06 A critical approach to plurilingual systems

A critical approach to plurilingual systems

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Extracto de:

 Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at School in Europe

                                                                     Eurydice The information network on education in Europe

http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/content-and-language-integrated-learning-clic-at-school-in-europe-pbNCX106001/

Preface

Multilingualism is at the very heart of European identity, since languages are a fundamental aspect of the cultural identity of every European. By CLIL, pupils learn school subjects in the curriculum while at the same time exercising and improving their language skills. Subjects and languages are combined to offer them a better preparation for life in Europe, in which mobility is becoming increasingly more widespread and should be within reach of everyone.

The acronym CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) started to become the most widely used term for this kind of provision during the 1990s. CLIL is the platform for an innovative methodological approach of far broader scope than language teaching. Accordingly, its advocates stress how it seeks to develop proficiency in both the non-language subject and the language in which this is taught, attaching the same importance to each. Furthermore, achieving this twofold aim calls for the development of a special approach to teaching in that the non-language subject is not taught in a foreign language but with and through a foreign language. This implies a more integrated approach to both teaching and learning, requiring that teachers should devote special thought not just to how languages should be taught, but to the educational process in general.

In organisational terms, for example, CLIL enables languages to be taught on a relatively intensive basis without claiming an excessive share of the school timetable. It is also inspired by important methodological principles established by research on foreign language teaching, such as the need for learners to be exposed to a situation calling for genuine communication.

EU support for CLIL

For many years now, language teaching has featured prominently in Community recommendations regarding education. The promotion of linguistic diversity in education and training has always been an important consideration in planning the successful construction of Europe. Yet it was not until the 1990s that discussion of language learning in the European institutions led to realisation of the need to explore innovative teaching methods. In this context, several initiatives have been launched by the EU in the field of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).

One of the first pieces of legislation regarding European cooperation in CLIL is the 1995 Resolution of the Council . It refers to the promotion of innovative methods and, in particular, to 'the teaching of classes in a foreign language for disciplines other than languages, providing bilingual teaching'. In the same year, in its White Paper on education and training (Teaching and Learning - Towards the Learning Society), the European Commission focused on the importance of innovative ideas and the most effective practices for helping all EU citizens to become proficient in three European languages.

At the May 2005 Education Council, the Luxembourg presidency reported on the results of the symposium entitled 'The Changing European Classroom: The Potential of Plurilingual Education' which was held a few weeks earlier in March. Among the main conclusions, the need to ensure that pupils and students are involved in CLIL type provision at the different levels of school education was emphasised, as was the desirability of encouraging teachers to receive special training in CLIL. As part of the European Commission Action Plan 2004-2006 to promote language learning and linguistic diversity, pupils should be taught different subjects in the curriculum in at least two languages (in a context other than that of language lessons).

The fact that a CLIL-based approach to learning is part of mainstream school provision does not mean that it is widespread. The situation in Luxembourg and Malta is most unusual in that these are the only countries in which CLIL type provision exists in all schools on a general basis. Elsewhere, it is apparently offered to only a minority of pupils and in just a few schools, mainly where it is part of organised provision in a target foreign language. The situation regarding the availability of CLIL type provision in one or more regional or minority languages varies more markedly in that it is relatively widespread in certain countries, including in particular Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (Wales and Scotland).

Chronologically, countries with several official languages such as Belgium (the German-speaking Community), Luxembourg and Malta or with one or more regional or minority languages have generally been the first to introduce CLIL type provision in these target languages. Luxembourg and Malta in which CLIL is general practice, introduced it as early as the 19th century. Several countries that offer CLIL provision in regional and/or minority languages, namely Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the United Kingdom (Wales) introduced it at the end of the 1940s or in the 1950s.

Close examination of CLIL target languages reveals that English, French and German are the most widespread foreign target languages in countries in which provision is in one or several foreign languages.

Seven countries (Estonia, Spain, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden) provide scope for trilingual CLIL provision combining the national language and two foreign languages (Spain and Latvia), or the national language, a foreign language and a minority language (Estonia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden).

Levels of education concerned

In the majority of countries, CLIL provision is offered at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels of education. Several countries, namely Belgium (the French and German-speaking Communities), Spain, Italy, Latvia, Poland (in the case of minority languages), Finland, the United Kingdom (Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) and Romania (in the case of minority languages) also organise activities in another language from pre-primary level onwards. However, depending on the country, this provision varies very widely as it may be available throughout all or just some of the period of pre-primary education.

