Plurilingualism and intercomprehension teaching forum 2012
1. DoL Teaching Forum: Plurilingualism and
intercomprehension
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanmkr/354776635/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Maria Luisa Perez Cavana and Tita Beaven,
16 May 2012
2. Plurilingualism and
intercomprehension
Outline:
• What is it?
• 2 projects:
Magicc
Vivre en Aquitaine
• Hands on: resources
• A role for it in our programme? What next?
3. Bridging the Wikipedia Language Gap
http://www.newscientist.com.libezproxy.open.
ac.uk/article/mg21428645.600-wikipedia-
busts-the-language-barrier.html
4. Plurilingual education in Europe
Language Policy Division, Strasbourg 2006
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/PlurinlingalEducation_En.pdf
9. Overview
MAGICC
Call / Aims / Partners / WPs
The theoretical frame
Academic Competence
Plurilingual and Multicultural competence
10. MAGICC Call
LLP 2011 ‐ERASMUS, Multilateral Project
Support to the modernisation agenda for higher
education
MAGICC combines the two strategic priorities of
the LLP general Call 2011:
curriculum development
development of tools to assess and promote the
employability of graduates
11. Rationale
Competence to communicate – new qualification
goal for different cycles (BA, MA)
Essential part of the development of students’
academic expertise and employability
CC is needed in both the mother tongue L1 and
other languages
Academic and professional contexts increasingly
multilingual and multicultural
Aim: Design a transversal module containing a set
of curricular scenarios for developing students’
multilingual and multicultural communication
competence
12. Aims of the project
Integrate multilingual and multicultural academic
communication competence as graduate learning
outcomes
Promote employability of graduates
Outcomes:
A conceptual framework (WP 1 and 2)
An academic ePortfolio (WP 3)
A transversal module of scenarios for both the BA
and the MA‐cycle (WP 4)
Transparency tools for shared transnational
understanding (WP 5)
13. MAGICC partners
P1 ‐Université de Lausanne / University of Lausanne, CH
P2 ‐Jyväskylän yliopisto/ University of Jyväskylä, FI
P3 ‐The Open University, UK
P4 ‐Rijksuniversiteit Groningen / University of Groningen, NL
P5 ‐Universidade do Algarve / University of the Algarve, PT
P6 ‐Politechnika Poznanska/ Poznan University of Technology, PL
P7 ‐Fondazione AldiniValeriani, IT
P8 ‐Université de Fribourg / University of Fribourg, CH
P9 ‐Universitatea Babeş‐Bolyai/ Babeş‐Bolyai’ University, RO
P10 ‐Universität Bremen / University of Bremen, DE
P11 ‐Freie Universität Berlin / Free University of Berlin, DE
External evaluator: Assoc. Prof.Dr.Maria Stoicheva, Sofia University
"St. KlimentOhridski" (BG)
Associated partner: European Centre for Modern Languages of the
Council of Europe (ECML)
14. Defining the field of multilingual and
multicultural academic competence
Academic competence (Adamson, 1993;
Cottrell, 2003)
Receptive skills and strategies (Reading /
Listening)
Productive skills and strategies (Speaking /
writing)
Management of learning (General competences
CEFR)
15. Definition: Multi/Plurilingual
competence
Multi/Plurilingual competence means: being
competent, at different levels, in more than two
languages
Plurilingualism refers to a individual level /
Multilingualism to an institutional or social level
(CEFR)
Multilingualism is used in EU documents for both
community and individual level
Plurilingualism –CoE docs for individual level
16. CEFR definitions
Multilingualism – co-existence of different languages in a
given society
Plurilingualism “the ability to use languages for the
purposes of communication and to take part in
intercultural interaction, where a person, viewed as
social agent, 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
user may draw.” (CEFR, 2001, p.168)
17. Multilingual
approach
Abandon the search for a homogeneous level in
only one language and monolingual
approaches
Collaboration between languages - take into
account in the learning process the links
between languages
Break down artificial borders between languages
18. Defining the field of multilingual and
multicultural academic competence
Projects:
INCA
CARAP (ECML)
http://carap.ecml.at/CARAP/tabid/2332/language/en-
Lenz / Berthele (2010) Assessment in
Plurilingual and Intercultural Education , CoE
20. Mediation
(receptive/productive skills)
Mediation activities carried out by a third person
make communication possible between
persons who are unable to communicate with
each other directly
CEFR about mediating activities the language
user is not concerned to express his/her own
meaning but to act as intermediary between
interlocutors, normally speakers of different
languages
21. Polyglot Dialogue
(Interaction, Comprehension, Production)
“An interactional regime that allows for the use of
two or more different languages or distant
varieties in interpersonal interaction. Most
often participants use one of their best-
mastered languages productively and are
capable of understanding the languages used
by their interlocutors.” (Lenz/Berthele, 2010)
22. Intercomprehension
“Using available knowledge of all kinds of
previous language learning in order to
understand texts in genetically related
languages” (Lenz / Berthele 2010, p.6)
Is intended to facilitate learners’ access to
written texts in languages they have not
expressly learned but which are related to
languages present in their plurilingual
repertoires.
23. Intercultural (Communication)
competence
Intercultural communication – as situated
communication between individuals or groups
of different linguist and cultural origins
(LANQUA, subgroup on IC)
“Ability to use (and thereby enlarge) their
pluricultural and intercultural repertoire in
interaction with otherness”
27. Miroirs: Intercultural competence
The original aim…
Texts in L1 and L2: reflection, mediation.
