PRIN Project

This project explores how University Language Centres (ULCs) in Europe present their services to both national and international audiences, emphasising intercultural communication principles. It specifically analyses the content and language used on EULC websites in England, Italy, and Spain. Involving three academic disciplines and three languages strengthens the project’s focus on interlinguistic and intercultural dimensions, especially relevant within Italian academia. Additionally, the project aims to prompt further reflection on the role of English as a Lingua Franca in multilingual and intercultural contexts.

This project aims to assess the extent to which the language sciences community promotes social values introduced by the Bologna Process and aligns with the Council of Europe’s principles in its educational approaches and resources as well as analysing to what extent University Language Centres show interest in promoting sustainable literacy among its websites’ users.

This project wants to ascertain to what extent: 1. the community of academics and professionals in language sciences promotes the social-oriented concepts that the Bologna process introduced at the beginning of the 2000s; 2. the pedagogical approaches and materials offered reflect the principles outlined by the Council of Europe.

Key objectives include:

1. analysing EULC website strategies: The study will examine how European University Language Centre (EULC) websites in Italy, Spain, Ireland, and the UK use communicative and persuasive techniques to promote linguistic and cultural activities. This includes evaluating language simplicity, expression clarity, use of visuals, and social media integration.

2. assessing alignment with European principles: It will investigate how well these websites support the Council of Europe’s goals for language development and cultural integration.

3. understanding stakeholder perceptions: The study seeks to capture national and international perspectives on the linguistic, cultural, and social messages presented by EULCs.

The project collaborates with major language associations to strengthen ties and gather insights across the represented languages and regions.

To address the research objectives, the research team will employ a mixed-method design based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses. 

4.1 PHASE 1. 

Discourse and multimodal analysis of EULC websites. A multilingual corpus of EULC webpages of institutions located in Italy, Spain, Ireland and UK will be collected to analyse different dimensions of the phenomenon of multilingual academic website communication and related information dissemination. The selected websites will be analysed according to their textual and visual elements.

A corpus of textual files retrieved from the webpages will thus be built and organised in order to compare and analyse the differences in lexical content and discourse structure among the websites and among the various types of pages/sections. The corpus-based analysis will be conducted using appropriate software expanded through manual, more detailed examination.

A quantitative and qualitative corpus linguistic analysis will subsequently identify the most prominent linguistic features (e.g., in frequency lists, concordances and word clusters) to examine the lexical content, discourse structure, and argumentative strategies related to the concepts mentioned above. 

The visual and organisational characteristics of each website will also be investigated, with a particular focus on the home pages, gallery/photo (Bateman 2014) or video clip/interview section (Bateman 2017) and on sections/pages in which multimodal elements are expected to feature prominently.

The data will be analysed with the multimodal annotator software ELAN (ELAN 2022), which allows for the annotation of the different semiotic codes, thus providing a complete set of elements for the analyst to understand how verbal and non-verbal resources work together to produce meaning in the context of university websites.

4.2 PHASE 2 

This phase of the project assesses user perceptions of the linguistic, cultural, and social messages on European University Language Centre (EULC) websites through three main methods:

4.2.1 Questionnaire administration 

An online survey will be distributed to stakeholders (students, staff, and affiliated institutions) of EULCs that are part of the CERCLES community. Respondents will evaluate website content and language, focusing on multilingualism, cultural inclusion, and sustainable development. Both quantitative and qualitative responses will be analysed and visualised using text data mining and concept maps, with insights compared to Phase 1’s textual and visual data findings to understand how well these websites meet European principles of language and culture.

4.2.2 Think-aloud protocols 

A smaller group from Italian ULCs will verbalise their thoughts while navigating EULC websites and interacting with specific website sections and content identified in Phase 1 and the questionnaire. These sessions, recorded and followed by retrospective interviews, will capture users' real-time perceptions and highlight possible message misinterpretations, revealing how users process website messages.

4.2.3 Eye-tracking technique 

Eye-tracking technology will monitor eye movements of a subset of participants as they explore EULC webpages, identifying what visual or textual elements attract attention. This data will produce heat maps and track fixation patterns, adding depth to the findings by pinpointing which elements capture user focus. By triangulating eye-tracking results with questionnaire feedback and think-aloud observations, the project will verify participants’ responses and validate Phase 1’s discourse and multimodal analysis findings.

Together, these methods provide a robust understanding of how users engage with and interpret EULC websites, supporting the project's broader objectives of promoting effective multilingual and intercultural communication.

This project examines the language used in European University Language Centre (EULC) websites to better understand the effectiveness of informative, promotional, and persuasive discourse. Drawing on Halliday’s (1973) functional view of language in society, Hymes’ (1972) communicative language use, and corpus-based discourse analysis (McEnery 2012; Baker/McEnery 2015), the study seeks to identify how EULC websites convey key messages and how these messages align with user perceptions. By analysing linguistic strategies and terminology across website sections, the project aims to highlight the best practices for promoting the cultural, social, and linguistic goals of the Council of Europe.

Findings will offer insights for EULC leaders, language educators, and web designers, potentially guiding them toward more effective language use in communicating institutional values. On a broader level, the research aims to enhance the understanding of institutional web language, supporting the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and UNESCO’s goals of fostering socially and linguistically inclusive and sustainable societies.

The project aims to contribute to the literature in linguistics, language learning, and cultural/ethnographic studies to facilitate practitioners' work when attempting to overcome language and cultural barriers. Specifically, the project will generate further insight on key aspects of language use, including: 

1. the ability to use a variety of tactics of communicative interaction; 

2. the enhancement of communicative creativity of professionals; 

3. the effective management of intercultural messages.

The project intends to create the following products:

Multilingual Corpora: An online archive of documents for language centres, universities, and cultural enterprises, focusing on multilingualism, multiculturalism, and language education for sustainable development.

Multilingual Glossary: A glossary of words and phrases related to the project's concepts, including dynamic, collaborative entries with contextual meanings. It targets various users such as language experts, politicians, web editors, and entrepreneurs.

Data-Driven Framework: Suggestions for creating effective multilingual/multimodal web content, especially in higher education, and improving EULCs’ online content for knowledge transfer and autonomous language learning.

Guidelines and Sample Materials: Resources for designing intercultural and inclusive blended learning in EULCs.

All products will be open access on a dedicated website, which will help assess the project’s impact and facilitate communication and user contributions.

The investigation of EULC websites in four different countries will provide insights into the understanding and promotion of multilingual and multicultural principles, including the awareness of linguistic, cultural and intercultural communication, social inclusion, language policies and language education for sustainable development. Hence, reinforcing dissemination at a national and international level and in a structured and continuous way is fundamental. The following strategies will be adopted:

- development and maintenance of a Project Website that presents information about the project activities;

- E-Newsletter about activities, events and results to be shared with national University Language Centre Associations throughout Europe;

- social media supporting a wider and faster outreach complementary to the website: Facebook, Twitter accounts or blog;

- dissemination of the project activities and results through the research units and related networks;

- organisation of a kick-off meeting and webinars in collaboration with all four research units to present the project, share ideas and verify the preliminary results with other European and (inter)national researchers. The use of webinars, streaming, or meetings at multiple locations will facilitate participation and reduce negative climate impact of travel.

- organisation of a final international conference to present the results, technological didactical implications as well as social economic effects;

- publications in national and international journals. 

The research outcomes will be presented to the Council of Europe/Language Policy Unit and to CercleS members to offer support in enhancing the impact on the quality of EULC communities