, the assessment and certification of language skills and the learning of the Luxembourgish language have become equally important pillars.

Since its creation in 2009, the INL has experienced an increase of 80% in terms of enrollments, their number having increased from 8,500 in 2008/2009 to 15,500 in 2018/2019 - 121,000 registrations in ten years. The number of teachers also rose from 83 in 2009 to 127 in 2019, whilst administrative staff increased from ten to 25. 

The languages ​​taught at the INL are German, English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian, Luxembourgish and Portuguese with a total of 878 classes in 2018/2019 compared to 363 in 2009. Luxembourgish and French are the most popular languages ​​for the national and international public.

In 2017, at the territorial level, the INL was able to open an annex in the south of the country in Esch-Belval, adding a third "clean" site to its credit. Over the four semesters in activity on the University of Luxembourg site, the number of registrants increased from 748 to 1,017, an increase of 36% across all departments (LU, FR, DE, EN, ES).

Among the exams and tests that the INL organises, the "Sproochentest Lëtzebuergesch" stands out by the number of candidates and the complexity in its implementation. Since 2007, at the request of the Luxembourg Government, the INL has undertaken to develop criteria tests according to European and international standards in order to assess the oral comprehension and expression skills of naturalisation candidates in Luxembourg. More than 13,000 applicants for Luxembourg nationality have registered for this examination since December 2008. 

To celebrate this decade-long "success story", the INL invited its students and staff on its three sites in Glacis, Mersch and Belval on Wednesday afternoon to share its 10th birthday cake.