Since the beginning of the 1980s, Foyer has built up broad expertise in multilingual parenting, dealing with home languages and the learning of integration language(s). PIM (Partners in Multilingualism) is the team that pools and further develops expertise around this topic. We focus on supporting the family language policy and the cooperation between the school, family and other partners involves. With our offer we are present at crucial moments of growing up multilingual such as at the start of family expansion, the start of schoo, the transition from primary to secondary. Our projects are centred on Brussels but often grow from international cooperation and aim to build a bridge between research and practice.
For more informations or questions about a specific project, contact us at pim@foyer.be. |
PIM’s activities are aimed at supporting multilingual families and children. The language analysis and advice component is carried out in consultation with schools, CLB, social workers and parenting supporters from Brussels.
This way, we want to:
! This service is only available for (parents of) kids who go to a Dutch speaking school !
We provide a wide range of sessions in Brussels, strengthening parents in their role in the multilingual education of their children. Specific themes we include include:
Practical details
! The sessions can be given in English or French, but the organisation or school must be dutch-speaking !
Screen time
We encourage parents to take a critical look at their children’s screen time. We also provide suggestions for responsible use with:
The second European project on multilingualism, coordinated by Foyer, was completed at the end of 2021 and aims to support parents in multilingual parenting. It resulted in accessible materials that support parents in making up a strong plan and a stimulating approach to their multilingual education.
Realisations: www.plantinglanguages.com
Specific Goals
Target groups
How do we support multilingual families?
A core theme of PIM is the support of parents in the multilingual education of their children. We provide advice and training for parents and professionals with a focus on both the home language and the school language.
PIM@home focuses on strengthening the various home languages and was realized with the support of Sven Gatz, minister responsible for the promotion of multilingualism.
The core of the project consists of 10 short videos about language support in the home language. The videos, originally in Dutch, have been duplicated and recorded in 8 different languages: Classical Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, English, French, Romanian, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu. The material can be used preventively. In addition, it can be used specifically when children are weaker for language and when a stronger language stimulation at home is a part of the solution-focused approach.
There is a supporting manual in Dutch that gives professionals ideas to get started with the parents themselves. Brussels schools and organizations can request a collaboration (pim@foyer.be).
SALTO is a project for the languages at home and at school spoken by pupils in the first and second years of primary school.
Foyer has a team of trained parents who can provide language-stimulating activities in their home language at school. Schools, day-care centres, organisations and libraries can apply to Foyer to make use of this team.
In our team, we have trained parents who can give reading aloud and activities in the following languages:
Activities are available in 12 languages on the website: https://www.salto-project.be/
The aims of SALTO are:
Saltino is a project on reading aloud and storytelling in the home language for young children (3 months to 2.5). The project continues in nurseries.
A strong start at school for multilingual children.
Does Lingua also remind you of language? That’s right! Languages are central in this game.
Liba is the Hungarian word for ‘goose’. Our game Liba Lingua is indeed a gooseboard game, but not just any…
Liba Lingua wants to help parents reflect on their child’s multilingual education at the start of school. Parents play the game together with a teacher, giving them the opportunity to start their collaboration in a fun way. The game is aimed at parents of children in Dutch-speaking schools.
With Liba Lingua we create a warm transition between home and school with three important messages:
Pratical details
Liba Lingua was developed with the financial support of Habilnet.
In November 2024, our colleagues from PIM receides the European Language Label for Liba Lingua. Epos vzw annually awards this label to innovative projects on languages and linguistic diversity. This is a great recognition for the work of PIM and the game!
TALES@Home stands for ‘Talking About Language and EmotionS at Home’. The European project TALES@home helps multilingual families create a stimulating environment for language learning and well-being. We developed an app that allows parents and children to map emotions related to language. The strongly visual approach invites reflection and conversation. This digital tool strengthens positive emotions and attitudes within the family in order to contribute to well-being, social cohesion and language skills of all family members. TALES@Home is meant for multilingual families and Professionals working with multilingual adults, children and young people in the context of language learning.
The central theme of well-being, emotions and language is fully in line with HaBilNet’s objectives. Thanks to HaBilNet, this tool was able to get an update in 2022 and is now fully available again.
Our specialist team at Foyer developed a lot of educational material over the years. Below you can find a selection that is always available.
Digital Kamishibai
The digital kamishibai is a collection of 99 videos in which people of Brussels read in their mother tongue. The digital kamishibai contains 25 languages: from Peul, Turkish, Chinese over English to Kinyarwanda. By listening to a story together, the kids discover familiar stories as well as new ones in their own language or in another one. They can see similarities and differences, can hear sounds and words they know or completely don’t know.
At Foyer, you can rent the digital kamishibai for 50 euros a week. The stories are also available for teachers on a closed online platform.
Reservations via pim@foyer.be
Calander 2025
Actif with languages at home
We often work with parents to reinforce the language spoken at home. The home language forms the basis for learning other languages and is important as a connecting language between parents and children.
Our advice covers various topics:
We created a calendar for parents (A3 format) on which they can mark in couleur when they have put one of the five tips in practice. You can download and print the calendar here (Suggestion: in colour – A3 – recto/verso).
Via this link, you can find the information on the calendar in different languages.
At home I aslo speak!
This collection allows secondary school special education type 1 pupils to be introduced to different languages in a positive way, using twenty fully developed lessons.
This material is only available in Dutch!
Extraordinarily linguistic
This bundle contains activities involving the home languages of pupils aged 4 to 12. Sometimes the languages themselves are the focus of the activity and other times aspects of the mother tongue are examined.
this material is only available in Dutch!