Multilingual glossary of key terms in language education

Components linked to online participation and engagement: ability to take part in (online) communities, this literacy includes both creativity and agency.

Tasks, which are “only indirectly related to real-life tasks and learner needs”. They “aim to develop communicative competence”. The Common European framework of reference for languages (CEFR) also specifies that “learners engage in a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ and accept the use of the target language rather than the easier and more natural mother tongue to carry out meaning-focused tasks". (CEFR, Council of Europe, 2001: 157)

A collaborative learning technique, in which students assess their peers’ work and have their own work assessed by peers; giving other students feedback on the quality of their work, often with ideas and strategies for improvement. At the same time, evaluating peers’ work can enhance the evaluators’ own.

This term denotes learners of a similar age or persons following the same training or doing the same job (e.g. educators or teachers).

A set of tools and resources that a learner develops to facilitate his or her learning.

Different points of view and ways of regarding the same phenomena.

See Functioning of language

This term refers to all the regular patterns which may be observed in the phonology, morphology, syntax and pragmatic and sociolinguistic uses of a particular language.

Over the past years versions of the ELP have been piloted in many member states of the Council of Europe. Pilot projects have been undertaken at all educational levels.

To test a scheme, project, assessment activity etc. before introducing it more widely. (A pilot usually refers to something less extensive than pre-testing).

“The term ‘pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures’ refers to didactic approaches that use teaching/learning activities involving several (i.e. more than one) varieties of languages, e.g. by integrating both the target language and the language of schooling, or the target language and other foreign languages, minority or regional languages, instead of dealing with the target language in isolation.”

According to the authors of the Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (FREPA), pluralistic approaches are “didactic approaches which use teaching-learning activities involving several (i.e. more than one) varieties of languages or cultures” (FREPA website, Pluralistic approaches section>).

These approaches follow on from the concept of plurilingual and intercultural competence adopted by the Council of Europe and constitute a tool for the implementation of plurilingual and intercultural education (see these entries in this glossary).

In the history of language teaching, the four pluralistic approaches usually described (Awakening to languages, Integrated didactic approach, Intercomprehension between related languages, Intercultural education – ibid.) pre-existed the concept under which the authors of FREPA brought them together at the beginning of this century. Their grouping under a common umbrella has facilitated their dissemination and highlighted the synergies that can be established between them within a curriculum.

Further information

Pluralistic approaches can be seen as a proposal for structuring and giving concrete form to what is also known as the Didactics of plurilingualism. In principle, they encompass the same teaching-learning approaches (Candelier & De Pietro, forthcoming).

Each of the pluralistic approaches aims at specific goals that correspond to diverse and complementary educational needs (e.g. introducing linguistic and cultural diversity, assisting in the teaching of a given language, cf. FREPA website, Pluralistic approaches section). However, due to their common characteristic expressed by the very definition of pluralistic approaches, they often develop competences, knowledge, attitudes and skills (see the entry Competences and resources in this same glossary) of a similar nature among learners. This led to the groupings of these competences, knowledge, attitudes and skills into a single framework, FREPA.

FREPA aims to contribute to the dissemination of pluralistic approaches, whether in terms of curricula, teaching tools, teacher education or classroom implementation. Its website also offers teaching materials and information on its use.

The ability of an individual to interact in different cultural milieux. This ability may imply both knowledge of likely differences in customs and values in a range of communities and the empathy required to respect and place value on beliefs and practices other than one’s own.

The ELP is a tool to promote plurilingualism and pluriculturalism and it is designed to take account of all of the learner’s language and intercultural learning, whether it takes place inside or outside formal educational contexts.

1.1. “Plurilingual and intercultural competence is the ability to use a plural repertoire of linguistic and cultural resources to meet communication needs or interact with other people, and enrich that repertoire while doing so.

Plurilingual competence refers to the repertoire of resources which individual learners acquire in all the languages they know or have learned, and which also relate to the cultures associated with those languages (languages of schooling, regional / minority and migration languages, modern or classical languages); pluriculturality denotes the ability to participate in different cultures, inter alia by acquiring several languages.

Intercultural competence, for its part, is the ability to experience otherness and cultural diversity, to analyse that experience and to derive benefit from it. Once acquired, intercultural competence makes it easier to understand otherness, establish cognitive and affective links between past and new experiences of otherness, mediate between members of two (or more) social groups and their cultures, and question the assumptions of one’s own cultural group and environment.”

1.2 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.