But also exploring ways in which “strategies used
in the reading and decoding of […] texts in the
readers’ own native languages can facilitate the
processing of similar texts in a foreign
language”
(Carter-Thomas 2009, reviewing
Lundquist: navigating in Foreign Language Texts, 2008)
32. Intercomprehension
Intercomprehesion: “A form of communication
in which each person uses his or her own
language and understands that of the other.”
Peter Doyé, Intercomprehension, 2005
33. Intercomprehension
Intercomprehension is defined as the process of developing the
ability to coconstruct meaning in the context of the encounter
of different languages, and to make pragmatic use of this in a
concrete communicative situation (Capucho, 2004), thus
involving the transfer of strategies and knowledge from
known to unknown languages. This process is supported by
awareness of cultural features.
Activating and training intercomprehension strategies comprises
three levels: (1) the human ability to communicate meanings, (2)
language learning (in a conscious or unconscious manner) as a
process of strategies acquisition, and (3) the ongoing
development of intercomprehension abilities and strategies
(both in interpreting and producing discourse).
Alves and Mendes (2006)
39. Hands on! 4 groups
20 mins to familiarise yourselves with a resource
and to think if it has a role in our programme –
why, why not, how?
3 mins presentation to the group
Plenary discussion and next steps
40. Hands on! Group 1
FREPA (CARAP) A Framework of Reference
for Pluralistic Approaches to languages and
cultures
Quickly familiarise yourself with the project
background:
http://carap.ecml.at/CARAP/tabid/2332/langua
ge/en-GB/Default.aspx
Spend some time looking at the descriptors
(knowledge, attitudes, skills):
http://carap.ecml.at/Descriptorsofresources/O
verview/tabid/2829/language/en-
GB/Default.aspx
A role for this in our context?
41. Hands on! Group 2
EU & I
Welcome to the intercomprehension hotel!
Quickly familiarise yourself with the project
background:
http://eu-intercomprehension.eu/
Spend some time exploring the hotel and trying
out one of the activities:
http://www.eu-
intercomprehension.eu/activities.html
A role for this in our context?
42. Hands on! Group 3
Babel Web
Quickly familiarise yourself with the website and
spend some time looking at the activities:
http://www.babel-web.eu/
A role for this in our context?
43. Hands on! Group 4
Try out Manypedia, a tool that enables you to
compare Linguistic Points Of View (LPOV) of
Wikipedia different languages:
http://manypedia.com/
Try out different terms and different language
combinations. You could try any of the following
in several language combinations. Democracy,
entente cordiale, indignados, Greek government
debt crisis.
Can you think of pedagogic uses of this tool?
A role for this in our context?
44. Hands on! Group 5
EuRom5
Quickly familiarise yourself with the project aims:
http://www.eurom5.com/
Look at one of the texts in a language you don’t
speak, e.g.:
http://www.eurom5.com/pg/it/lezioni-it/pt-01
A role for this in our context?
Context: Modernisation agenda of the EHEA CC can not be approach anymore from a monolingual perspective Education and policy contexts EHEA: New qualification goals for the the new qualification goals for higher education as defined in the modernisation agenda of the EHEA (European Higher Education Area): the development of multilingual and multicultural competence for effective communication in the academic and professional domain for different cycles (BA and MA) Bologna process: modernisation agenda of the EHEA new qualification goals for the 3 cycles]one of them: "can communicate .. First cycle (BA): information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non]specialist audiences European Qualification Framework (EQF) emphasize the role of languages Second cycle (MA) : their conclusions, and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these, to specialist and non]specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously " (A Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area: 2005, pp. 66]68) Implementation of Bologna process This competence is not taken properly into account
To explore the emerging, still under‐conceptualised domain of multilingual and multicultural learning aiming at using and expanding the multilingual repertory of students To address issues related to communication in multilingual und multicultural settings as opposed to monolingual regimes. Diversity versus lingua franca (English) –English part of a wider plurilingual and pluricultural profile.
MAGICC consortium: 11 partner organisations(now 10) from 8 European countries, 25 people Project partners are members of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Assessment and Multilingual Competence of the European Language Council /ConseilEuropéenpour les Langues(ELC/CEL) Concept of project elaborated together by members of the SIG
Transferable academic skills / employability skills / critical thinking skills Adamson, H.D., 1993. Academic Competence. Theory and Classroom practice: preparing ESL students for content courses. London: Longman Cottrell, S. 2003 Multilingual framework is missing
Multilingualism - diversifying the languages offered in an educational institution Plurilingalism- It includes all languages, also the mother tongue Languages are not separated from each other but are in a complex interrelationship –plurilingual repertory –which represents a resource in order to be able to act in diverse use situations (no monolingual approach) It is always used and constructed by and within social interaction It is composed of a dynamic and complex ensemble Example of Multilingualism: diversifying the languages offered in an educational institution
interactive student-centred approaches To break down artificial borders between languages that are deeply imprinted in the heads of many language users, teachers and assessors and to encourage to use the plurilingual repertoire most people have construction of plurilingual profiles of the individual learner/ intercomprehension approaches /CLIL / bi-trilingual scenarios) 2. integrated didactics/ELP/formal and informal learning/ new multilingual models of assessment
INCA (Based on Byram’s 2007) Lenz, P Plurilingual competence
Lenz, P Plurilingual competence
Examples
Examples
Intercultural competence has to do with the integration of ‘otherness’ in one’s thinking and actions. It is different from a concept of pluricultural competence highlights the plurality of cultures one may identify and is familiar with. Developing I comp. means building an intercultural identity – not linked to knowledge of other languages but this widens the horizon – IC starts acknowledging and paying attention to the unfamiliar. Competences and attitudes for critical awareness and reflection (Lenz/Berthele 2010, p.6-7)