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Reflecting on language-related learner competences in one’s own curriculum

This section features a concluding activity for planning language-sensitive teacher education with reference to learners’ curricula.

TASK A Take a page/excerpt from your national/regional curriculum (any subject such as mathematics, history, any language subject, etc.).

Choose a target level/age group that you have worked with. Then analyse the list of subject-related competences and topics and discuss or reflect on the language-related competences the target level learners need in order to meet the curriculum requirements for the subject chosen in the following areas:

i. reading, listening, speaking, writing

ii. language awareness

iii. intercultural competences

iv. other competences: which ones?

TASK B Make notes on the language-specific competences required for the subject you are focusing on (e.g. history).

You may want to focus on only one or a few areas or activities (e.g. reading and speaking, or plurilingual and intercultural competences). You can add these competences to a printed version Figure 2, which has been slightly adapted from Figure 1 to describe subject-specific and language-related learner competences.

Figure 2 – Learners’ language-related competences for a specific subject


TASK C If possible, share your insights with one or more colleagues who have made similar notes for a different subject (e.g. mathematics). Then discuss to what extent the competences you have identified are subject-specific or subject-independent.

TASK D Suggest ideas for teacher education tasks focusing on:

  • how the competences that learners need to develop could be highlighted, and
  • raising student teachers' awareness of the language-related competences they need to develop in order to enable their future learners to acquire the necessary level of competence.

Building block 4 contains more tasks and activities in teacher education, while (student) teachers’ language-related competences are treated in Building block 6.