Admission criteria

In general, involvement in CLIL type provision when it is an integral part of mainstream education is open to all pupils. However, some countries have established conditions governing access to CLIL and select the pupils concerned, particularly when the target language is a foreign language.

This selection at the point of entry is often based on tests of some kind (written or oral examinations, interviews, etc.) with a view to identifying which pupils have a good general knowledge of curricular subject matter or aspects of the language used for CLIL.

In the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria, pupils wishing to enrol in schools that offer CLIL type provision have to take examinations designed mainly to assess their all-round knowledge (especially in basic subjects such as the mother tongue and mathematics). In the last two countries, school marks are taken into account and an entrance examination is held. The examination focuses on the intellectual ability of pupils (in Slovakia) as well as on the mother tongue and mathematics (in Bulgaria). In France and Romania, candidates sit examinations in which the priority is to check their knowledge of the target language. In France, applicants to sections internationales have to submit a record of attainment for the purpose of assessing their ability to follow CLIL provision in the target language (for example as a result of time spent abroad, or learning the language at an early age), and then take an oral test (in primary education) or written and oral examinations (in secondary education) to determine their proficiency in that language. Similarly, in Romania pupils are admitted to bilingual schools after being tested in the target language.

Aims

Conceived as an approach to education in which language teaching and subject learning are combined with the teaching of school subjects in general, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is inspired by a twofold objective. It is meant to ensure first that pupils acquire knowledge of curricular subject matter and secondly develop their competence in a language other than the normal language of instruction.

Aside from these general common aims associated with the CLIL concept, official recommendations of various European countries - in curricular guidance or other policy documents - differ. Depending on the country concerned, importance is attached to:

·          preparing pupils for life in a more internationalised society and offering them better job prospects on the labour market (socio-economic objectives);

·          conveying to pupils values of tolerance and respect vis-à-vis other cultures, through use of the CLIL target language (socio-cultural objectives);

·          enabling pupils to develop:

o    language skills which emphasise effective communication, motivating pupils to learn languages by using them for real practical purposes (linguistic objectives);

o    subject-related knowledge and learning ability, stimulating the assimilation of subject matter by means of a different and innovative approach (educational objectives).

Subjects taught through CLIL

There are few differences between primary and secondary education as regards the subjects taught in the CLIL target language. On the evidence of national recommendations, the commonest situation at these levels of education is one in which it is possible to select from across the entire curriculum the one or more subjects included in CLIL provision.

Evaluation and certification

Besides the assessment that all pupils undergo in mainstream education, assessment of their attainment specifically in relation to CLIL occurs in almost half of the countries concerned, normally in secondary education. In general, this special form of assessment is carried out in the CLIL target language and focuses on the knowledge learners have of the subjects selected for the CLIL curriculum. Nevertheless, in countries such as Ireland, Hungary and Austria, pupils may decide whether they will be examined in the CLIL target language or in the language of mainstream curriculum.

In all other countries in which CLIL type provision is available, there is no special assessment and pupil proficiency as regards the content of the curriculum is assessed solely using the language of mainstream curriculum. In the case of the Netherlands, however, many schools offer pupils the possibility of taking an additional examination in English to demonstrate their language ability.

In all of these countries, the attainment of pupils involved in CLIL is (or may be) formally recognised with the award of a special certificate. The linguistic 'value added' acquired by pupils during the years spent in CLIL is taken into account. In Germany, for example, the fact that pupils have attended bilingual school sections or streams is certified at the end of lower and upper secondary education. Additional indications regarding the target languages, the subjects studied and the periods of study are included on the certificate.

Furthermore, as a result of bilateral agreements between certain countries, pupils with a certificate that makes mention of their CLIL curriculum may continue studies in higher education in the partner countries. For example, in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, pupils from bilingual upper secondary schools (which in Poland use French as the target language) have a special entitlement enabling them to enrol in universities abroad without having to take language tests.

Evaluation of schools

The external evaluation of schools is a very widespread practice in European countries and it t seems reasonable to suppose that there will be changes in the way the quality of CLIL provision is evaluated and that evaluation will become steadily more widespread in the years ahead.

