Educating heritage language (HL) learners and pupils learning a second language (SL): Differences in approaches

Project type: Charles University Mini-grant 2023


Flagship: Flagship 2


Project leader at CU: Mgr. Marie Boccou KestÅ™ánková, Ph.D. (Faculty of Arts)


Participating universities: Sorbonne University, University of Geneva, University of Milan, University of Warsaw, University of Iceland (external partner)



“Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights” (UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Plurilingualism and linguistic diversity are the goals of the EU. Therefore, these issues will be explored within the project:  

  • How deeply do current educational systems respect linguistic human rights when continuity in heritage language (HL) (“second mother tongue”) education is lost?   

  • How can current educational systems develop HL (acquired outside schools)?  

  • Do the systems cause an undesirable consequence: "forget" HL and relearn it as a foreign language (if at all)?  


The aim of the project is to support educational systems of each participating country to systematically improve the education of heritage language (HL) users and prepare a follow-up grant.