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Institute for Language and Communication

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Institute for Language and Communication

ILC, an Institute within UCLouvain

ilc | Louvain-la-Neuve, Mons

The Language and Communication Institute is one of the UCLouvain's 22 research institutes. It is one of the ten institutes that fall within the Social Sciences and Humanities sector.

The ICL is made up of the following entities:

  •  2 research clusters: PLIN and PCOM (corresponding to the RECOM research centre)
  •  2 technology platforms: CENTAL and MIIL
  •  2 research centres: VALIBEL and CECL
  •  5  research groups: GIRCAM, GReMS, LASCO, ORM and TeAMM

For a better understanding of the university’s various bodies (e.g. faculty, sector, centre), it is helpful to have a general overview of its structure, which is based on 3 levels:

UCLouvain's three sectors correspond to the three main areas of knowledge: Human Sciences (SSH), Health Sciences (SSS), Science and Technology (SST).

The Institut Langage et Communication (ILC) belongs to the Human Sciences Sector.

Research SSH
 Education SSH
Institute for the Study of Civilisations, Arts and Letters (INCAL)
Faculté de théologie et d'étude des religions (THER)
Institute for the Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies (IACS)
Faculty of Law and Criminology (DRT)
Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY)
Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences and Communication (ESPO)
Institute of Political Science Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE)
Louvain School of Management (LSM)
Institute for Language and Communication (ILC)
Faculty of Philosophy, Arts and Letters (FIAL)
Institut pour la recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences juridiques (JURI)
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences(PSP)
Higher institute of philosophy (ISP)
 
Louvain School of Management Research Institute (LOURIM)
 
Louvain Institute of Data Analysis and Modeling in economics and statistics (LIDAM) - Cross Sector
Research clusters

Each institute can, if it wishes, structure itself into clusters. This third level is first and foremost administrative. It allows researchers to be grouped within a unit that is smaller than the institute. Having previously been unit-based, the ILC decided in 2013 to structure itself into two thematic clusters:
  •  the Communication Research Cluster (PCOM)
  •  the Linguistics Research Cluster (PLIN)

The work of the members of the Linguistics Research Cluster (PLIN) is centred around the concept of language in context (‘language in use’), with the emphasis on analysing authentic data in a number of languages.
Five areas are particularly highly developed:
  • Contrastive linguistics
  • The study of language variation
  • Linguistics applied to language acquisition and teaching
  • Automatic language processing
  • Business language

The research carried out at the Communication Research Cluster and Research Centre (PCOM) has the common purpose of investigating all forms of communicational mediation between various kinds of institutions or social entities (businesses, public bodies, NGOs, academic, cultural and educational institutions, newspapers and audiovisual media, etc.) and their members, readership or audiences.
Four areas are particularly highly developed:
  • Uses and appropriation of emerging media
  • Social discourses and representation
  • Ethical and deontological issues in communication
  • Professional practices in the field of communication

The research centres (+ laboratories and groups)
There are research centres within the institutes. These bring together members of the institute (or sometimes of several institutes) around a common project.
Sometimes the centres are themselves broken down into laboratories or research groups.
The Institute for Language and Communication is home to three research centres and one research group:
  • CECL - Centre for English Corpus Linguistics
  • RECOM - Centre for Communication Research, RECOM is itself subdivided into four research groups: GIRCAM, GREMS, LASCO and ORM
  • VALIBEL – Centre for Research on Discourse and Variation
  • TeAMM -Teaching and Acquiring Multilingualism and Multiliteracies
The technological platforms

The technological platforms are staffed by technical and administrative personnel, equipped with the appropriate scientific and technical tools (analysis laboratory, translation centre, etc.). The platforms provide horizontal support to the research institutes, and can also support teaching activities and service to society.
For ease of administration, since 2015 the platforms have each been attached to a reference institute. The Institute for Language and Communication is the reference institute for two technological platforms:
  • CENTAL - Automatic Language Processing Centre
  • MIIL - Media Innovation & Intelligibility Lab
Schools

As far as teaching in schools is concerned, the faculties are broken down into schools/programme committees/teaching committees (the names differ; they replace the former title of ‘department’).
The researchers in the Institute for Language and Communication are in regular interaction with the members of the schools/programme committees/teaching committees attached to the ESPO and FIAL faculties (e.g. the School of Communication, the Louvain School of Translation and Interpreting).