Teachers

CLIL type provision requires of the teachers responsible for it - and this is their common distinctive attribute - the ability to teach one or more subjects in the curriculum in a language other than the usual language of instruction and thereby teach that language itself. Such teachers are thus specialists in two respects. The strategies identified involves requiring that they should possess a special qualification or certificate in addition to what is normally needed to teach at a particular level. In CLIL type provision, teachers are generally fully qualified for the one or more educational levels at which they work. In most cases, they are specialists in one or more non-language subjects or have two areas of specialisation, one in a language subject and the other in a non-language subject. The basic qualifications required relate generally to non-language subjects. It is hardly surprising therefore that further diplomas or certificates testify to skills associated with the second area of expertise needed in CLIL type provision, namely language skills.

In Spain, some Autonomous Communities require a regional or minority language. Extra time to prepare and coordinate lessons is allocated to teachers in European sections in the Autonomous Communities of Galicia and the Balearic Islands, and the bilingual centres of Navarra. Salary increases are awarded to teachers in the bilingual centres of the Autonomous Community of Madrid.

Factors inhibiting general implementation

The organisation of CLIL type provision in foreign target languages makes demands that go well beyond those associated with traditional language teaching. It requires the use of human resources (specialist teachers) and suitable teaching materials to a significantly greater extent than conventional school language teaching. Given that CLIL is a relatively recent practice in Europe, it is not surprising to note that over half of the countries concerned confront problems when the time comes to extend this kind of provision - or in some cases introduce it - on a general basis to the entire school population.

Many countries draw attention to a big shortage of teachers with the qualifications needed to teach in schools making use of CLIL methodology. Teachers themselves complain that there are virtually no initial and in-service training programmes devoted to methods used specifically to teach a subject in other than the normal language of instruction.

Finding teaching materials geared to CLIL is not easy for schools. Such materials not only have to be available in the target language but also cover subjects in the national curriculum.

In some countries, the national language issue is at the heart of the discussions. Concerns in this respect are numerous. They relate, first, to teaching: could teaching of the national language (generally taught as the mother tongue) suffer as the result of intensive teaching of another language? They are language related too. The vitality and richness of a language are rooted in the experience of its speakers. Could there ever be a risk of the national language suffering if certain areas of knowledge are explored and analysed in a foreign language?

And finally, such fears are also political in so far as the position and influence of a language are for some people the reflection of national culture and citizenship. It is worth noting that discussion about CLIL may be part of a more general debate on language teaching: in Spain, the real situation in some Autonomous Communities that have their own official language in addition to Spanish also calls for a broad approach to the issue of language teaching.

Conclusions

The CLIL methodological approach seeking to foster the integrated learning of languages and other areas of curricular content is a fast developing phenomenon in Europe. At the European level, interest is growing in the approach which, according to various experts, carries with it many benefits for pupils and students. EU initiatives in the field of CLIL have increased in recent years. Underlying them is the belief that young people should be more effectively prepared for the (multi)lingual and cultural requirements of a Europe in which mobility is expanding.

Aware of this challenge, national policy-makers in the field of education are taking a greater interest in CLIL and offering a wide variety of initiatives consistent with the different circumstances facing them. The present Eurydice survey has sought to review the diversity of this kind of provision in European countries. It is concerned solely with school contexts (other than language lessons) in which various subjects in the curriculum are taught using at least two languages.

In CLIL provision, as much attention is paid to languages as to the subject content. In general, in primary and secondary education, all subjects in the curriculum may be targeted by CLIL. However, in secondary education the range is sometimes more restricted and only a few subjects are taught in this way. Mathematics, the physical and natural sciences, geography, history, and economics are often cited in official recommendations on CLIL provision. Furthermore, it is clear from analysing the country contributions that developing proficiency in the subjects taught using a target language may sometimes be a secondary consideration. In general, national recommendations regarding CLIL tend to attach greater importance to the language proficiency that pupils or students are meant to acquire.

The qualifications held by teachers involved in CLIL activities is a key question for most countries. In some of them, the approach is still fairly novel and inevitably calls for the development of teacher training programmes that have been specially devised for this kind of provision. It is not enough to ensure that teachers have a twofold kind of specialised training in languages and other (non-language) subjects. They should also be trained to develop in pupils or students the ability to learn subjects in a language in which their level of proficiency is not that of native speakers.