KEY WORDS

Competence, Repertoire, Communication, Languages, Languages of schooling, Regional and minority languages, Migration languages, Modern and classical languages, Intercultural interaction, Otherness, Mediation

Example

One major challenge for education systems is to give learners, during their school education, language and intercultural competences which will enable them to operate effectively as citizens, acquire knowledge and develop open attitudes to otherness: this vision of the teaching of languages and cultures is referred to as plurilingual and intercultural education.

Definition

Plurilingual and intercultural education is defined in the Council of Europe’s papers as “a global language education, across all languages of the school and in all disciplinary domains, which provides a basis for an identity open to linguistic and cultural plurality and diversity, insofar as languages are the expression of different cultures and of differences within the same culture. All disciplines contribute to this language education through the contents which they carry and the ways in which they are taught. This global language education aims to develop plurilingual and intercultural competence.”

Comment

“Plurilingual and intercultural education has two aims. First, it facilitates the acquisition of linguistic and intercultural abilities: this involves adding to the linguistic and cultural resources which make up individual repertoires, using the available means efficiently. Aims differ with learners’ needs, languages and contexts.

Secondly, it promotes personal development, so that individuals can realise their full potential: this involves encouraging them to respect and accept diversity of languages and cultures in a multilingual and multicultural society, and helping to make them aware of the extent of their own competences and development potential.

[...] Effective learning of one or more languages, awareness of the value of diversity and otherness, and recognition of the utility of any (even partial) competence are necessary for anyone who, as an active member of the community, has to exercise his/her democratic citizenship in a multilingual and multicultural society.” (Guide for the development and implementation of curricula for plurilingual and intercultural education, p. 15-16)

“A global language education that bridges all of the school’s languages of instruction and all of the academic subjects, which forms the basis of an identity that is open to plurality and to linguistic and cultural diversity, in which languages are seen as the expression of different cultures and of differences that lie at the heart of a culture. All of the academic subjects contribute to this language education, through their content and the manner in which they are taught. This global language education aims to develop a plurilingual and intercultural competence.”

For this concept, we will use the definition given in Recommendation CM/Rec (2022)1 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member states:

“'Plurilingual and intercultural education' is a holistic concept that has an impact on all areas of education policy and practice. Setting out to foster the development of integrated linguistic repertoires in which languages interrelate and interact, it takes explicit account of and seeks to bring into interaction with one another:

i. the languages and cultures that learners bring with them, including sign, minority and migrant languages and cultures;

ii. the language/s of schooling, which vary in genre and terminology according to the different subjects taught and differ in significant ways from the language of informal everyday communication;

iii. regional, minority and other languages and cultures that are part of the curriculum;

iv. foreign languages (modern and classical);

v. other languages and cultures that are not present in school and not part of the official curriculum. “(Council of Europe 2022, p. 13)

Further information

Among the many functions of plurilingual and intercultural education, the same text stresses that it is “essential to education for democratic culture”, “respects and values linguistic and cultural diversity” and “supports the inclusion of disadvantaged and marginalised learners on an equal footing with other learners”.

Pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures constitute a global tool for the implementation of plurilingual and intercultural education (Candelier, 2019).

“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. 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, p. 168).

Plurilingual competence involves “the ability to call flexibly upon an interrelated, uneven, plurilinguistic repertoire” (Council of Europe 2020: 30). According to the CEFR (Council of Europe 2001), plurilingual competence may involve (among others) the ability to:

• switch from one language to another;
• express oneself in one language and understand the other;
• call upon the knowledge of a number of languages to understand a text;
• bring the whole of their linguistic equipment into play;
• play with alternative forms of expression in different languages;
• mediate across languages.

“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. 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, p. 168)

“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. 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.

The customary approach is to present learning a foreign language as an addition, in a compartmentalised way, of a competence to communicate in a foreign language to the competence to communicate in the mother tongue. The concept of plurilingual and pluricultural competence tends to:

• move away from the supposed balanced dichotomy established by the customary L1/L2 pairing by stressing plurilingualism where bilingualism is just one particular case;
• consider that a given individual does not have a collection of distinct and separate competences to communicate depending on the languages he/she knows, but rather a plurilingual and pluricultural competence encompassing the full range of the languages available to him/her;
• stress the pluricultural dimensions of this multiple competence but without necessarily suggesting links between the development of abilities concerned with relating to other cultures and the development of linguistic communicative proficiency.”

