GUIDE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION POLICIES IN EUROPE

1. GUIDE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION POLICIES IN EUROPE Chapter 5: Creating a culture of plurilingualism ENSEMBLE workshop ECML, Graz, 14-17 December 2005 andrea.young@alsace.iufm.fr IUFM d’Alsace Groupe d’Etudes sur le Plurilinguisme Européen, Laboratoire LILPA (EA1339), Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg, France

2. Why create a culture of plurilingualism? • To manage cultural diversity • To balance universalist standardisation and identity-centred isolationism • To recognise the value of languages, despite differences in status • To promote linguistic tolerance

3. Creating a culture of plurilingualism • How can we • promote plurilingual education? • show its political, social and educational relevance? • make it feasible? • No need to start from scratch • But need to rethink teaching objectives

4. Goals of plurilingual education • Developing speaker awareness of own repertoire • Education for plurilingual awareness, mutual comprehension, increased motivation and curiosity about language

5. Developing a plurilingual repertoire • Make speakers aware of their own repertoire (mother tongue, standard, regional/standard variety, foreign/second language etc.) • Demonstrate intrinsic equal dignity of all varieties (appropriate to functions) • Demonstrate their changing nature • Increase competences, levels of proficiency, numbers of varieties known • Develop transversal competences

6. Why education for plurilingual awareness • Development of language skills -> • X change speakers’ attitudes • X curious about languages • X respectful of other communities • < possibility to develop plurilingual repertoire, > education for plurilingual awareness • > dominant the language(s) taught, > place of language education in the curriculum

7. Pluricultural awareness & intercultural communication • Plurilingual +/- pluricultural • Move away from prejudice, stereotypes and ethnocentrism • Need to develop • education in cultural differences, accepting other ways of behaving or doing things • capacity for critical distance, to decentre or detach self from own culture • intercultural competence, being able to adapt to other cultures • cross-curricular approach: history, geography, philosophy, literature, citizenship education

8. Transforming curricula • Decompartmentalise languages (mother tongues, national, regional, minority, foreign & other) • Concerted language policy, greater coordination, in parallel • Structure according to competences & proficiency • Homogenous, diversified education on language & languages (cf educazione linguistica, Italy; Language Awareness, UK 1980s; European EVLANG project; Education et Ouverture aux Langues à l’Ecole, Switzerland, 2003) • Gradual process, transforming curricula & mentalities

9. Explaining plurilingualism • Not the dominant representation of language education • Not the direct experience of many European citizens (often monolingual vision) • Need to challenge common misconceptions such as: • one language hinders acquisition of another • you have to be gifted to learn languages • it takes a long time to learn a language (perfection) • you have to learn language young • Needs to be explained

10. European citizenship education • The formation of public space in which everyone may play a part and be recognised as belonging to this community of citizens • Rights and duties which are identical for everyone, common values • Recognising and accepting the diversity of all speakers • Common linguistic ideal, a shared culture of languages

11. Social cohesion • Adapting language education to increasingly multilingual & multicultural European society • Enabling both majorities and minorities to have a better understanding of the nature of their relationships • Feeling of common belonging to a political & cultural space, inclusive • Combating racism, education for tolerance

12. Raising awareness of stakeholders • Identify opinions on language issues (teachers, heads, parents’ associations, local government representatives, members of municipal councils, education authorities…) • Convince them of validity of plurilingualism • Recognise & capitalise on linguistic varieties learners already speak or hear around them (at home, at school, in the local environment) • Show their roles in the formation of identity • Introduce early language learning in primary • Learn to think about language

13. On the road to plurilingualism • European language portfolio • Common European Framework of Reference for Languages • Increased student and teacher mobility thanks to European programmes • The Guide • State education establishments play a crucial role in creating linguistic affiliation to a community broader than national, regional or ethnic community