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07 Plurilingual and pluricultural education

Plurilingual and pluricultural education

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Plurilingual and pluricultural awareness in language teacher education

Edited by Mercè Bernaus (project coordinator), Ana Isabel Andrade, Martine Kervran, Anna Murkowskaand Fernando Trujillo Sáez

European Centre for Modern Languages Council of Europe Publishing

http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/publications/B2_LEA_E_internet.pdf

1.        Plurilingualism and pluriculturalism

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages helps us to understand the sense of these terms. It states that “plurilingual and pluricultural competence refers to the ability to use languages for the purposes of communication and to take part in intercultural interaction, where a person, viewed as a social agent, has proficiency, of varying degrees, in several languages and experience of several cultures” (Council of Europe, 2001: 168).  And also: “Plurilingualism differs from multilingualism, which is the knowledge of a number of languages, or the coexistence of different languages in a given society …. Beyond this, the plurilingual approach emphasises the fact that as an individual person’s experience of language in its cultural contexts expands, from the language of the home to that of society at large and then to the languages of other peoples …, he or she does not keep these languages and cultures in strictly separated mental compartments, but rather builds up a communicative competence to which all knowledge and experience of language contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact”

Plurilingualism and pluriculturalism is a personal feature which is put into action in a communicative situation. It is not a new competence, as we all use different “registers” of the same language in different situations just as we use different cultural repertoires in different situations. The new idea is the development of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism as the result of a process of language learning.

“Interculturality” is a term used to describe, firstly, the context of a communicative situation, in which the people involved use all their capacities to interact with each other, and, secondly, a set of communicative strategies for that interaction. It is, then, definitely situational in comparison to the “pluri-” and “multi-” concepts, which are personal and societal respectively

2. Plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in the context of teacher training

As we mentioned earlier, plurilingual and pluricultural competence is not achieved by overlapping or juxtaposing different competences; rather it constitutes a global and complex competence of which the speaker can avail himself or herself in situations characterised by plurality (Council of Europe, 2001). And this complexity would seem to depend on four main dimensions:

·         the socio-affective dimension, which includes a certain predisposition, motivation and readiness with regard to dialogue with the other and in which the individual is willing at any time to rebuild his or her identity;

·         the dimension of linguistic and communicative registers, which includes the ability to exploit a whole range of experience and knowledge and in which different languages and cultures play different roles;

·         the dimension of learning strategies, which is expressed in the ability to use different ways of processing spoken language in a procedure aimed at resolving communication problems (situations of access to meaning or spoken and/or written output, with or without collaboration);

·         the dimension of interaction management, which takes place in situations of language contact in which speakers update different codes to manage the communication output they produce in a conversation created by situations characterised by linguistic and cultural plurality

Social and personal dimension

The aim here is to perceive the language teacher (who teaches the mother tongue, the language of the school or foreign languages) as an individual who has social responsibilities, including responsibilities towards oneself as a plurilingual and intercultural speaker, and towards others. Amongst other things, this would include:

·         observing the linguistic and cultural diversity of contexts and individuals;

·         observing how educators can influence the attitudes of learners towards languages, those who speak them and their culture, as well as their motivation and curiosity with regard to languages;

·         recognising the linguistic and cultural complexity of individual and collective identities;

·         recognising linguistic and cultural diversity as a positive characteristic of groups and societies;

·         enhancing the role of languages and cultures in building societies that are fairer, more supportive and more democratic;

·         by considering language and culture as a means of human development (aimed at social inclusion and as preparation for exercising their citizenship);

·         recognising the political character of the measures adopted with regard to languages and cultures;

·         showing a critical mind towards measures of linguistic and cultural policy;

·         combating exclusion and linguistic and cultural discrimination while embracing the opportunities of a life together in society;

·         having a global vision of the exercise of one’s profession (professionalism) as consisting of different dimensions;

·         knowing oneself as a language educator by reflecting on one’s own abilities, knowledge, images and registers with regard to language communication and didactics;

·         thinking about one’s teaching experiences (academic and professional curriculum);

·         being capable of setting up self-training projects that take account of linguistic and cultural diversity;

·         having confidence in one’s professional ability to develop educational approaches in which taking account of linguistic and cultural diversity is a reality.

