Institute for Specialised Communication and Multilingualism
Founded in 1993, the Institute for Specialised Communication and Multilingualism originally focussed on research into “Language and Law”, but over the years, it has steadily expanded its remit to take in the areas of multilingualism and specialised communication. As a result, the Institute now occupies a firm place within the international scientific community in the field of Applied Linguistics.
While the work of the Institute was originally concerned with research in terminology, translation and special languages, with the aim of creating a scientific basis for multilingualism in law and administration in South Tyrol, the reform of the bilingualism and trilingualism examination brought about increased research activity in the areas of second language acquisition and language teaching, as well as the evaluation of language proficiency. At the same time there was a steady growth of research in the specialist area of “Migration and Language”. Comparing different languages and cultures has not only led to studies on the phenomena associated with migration; the Institute's work is now also focussed on the protection and promotion of regional and minority languages, including Italian Sign Language.
The development of the bistro Information System for Legal Terminology, and the ELDIT Electronic Learners’ Dictionary led to the subsequent inclusion of automatic language processing in the work of the Institution. The branch of research involving language technologies is particularly concerned with the production and use of language resources, such as monolingual and multilingual text corpora, and develops tools not only for research into languages and dialects, but also for graphical representation of linguistic information.
The growth of the Institute as a scientific body has entailed a subsequent expansion in the methodological approaches and themes covered. Important new areas are now terminology management and knowledge management, which are major issues in the effective use of knowledge in business.
In addition, various events, publications, collaboration with partners at home and abroad, as well as the ever-increasing activities in the fields of further education and consultation, have all helped to secure the status of the Institute within the international scientific community.
The Institute's various projects can be subdivided into three main research topics: