For the autumn semester, the Institut national des langues (INL) is offering more than 450 adult language courses across its three sites (Glacis, Belval and Mersch).
Tomorrow, Thursday 10 October 2020, will mark the start of the school year for more than 7,000 students eager to learn a language or improve their language skills. This semester, students can take classes in German, English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian, Luxembourgish and Portuguese, as well as the brand new Dutch for beginners course.
Places remain in all languages. Registration and an appointment for an orientation interview, on 15, 16 and 21 September, can be made on www.inll.lu.
Future outlook
In 2021, the INL intends to launch its new modernised and easy-to-use portal, equipped with a multilingual and more user-friendly interface. This new portal should allow easier registration and management of students' personal accounts.
The “Héierverstoen” (oral comprehension) part of the “Sproochentest” (Luxembourgish language test) will also be digitised from the second semester of this school year. Similarly, an internal working group, in collaboration with the TestDaF institute, will reorganise the LaF Luxembourgish as a foreign language (“Lëtzebuergesch als Friemsprooch”) test with a view to future digitisation.
In addition, the INL has developed a "blended learning" innovation group comprising fourteen teachers from four departments. This group will invest in the operation and provision of an e-learning platform for all INL language learners in order to diversify the educational offer and better meet the needs of all types of learners. To meet growing demand, 25 classes will operate in “blended learning” mode, combining traditional face-to-face courses and e-learning tools.
Moreover, training for obtaining the ZLSK ("Zertifikat fir Lëtzebuerger Sprooch a Kultur") will be offered again on Saturdays; more than 40 participants have already registered. A group of Luxembourgish teachers from the INL is developing, accompanied by external experts, an e-learning platform for Luxembourgish. This platform, tested with pilot classes during this school year, will be accessible free of charge for anyone wishing to learn the Luxembourgish language. Its launch is scheduled for the start of the 2021/22 school year. The Luxembourgish department has also invested in the development of online orientation tests in Luxembourgish which for the first time will be put to the test during the start of this school year. These online pretests, like those for other languages, will be accessible on the INL website.
Following the success of the “Schwätzt Dir Lëtzebuergesch?" A1 and A2 textbooks, the INL has presented the B1 level which completes the series and will be on sale in bookstores from the start of the 2020/21 school year. The A1 and A2 textbooks have been revised and adapted to the new Luxembourgish orthography. All three textbooks are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Additional exercises are available on the site www.sdl.inll.lu.
Partnerships
To meet its mission of inclusion and integration, the INL is continuing its collaboration on the "Words4work" project initiated by the ADEM employment agency. This collaboration aims to facilitate the employability of job seekers in four areas: commerce, construction, HoReCa and cleaning. The INL is responsible for evaluating the 60 candidates trained in these four fields of the FOS ("Français sur Objectif Spécifique") French language skills.
For two years, the INL has regularly offered language cafes in its premises and the possibility of finding a partner for a language tandem for people wishing to train and deepen the target language outside of class. These two initiatives will be maintained and further developed, in compliance with the health measures in force.
The INL has also given itself the mission of organising an increasing number of cultural events for the general public.