Professional dimension

·         being aware of the need for a new linguistic and cultural education capable of promoting plurilingualism and pluriculturalism;

·         knowing and defending the reasons for an education favourable to the development of plurilingual and pluricultural competence;

·         reflecting on the new roles and functions of the language teacher as educator;

·         finding and communicating purposes in the pursuit of a new linguistic and cultural education;

·         being aware of the challenges of language education policies; adopting a position, in different  contexts, with regard to measures of language policy;

·         enhancing the school as a focal point of social and cultural development, with

·         repercussions on the pupils’ life projects;

·         assisting in developing interactions between the various agents of education;

·         observing, analysing and making use of – in didactic terms – the diversity that exists in one’s teaching environment (individual and collective repertories);

·         creating, experimenting with and evaluating educational projects ultimately aimed at developing plurilingual and pluricultural skills;

·         creating synergetic effects between the teaching of different languages and

·         cultures by co-operating with the teachers of other languages and other subjects;

·         helping learners to set up individual projects for linguistic and communicative development

Reconciling CLIL with plurilingualism and pluriculturalism

This can be done by using an L2 to teach any subject in the curriculum and by offering the pupils whose L1 is a minority language the opportunity to use it for specific activities. At the same time, those pupils may contribute to the enrichment of any topic presented in the subject in question, by comparing the way in which the same topic is viewed in his or her country of origin.

Considering the key competences for lifelong learning, a competence-based approach with a focus on tasks should be adopted. Focus on task accommodates a focus on content – that is, text or input – which in turn accommodates a plurilingual approach focusing on languages and their speakers – that is, the learners.

It is likely that awareness of the potential of plurilingualism on the part of the CLIL teacher will lead to the systematic integration of a language-sensitive approach to content. Given that CLIL proposes that culture permeates its conceptual framework, one simply needs to recognise the diversity and dynamism that fundamentally characterise “culture” since there is no culture of one. Similarly, if learners’ linguistic repertoires are actively promoted in the classroom, the coexistence of languages, as well as the linguistic and cultural influences, will emerge naturally. Hence, plurilingualism becomes a useful instrument for the development of language learning strategies, creates a cognitively enriching experience of the content and is a means of acknowledging the languages of the class that, so often, remain unheard and separate from the shared reality of learners during school hours.  

Extracto de:

PLURILINGUAL AND PLURICULTURAL COMPETENCE

With a Foreword and Complementary Bibliography

Studies towards a Common European Framework of Reference for

language learning and teaching

Daniel COSTE, Danièle MOORE and Geneviève ZARATE 2009

http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/SourcePublications/CompetencePlurilingue09web_en.pdf

Communicative competence and the native-speaker model

Whatever the original characteristics of the concept of communicative competence, it has developed, as far as language teaching is concerned, within a model of an ideal native communicator: the characteristics of communicative competence (seen as distinct from a strictly linguistic competence) are the sociolinguistic and pragmatic abilities, knowledge and aptitudes of speakers who are implicitly assumed to be monolingual native speakers The goals of learning a foreign language, including the various threshold levels, fall short of this native-speaker competence; furthermore, the learner is not explicitly taken into account as a plurilingual subject (able, for example, to call on the resources of his mother tongue(s) or of another foreign language of which he already has some knowledge).

Communicative competence and cultural dimensions

The dominant tendency in language education has been to interpret communicative competence in linguistic rather than cultural terms. Attention has thus been focused on the multiplicity of means of expressing language acts or functions, taken as largely common and transversal, at the expense of the variety of cultural circumstances in which these acts and functions take place and assume specific meanings. Intra and inter-linguistic variation has been regarded as of greater importance than intra- and inter-cultural differentiation.

This observation appears to be a perfectly normal one if the initial aim is to learn a particular foreign language, and if it is considered that no major cultural obstacle lies in the way of such learning.

FIRST APPROACH AND GENERAL OPTIONS

Plurilingual and pluricultural competence: a tentative description

Plurilingual and pluricultural competence refers to the ability to use languages for the purposes of communication and to take part in intercultural interaction, where a person, viewed as a social actor has proficiency, of varying degrees, in several languages and experience of several cultures. This is not seen as the superposition or juxtaposition of distinct competences, but rather as the existence of a complex or even composite competence on which the social actor may draw.