The plurilingual approach values and draws upon learners’ linguistic trajectories and funds of knowledge to boost their capacity to learn the target language and to develop their attitude of linguistic sensitivity and curiosity. The plurilingual approach allows and encourages a conscious and targeted use of multiple languages in the class.

The plurilingual approach is a way of teaching and learning that values and draws upon learners’ linguistic trajectories and funds of knowledge to boost their capacity to learn the target language and to develop their attitude of linguistic sensitivity and curiosity. The plurilingual approach allows and encourages a conscious and targeted use of multiple languages in the class.

An individual’s capacity to call upon the different resources represented by his/her knowledge and skills in different languages in order to handle as effectively as possible the communication tasks with which he/she is confronted. The levels of competence in the different languages may be unbalanced, but they complement one another to form a single competence which should be built upon and of which it is important to be fully aware.

Example

“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”.

Definition

The notion of plurilingual competence stands for the full range of an individual’s ability to express themselves in and across the different languages which form part of their linguistic repertoire. This includes phenomena of plurilingual discourse such as code-switching, and the notion of partial competences in different languages or varieties.

Comment

The term plurilingualism is in general use to refer to the entire linguistic repertoire of individuals, while multilingualism, traditionally a more widely used term in English, is used for the (mere) coexistence of more than one language in any given context (e.g. a society, a country). A similar distinction can be made between pluriculturalism, the extent to which individuals may identify with different cultural backgrounds (e.g. heritages), and multiculturalism, the coexistence of different cultures within a society. The notion of intercultural competence (see below) goes one step further than pluriculturalism, though, in that it involves the ability “to experience and analyse cultural otherness” (Language Policy Division 2009: 6).

Plurilingual education incorporates tasks and learning activities involve several varieties of languages which emphasise the relationships between languages and cultures, thus creating linguistic bridges.

“Plurilingual education: manner of teaching, not necessarily restricted to language teaching, which aims to raise awareness of each individual’s language repertoire, to emphasize its worth and to extend this repertoire by teaching lesser used or unfamiliar languages. Plurilingual education also aims to increase understanding of the social and cultural value of linguistic diversity in order to ensure linguistic goodwill and to develop intercultural competence [...].” (Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe from linguistic diversity to plurilingual education – Main version, p. 116).

“Plurilingual education: manner of teaching, not necessarily restricted to language teaching, which aims to raise awareness of each individual’s language repertoire, to emphasise its worth and to extend this repertoire by teaching lesser used or unfamiliar languages. Plurilingual education also aims to increase understanding of the social and cultural value of linguistic diversity in order to ensure linguistic goodwill and to develop intercultural competence [...].” (Language Policy Division (2007), Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe ‐ from linguistic diversity to plurilingual education. Main Version. Council of Europe. Strasbourg, p. 116) <p>"Plurilingual education literally means the use of two or more languages in curricular contexts (Freeman, 1998, 2).</p> <p>According to Hornberger (1991), one model of plurilingual education is the ‘enrichment model’. Such programmes aspire to a general encouragement of minority languages, language awareness and additive plurilingualism not only for immigrant but also for indigenous schoolchildren. In enrichment model programmes all languages that are different from the national language(s) will be seen as resources which make a contribution to pluralism in education and society. This model of plurilingual education follows the pedagogical approach of inclusion. Inclusive pedagogy matches the instructional conditions to the needs and special features of the pupils and has the aim of valuing diversity and welcoming heterogeneity in education – and therefore the full acceptance of language diversity in school as well (Couillaud/Kahn, 1989).</p> <p>Sources:</p> <p>Couillaud Xavier & Kahn Verity Saifullah (1989), “Das ‘Children’s Language Project‘’”, in Reich Hans H. (ed.), <i> Migration – Bildungspolitik – Pädagogik</i>, alfa, Essen/Landau.</p> <p>Freeman Rebecca (1998), <i>Bilingual education and social change</i>, Multilingual Matter, Clevedon [u.a.].</p> <p>Hornberger Nancy (1991), “Extending enrichment bilingual education: Revisiting typologies and redirecting policy”, in García Ofelia (ed.), <i>Bilingual education: Focusschrift in honor of Joshua&nbsp;A.&nbsp;Fishman on the occasion of his 65th birthday</i>, John Benjamins Publishers, [Comment by Franziska Plathner], pp.&nbsp;215-234, </p>

A plurilingual profile is made up of different languages and language varieties at different levels of proficiency in terms of various competences and skills. It is dynamic and changes in its composition throughout the life of an individual.

