Introduction
The EFL
curriculum and the other Foreign Languages curriculum in Cyprus align with the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) of the Council of
Europe. Central to the CEFR is the
promotion of Plurilingualism which is the individual’s ability “to use several languages
to varying degrees of proficiency and for different purposes”. [1] I must point out that although Plurilingualism
bears links with Multilingualism, the latter is the existence of various
languages in a society or in an individual, whereas the former is the individual’s linguistic
repertoire, in which all linguistic abilities have a place, building “a communicative
competence to which all knowledge and experience of language contributes and in
which languages interrelate and interact”.[2] Interestingly, learners can use not only their native
language but also their first foreign language to learn other languages. These
few lines comprise my Introduction to the ECML’s Plurilingual Whole School Curricula (PlurCur) workshop I attended
in May 2015.
ECML and the PlurCur
Workshop
The
ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) of the Council of Europe located in
Graz serves as a catalyst for reform in the teaching and learning of languages.
Parallel, it provides assistance to the stakeholders of its member states to
bring language education policy and practice together. In view of this, it can be seen as a meeting
point of Language teachers, theory and practice. Undoubtedly, the ECML website (http://www.ecml.at)
can keep language teachers and other stakeholders involved in the field of
Language teaching up to date with key language teaching initiatives and old and
programmes. Specifically, the Centre’s
2016-2019 programme is entitled “Languages at the heart of learning” whereas
the 2012-2015 programme is entitled “Learning through languages – Promoting Inclusive,
Plurilingual and Intercultural Education”.
The workshop I attended is part of the
2012-15 programme. The aim of the PluCur
project is to pilot and assess the concept of a plurilingual, inclusive and intercultural
whole school policy comprising majority and minority, regional, heritage and
neighbouring languages. The workshop, delivered in English and German simultaneously, was
attended by forty three participants of member states. It interestingly combined several modes of learning sessions: a presentation about the ECML
and the PlurCur project, applied examples of PlurCur in schools and Institutions, tools for applied whole
school curriculum (PIU, PluriMobil, FREPA/CARAP,CLIL and literacy), research
reports, reports about educational policies and teacher training, group work
with poster presentations. All of the above emphasize the need for promoting
Plurilingual Education due
to the increasingly culturally
and linguistically diverse society we live in.
The theme areas of the first group work that
took place at the workshop – Majority
language Instruction, Early language learning, CLIL, Minority and Migrant
languages, Raising language awareness – were formed via the information that
the participants had sent to the project organizers prior to the workshop, thus
the content became most relevant to the participants’ context. The workshop
ended with another group work session whereby participants, 2-3 persons per
group, wrote their views on WHAT to implement in their educational context and
HOW to do so. The outcome of this
collaborative activity was all the Whats and the Hows to fall into five
categories: Mentalities, Our Networks, Didactics/methods, Teacher Education,
Political level.
Teaching approaches and generally ways which promote
Plurilingualism emphasized at the workshop are CLIL (Content Language
Integrated Learning) which is widely used in Europe, Raising language
awareness, sensitizing learners on the similarities among languages especially
ones of the same language family, Interdisciplinary approaches,
Intercomprehension, Code-switching, Bilingual programs, the European Language
Portfolio (ELP) , all of which gave participants ideas for enhancing and
further developing students’ plurilingual competence.
Useful tools and resources
Certain tools or resources were highlighted in the
workshop and are considered as must-read documents. One of them is FREPA/CARAP (Framework of
Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures), an essential
and valuable tool especially the descriptors’ section. What is more, on the
webpage of this framework, there are ample teaching resources for Pluralistic
approaches: Awakening to Language, Intercultural, Integrated Didactics and Intercomprehension
at http://carap.ecml.at/CARAPTeachingmaterials/DB/tabid/2700/language/en-US/Default.aspx.
The Multilingualism Curriculum is another must
read document that outlines excellent aims and objectives and illustrates
practical examples of Implementing Multiculturalism in education at http://oesz.at/download/Attachments/CM+English.pdf.
Essentially, language teachers
can browse through resources and teaching material that promotes language
learning. A good example is the CONBAT+ project which focuses on
content based teaching that needs to be complemented with Plurilingual and
Cultural Awareness. Interestingly, it provides didactic Units in three
languages – English, French and Spanish at http://conbat.ecml.at/DidacticUnits/tabid/2670/language/en-GB/Default.aspx. Significantly, the ECML website hosts all
the above links and other language relevant material.
Concluding remarks
It has become evident that a starting point in promoting
Plurilingualism is to raise learners’ awareness of languages, their language ability
and how to develop it. For this reason, it is important that teachers and other
involved stakeholders collect data of the languages the learners know or have
some knowledge – mother tongue, foreign languages, regional languages, dialects
etc – including the degree they use it and perhaps other related information.
All group work theme areas – Early language learning, CLIL, minority and migrant
languages, majority language learning, raising language awareness– connect via
plurilingual teaching approaches. This raises
a need for teacher training on Instructional methods that promote Plurilingualism and
Interculturalism. Apparently, the availability of
the programmes and resources online via the ECML website provides ample learning
opportunities for educators. Last but
not least, what matters most is the effort the participants put in disseminating
new information and good practices, and parallel, the application of new
knowledge and skills.
[1] Council of Europe, From
linguistic diversity to plurilingual
education: Guide for the development of
language education policies in Europe’ (Strasbourg:2007) p10
[2]Klaus-Börge Boeckmann,
Eija Aalto, Andrea Abel, Tatjana Atanasoska , Terry Lamb, CEFR:Teaching,
Learning, Assessment (Strasbourg:2011), p4