As thus initially defined, plurilingual and pluricultural competence generally presents itself as unbalanced or uneven in one or more ways:

- general proficiency may vary according to the language

- the pluricultural profile may differ from the plurilingual profile (eg good knowledge of the culture of a community but a poor knowledge of its language, or poor knowledge of the culture of a community whose dominant language is nevertheless well mastered).

Plurilingual competence for a linguistic and cultural identity

Another key feature of what defines a plurilingual and pluricultural competence is that it does not result of a simple addition of two (or more) monolingual competences in several languages. It permits combinations and alternations of different kinds.

This also means that the development of plurilingual and pluricultural competence promotes the emergence of linguistic awareness, and leads to a better perception of what is general and what is specific in the linguistic organisation of different languages.

In this type of analysis, respect for the diversity of languages and the recommendation that more than one foreign language be learnt at school are significant.

The issue here is not just to increase future opportunities for young people competent in more than two languages, but also to help learners to construct their linguistic and cultural identity by incorporating in it a diversified experience of otherness and to develop their ability to learn through this same diversified experience as a result of relating to several languages and cultures.

PLURILINGUAL COMPETENCE

The concept of plurilingual competence

 Ordinary bilingualism should be understood as the bilingualism of any individual who develops an ability to communicate in more than one language in order to meet his daily communication needs.

Plurilingualism does not describe fixed competences. Individuals develop competences in a number of languages from desire or necessity, in order to meet the need to communicate with others. Plurilingualism is constructed as individuals pursue their lives, it is a reflection of their social paths, whilst bilingualism appears to be only a particular case of competence in multiple languages.

Plurilingual competence: handling imbalance

The plurilingual individual employs a range of strategies to handle imbalance between him and his interlocutor, and to negotiate the meaning and form of their exchange in different languages. This language effort induced by the imbalance, and the systematic handling of this imbalance by the plurilingual individual, potentially favour the activation of a “moment of acquisition”.

Plurilingual competence: principles for a description

Most plurilingual individuals use their languages for specific and differentiated communication needs. It is infrequent, and seldom necessary, for a person to develop equivalent competences for each language in her/his repertoire. Plurilingual individuals therefore develop different competences in each language, and these competences are neither necessarily equal nor totally similar to those of monolinguals. They fulfil a range of different functions, depending on what is necessary to meet specific and different communication needs.

Learning a new language does not imply starting all over again, like a small child learning to speak; it implies a reorganisation of linguistic and language knowledge, with fresh linguistic tools.

 The competences of a plurilingual individual are necessarily complementary, as they do not quite overlap from one language to another  and the use of one component of the repertoire or another (or their alternate use) is a matter of strategic development of communicative competence

PLURICULTURAL COMPETENCE: DESCRIPTIVE PRINCIPLES

The concept of pluricultural competence

The concept of "pluricultural competence" is a neologism. It derives from the concept of plurilingualism, which itself derives from the concept of bilingualism.

Pluriculturalism is to be distinguished from "multiculturalism", which is the subject in North America of a debate on linguistic and identity aspects concerning ethnic minorities .

The specific nature of the concept of pluricultural competence involves a high degree of familiarity with otherness, which implies an ability to make choices, to manage risk optionally and to employ diversified strategies within partly compatible social and cultural backgrounds.

Plurilingual individuals generally have contact with foreign languages through school, but the education system plays only a small part in their linguistic competence. In nearly all education systems, even when they assign an important place to language learning, the juxtaposition of separate bodies of knowledge (language by language) prevails over the creation of integrated plurilingual competence. In nearly all cases, when second, third and even fourth languages are added to studies in the mother tongue, each language has its own syllabus and each, at a given moment in time, is presented and studied in accordance mainly with the same methodological options and pedagogical approaches as the others and with similar aims. For example, in many countries at the present time, whatever the language taught, the four skills (oral and written comprehension and expression) are covered and a communicative approach tends to be employed. For each language, the implicit or explicit reference for this long-term aim has been native-speaker competence for each language. In other words, despite a possible multiplicity of educational opportunities the underlying concept often remains the bilingual ideal.

This is to some extent confirmed by the school's difficulty in recognising not only manifestations of transitional systems of interlanguage and the successive adjustments in learners' grammar, but also mixed systems, forms of code switching and occurrences of bilingual speech.