A person’s plurilingual repertoire is made up of all the interrelated language skills he or she is able to call upon and activate to communicate effectively in multilingual contexts. This notion of the repertoire takes for granted that an individual’s language knowledge and abilities are interconnected, not compartmentalised. In other words, while a person may have varying degrees of proficiency in different languages, all of the languages at his or her disposal are part of this repertoire, and they are in constant communication with each other. All these languages can serve as resources, whether the individual is attempting to communicate in a plurilingual context or working to acquire competences in a new language.

The term plurilingual wellbeing refers to the state of becoming aware, understanding and feeling at ease with the languages one uses and with how these languages allow one to relate to one’s own environment. The concept encompasses valuing the potential of the speaker’s plurilingual repertoire and how he or she uses it to interact positively and comfortably within personal and professional contexts.

The ability of an individual to interact in different languages (see Pluriculturalism).

The Council of Europe published the main version of the ‘Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe’ at the beginning of 2007.

A central principle of the document is that policies should be based on plurilingualism as a value and a competence.

The concept of plurilingualism is defined simply as the potential and/or the ability to use several languages to varying levels of proficiency and for different purposes; and more precisely (CEFR, p. 168):

“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 cultural cultures. This is not seen as the superimposition or juxtaposition of distinct competences, but rather as the existence of a complex or even composite experience the user may draw on.”

A “communicative competence to which all knowledge and experience of language contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact” (CEFR, p. 4). Plurilingualism is distinct from multilingualism. The latter refers to the simple coexistence of languages in society or at the level of institutions and individuals without any focus on interconnectedness. Plurilingualism stresses the dynamic use of multiple languages in social situations and the complex and evolving linguistic repertoire of language learners/users.

An individual’s capacity to communicate in two or more languages, a whatever level of proficiency.

Plurilingualism is a term used by Council of Europe / EU meaning individuals with the capacity to use more than one language for communication; it is different from multilingualism in that the latter refers to a situation where several languages and registers are concurrently used by different groups in a society. Plurilingualism involves a paradigm shift away from segregated languages development towards encouraging students to “develop a linguistic repertoire in which all linguistic abilities have a place”.

An individual’s capacity to call upon the different resources represented by his/her knowledge and skills in different languages in order to handle as effectively as possible the communication tasks with which he/she is confronted. The levels of competence in the different languages may be unbalanced, but they complement one another to form a single competence which should be built upon and of which it is important to be fully aware.

See Plurilingual competence

Plurilingualism is an individual’s ability to use “a communicative competence to which all knowledge and experience of language contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact”. Taking into account the type of communication required in different situations, the language user can “call flexibly upon different parts of this competence to achieve effective communication with a particular interlocutor” (Council of Europe, 2001: 4). The CEFR promotes a plurilingual approach, that is, the learning of languages on the part of the language learner which languages can be related to each other so as to build up a plurilingual repertoire.

According to the Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe (Beacco and Byram, 2007: p. 10), plurilingualism is “the potential and/or actual ability to use several languages to varying levels of proficiency and for different purposes”. A distinction is thus made between “plurilingualism as a speaker’s competence (being able to use more than one language) and multilingualism as the presence of languages in a given geographical area: there is a shift, therefore, from a perspective focusing on languages (a state may be referred to as monolingual or multilingual) to one that focuses on speakers”.

To this plurilingualism that concerns “languages” should be added the competence to use varieties within a given language, whether they be dialects, sociolects or registers – what Wandruszka (1971) calls “internal plurilingualism”. This second aspect of plurilingualism is all the more important for education, as school itself and its subjects rely on specific registers (Beacco et al., 2016: p. 83).

Plurilingualism is not limited to mastering languages or language varieties. It also includes the competence to “switch from one language to another according to the situation” (Coste, Moore and Zarate, 2009: p. 19), whether this involves “switching from one language to another in the same conversation” (cf. code-switching, ibid. ), linguistic mediation or the use of one language or variety to understand or produce in another language or variety (see certain descriptors of dimension 2 of the reference framework produced in this project), or to learn it (as in the didactics of intercomprehension).

