Projects

One of the goals of the Observatory is to produce knowledge that may be useful both for other researchers and for civil society, in line with Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS). You can access the projects the OSE has collaborated with here.

 

Spanish in Europe: Demography of the speakers of a language

The interdisciplinary research project Spanish in Europe analyses the Spanish language in the old continent. It aims to provide a quantitative and qualitative description of the linguistic and cultural geography of Spanish and its speakers with a specific focus on the dynamics of migration, demography, and education. The demolinguistic methods developed for this purpose enable us to understand the process of internationalisation of the Spanish language and is simultaneously useful as an empirical basis for language and culture planning.

The published volumes of the project can be downloaded from Centro Virtual Cervantes.

Lexical Variation of Spanish in the World: VARILEX XXV

The project Varilex-XXV, developed by Hiroto Ueda (Tokyo University) and Francisco Moreno-Fernández (OSE, Heidelberg University), aims to gain knowledge about the status of Spanish lexic and its dialectal variation. To this end, the project has created a database that contains more than 10,000 linguistic data from 61 Spanish-speaking cities on several continents and classified by country of origin. The data were collected through questionnaires regarding 981 lexical, phraseological, and syntactic aspects of contemporary Spanish that is spoken daily in urban environments. In its newest edition, Varilex XXV includes information on Spanish-speakers located in countries in which Spanish is not an official language, including European countries. Thus, it can reflect the usage of Spanish in the context of migrations.

Qualification projects 

Charlotte Blattner, previously fellow of the LGF, now fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation/Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, start of project November 2021: “The dynamics of Spanish as a language of migration and as a heritage language in Germany: a sociolinguistic study”, Faculty of ModLang, first supervisor Prof. Dr. Óscar Loureda, second supervisor Prof. Dr. Francisco Moreno-Fernández.

Ana Gómez Pavón-Durán, previously fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD, now fellow of the Landesgraduiertenförderung LGF, start of project October 2021: “Language socialization and Spanish in migration contexts”, Faculty of ModLang, first supervisor Prof. Dr. Óscar Loureda. Cotutelle Heidelberg University – Universitat de València, Spain, Prof. Dr. Mercedes Quilis Merín.

Alba Segura Lores, start of project October 2021: “Estudio de la variación ausencia-presencia del pronombre personal sujeto en el español hablado en los corpus PRESEEA-Málaga”, Faculty of ModLang, first supervisor Prof. Dr. Francisco Moreno-Fernández. Cotutelle Heidelberg University – Universidad de Málaga, Spain, Prof. Dr. Matilde Vida Castro and Prof. Dr. Francisco Diaz Montesinos.

Jana Weckesser, start of project November 2024. First supervisor Prof. Dr. Francisco Moreno-Fernández.

Dr. Héctor Álvarez Mella, research associate in the project “Observatory of Spanish in Europe OSE”, PIs Prof. Dr. Francisco Moreno-Fernández, Prof. Dr. Óscar Loureda, Dr. Héctor Álvarez Mella. Faculty of ModLang. Focus: social and demographic dynamics of Spanish as a migratory language in Europe and the intergenerational transmission of the heritage language in Spanish-speaking families.

Dr. Pilar Valero, research associate in the project “Observatory of Spanish in Europe OSE”, PIs Prof. Dr. Francisco Moreno-Fernández, Prof. Dr. Óscar Loureda, Dr. Héctor Álvarez Mella. Faculty of ModLang. Focus on the development of Spanish language competence in heritage speakers: teaching strategies and technological resources based on teacher-AI-learner interaction.

Scholarships

  • DAAD scholarship Alba Segura 2024-25
  • DAAD fellowship Ana Gómez Pavón, 2021-2023
  • LGF scholarship Ana Gómez Pavón 2023-25
  • LGF scholarship Charlotte Blattner 2022-2023
  • Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes scholarship Charlotte Blattner 2023-25
  • Heidelberg University Marsilius Young fellowship Dr. Héctor Álvarez Mella, 2023-24