In the contemporary world, the school's task is to give learners an active, thoughtful knowledge of several foreign languages and cultures in order to prepare them to live and work in a world increasingly marked by international movement and careers, and by contacts between languages and cultures;

In the slow transportation that the school is undergoing, its function will increasingly be, for languages and cultures as in other fields, to equip young people with the means to exploit the learning resources which are proliferating, and to develop in them an ability to manage these resources, to adapt to other environments, and to learn how to learn, with a view particularly to self-education.

But if the intention really is to give strong encouragement to linguistic and cultural pluralism at European level and to ensure that every individual is trained to live in an international plurilingual and pluricultural environment, these aims will have to be taken fully into account in the school project.

Everything suggests that the professional and personal futures of individual pupils will depend more on the degree of openness of their range of competences than on any particular initial specialisation. However, preparation for autonomous, responsible choices cannot be made without learning about plurality.

If, in the relationship with plurality, the school directly or indirectly promotes attitudes of tolerance, of curiosity about things new and different, of intercultural perception and of identity awareness and affirmation in a world where levels and degrees of belonging display multiple and complex aspects, it will play a full role in civic and ethical education which today, in widely differing contexts (not unaccompanied by renewed debate) is at the centre of much reflection about schools.

The digitalisation of information, the multiplicity of channels, the growing, and ultimately less and less expensive, possibilities of interactivity will produce in-depth changes in the conditions of contact with other languages and cultures

Accordingly, the school language curriculum (not to be confused with the sum total of individual language syllabuses) can usefully be conceived in terms both of differentiation and circulation: differentiation of goals, content and learning approaches according to language; circulation (transferability and transversality) of language knowledge, and skills between the different languages.

The ultimate goal is that, on leaving the initial school system, the learner should possess a plurilingual and pluricultural competence which is deliberately heterogeneous, although unified, in one repertoire, but that he should also have been able to work using varied materials, have tested various learning routes and have accordingly complexified his own perceptions of languages, cultures and learning pathways.

History, geography and the natural and human sciences, conveniently and wrongly called "non-linguistic subjects", cannot be excluded from a project to develop plurilingual and pluricultural competence.

Through the knowledge they supply, but equally through the documents with which they work, the concepts they bring into play and the tools of observation and analysis which they employ, they make a significant contribution to the creation of knowledge, convictions and attitudes which play and will play a role in the approach to and perception of other cultures and in the importance attached to a particular language. History and geography come to mind first here but it would be wrong to think that other school subjects (including the exact sciences) are culturally and linguistically neutral. More generally, as soon as emphasis on the construction of plurilingual and pluricultural competence becomes part of a school project, this aim can result in revaluation and in different forms of action at the level of each establishment and each school community (parents included). Getting the most out of the linguistic and cultural resources of the school and its  and the treatment of plurilingualism and cultural plurality as an altogether ordinary and desirable phenomenon are also a collective responsibility.

Teaching and learning objectives may be understood:

a. In terms of the development of the individual learner's general competences, and thus be a matter of declarative knowledge (savoir), skills and know-how (savoir-faire), personality traits, attitudes, etc (savoir-être) or ability to learn

.

b. In terms of the extension and diversification of communicative language competence, and are then concerned with the linguistic component, or the pragmatic component or the sociolinguistic component, or all of these. The main aim of learning a foreign language may be mastery of the linguistic component of a language (knowledge of its vocabulary and syntax) without any concern for sociolinguistic finesse or pragmatic effectiveness. In other instances, the objective may be primarily of a pragmatic nature and seek to develop a capacity to act in the foreign language with the limited linguistic resources available and without any particular concern for the sociolinguistic aspect. The options are, of course, never so exclusive as this and harmonious progress in the different components is generally aimed at,

c. In terms of better performance in one or more specific language activities, and are then a matter of reception, production, interaction or mediation. In the defining of objectives it is possible to attach significantly greater importance to one aspect above others and this major focus, if it is consistent, will affect the entire process: choice of content and learning tasks, deciding on and structuring progression and possible remedial action, selection of type of text, etc.

d. In terms of optimal functional performance in a given domain, and thus concern the public domain, the occupational domain, the educational domain or the personal domain. The main aim of learning a foreign language may be to do a job better or to help with studies or to facilitate everyday life in a foreign country. 

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