As regards plurilingual and pluricultural competence, the definition given in the Guide for the development and implementation of curricula for plurilingual and intercultural education seems to be the most comprehensive: “Plurilingual and intercultural competence is the ability to use a plural repertoire of linguistic and cultural resources to meet communication needs or interact with other people, and enrich that repertoire while doing so. Plurilingual competence refers to the repertoire of resources which individual learners acquire in all the languages they know or have learned, and which also relate to the cultures associated with those languages (languages of schooling, regional/minority and migration languages, modern or classical languages)” (Beacco et al., 2016: p. 10). This definition is in line with those proposed by Coste, Moore & Zarate as early as 1997 (2009: p. 11), and then by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001: p. 168).

“For us, a pluriliteracies approach captures not only literacy continua with different interrelated axes, but also an emphasis on Literacy practices in sociocultural contexts, the hybridity of literacy practices afforded by new technologies, and the increasing interrelationship of semiotic systems.” (García et al. 2007: 215)

Policies specify the intent of the implementers and are intended to guide decisions that need to be made in daily practice.

A student portfolio is a document in which those who are learning or have learnt for example a language – whether at school or outside school – can record and reflect on their learning and cultural experiences. The European Language Portfolio (ELP) was developed by the Council of Europe to support the development of learner autonomy, plurilingualism and intercultural awareness and competence. Self-assessment, being a central feature of the ELP, provides the link between the ELP and the Common European framework of reference for languages (CEFR).

A language Portfolio is a document or an organised collection of documents, in which individual learners can assemble over a period of time, and display in a systematic way, a record of their qualifications, achievements and experiences in language learning, together with samples of work they have themselves produced.

The actual implementation or use of an idea or a method, as opposed to theories relating to it. In education, a stage when learners work actively on the language or an aspect of the language.

Concerns the functional use of linguistic resources; the ability to use language effectively in a contextually appropriate way.

To test a scheme, project, assessment activity etc. before introducing it more widely. Pre-testing usually refers to something more extensive, structured, and rigorous than piloting.

“This level begins between 5 and 7 years of age, is compulsory in all countries and generally lasts from four to six years.”

Principles that inform the quality assurance of a project. Principles of quality such as relevance, validity, reliability, transparency and sustainability are intended to guide the design of processes and products.

Production is one of the four modes of communication alongside reception, interaction and mediation. The expression or thought of information in oral or written language.

This term denotes the communicative context in which individuals’ communicative, linguistic, pragmatic and sociolinguistic competences are called upon to perform communicative tasks (understanding written or oral texts, participating in oral exchanges, drafting a text, etc.). Based on the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, a distinction is drawn between reception activities (oral and written comprehension) and production activities (spoken production, oral interaction, writing independently or in interaction).

See Language activities

Refer to the skills which the learner uses when expressing him- or herself externally, e.g. in writing or speaking.

Professional development is here understood as the process and outcome of a willingness and ability to transform oneself as a teacher or teacher educator, through reflection, action and collaboration with other actors in the educational community, throughout one’s career. Professional development is reflected in the ability to take charge of one’s professional path by engaging in the transformation of practices, capable, for example, of contributing to plurilingual and intercultural education.

Further information

As Lefeuvre, Garcia and Namolovan write, “Professional development takes on various meanings in the scientific literature. Definitions vary depending on the theoretical perspective to which the author adheres: developmental perspective or professionalising perspective (Uwamariya & Mukamuera, 2005)”. Here we adopt a developmental perspective which considers the dynamic processes of practices and ways of thinking (in this case, practices and ways of thinking related to languages and cultures) to be determining factors in teacher education.

The understanding of one’s own role as a teacher and a researcher of one’s own practice. Teachers develop their competencies “By formulating their own questions and by collecting and analyzing data to answer these questions, teachers grow professionally.” (Loucks-Horsley, Hewson, Love & Stiles 1998: 7, cited in Feldman, Altrichter, Posch & Somekh 2018: 302)

This describes the social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true ‘profession’ of the highest integrity and competence. It involves the development of a professional character and a code of conduct or ethical standards by which the professionals have agreed to behave. By ‘profession’ we understand an occupation that requires extensive education or specialized training and some level of reflection on the tasks involved.

The competence and skills expected of teachers in their classrooms.

What someone can do / knows in relation to the application of the subject. It represents an external perspective.

An outline of the key components of any ELP implementation project. (see Template)

According to Wikipedia, this term is used in marketing to mean the dissemination of information about a product, product line, brand, or company. For LACS (“Language associations and collaborative support”), this involves raising awareness of the value of the work of language teacher associations and of the ECML in order to enable them to benefit from it. A range of promotional activities can be employed in order to achieve this awareness, such as advertising, press releases, presentations, web sites, literature etc.