Plurilingual Classrooms in Action

Scottish Council of Deans of Education –

Languages Group

Week 1
Plurilingualism and pluriliteracies. Prof Do Coyle, University of Edinburgh.
Video 1

Let’s begin by unpicking what the term plurilingualism means. How we define
plurilingualism is not only open to wide interpretation, it also has fundamental
implications for how we design language learning and using in our classrooms.

The term monolingual refers to individuals who can communicate in one language
whereas plurilingualism means several languages. Common use of the term
plurilingual usually refers to an individual using more than one language – for
example a learner who has English as their first language and is learning another or
learners who can use a second language to communicate appropriately with others.
Whilst the term plurilingual is often used to describe someone who is a competent
communicator in more than two languages to distinguish from a bilingual who does
use two languages, the way we describe speakers and learners of other languages is
changing.

What’s more, the term multilingualism is often confused with plurilingualism.

Multilingualism refers to social groups or territories where the coexistence of several
languages is officially promoted through policies and practices including the media.
So for example in Canada we have French and English. In Belgium we have Dutch,
French and German. In Luxembourg we have Luxembourgish, French and German,
in Sri Lanka Sinhala and Tamil. In other words, multilingualism describes the context
or communities of language in use. Plurilingualism, however, focuses on individuals
and the languages they communicate and use. However, what is meant by effective
language use, or linguistic competence, identity or identities and intercultural
understanding, is influenced by political, societal and economic factors. All of these
in turn impact ways we define plurilingualism and classroom learning.

So if we now turn to educational settings a complex picture emerges.

In the 1990s, the Council of Europe was anxious to promote linguistic capital across
the nations of Europe. They identified plurilingual opportunities. Whilst the starting
point might be to enable all citizens to use and learn more than one language in
formal and informal settings, a framework was developed to encourage and act as
guidance in terms of measuring language skills and competence across languages. So
the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages defines
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plurilingualism as the ability ‘to use languages for the purposes of communication
and to take part in intercultural action, where a person, viewed as a social agent, has
proficiency, of varying degrees, in several languages and experience of several
cultures.’

So you see this laid out an ambitious agenda for language learning which is especially
challenging for Anglophone nations, where media and access to languages other
than English - that is LOTE - are limited. The policy implied not only that all learners
in formal education should learn and use at least two languages other than their
first, but that those experiences should have at the core a sense of linguistic
tolerance underpinned by intercultural understanding. So that is referenced in the
Council of Europe. These policies suggest that a plurilingual citizen has varying levels
of linguistic competence in different languages, and holds values of plurilingualism
and intercultural tolerance towards all languages and varieties.
So let’s explore further what this means for us as language teachers.

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