Language, languages around us Language is all around

Language, languages around us Language is all around us, in textual form, as it is displayed in the streets of our towns and cities –on street and commercial signs, on posters, shop windows, traffic signs– as it appears on pharmaceutical products, appliances, on super market shelves, on the web!

bilingual trilingual quadrilingual multilingual

multilingual

multilingual

The multimodality around us The texts that we are surrounded by are like the texts we just saw, or like this:

Language learning Language learning occurs as a person's experience of language in its cultural contexts expands from the language of the home, to that of society at large and then to the languages of other peoples As this happens, the language learner does not keep the different languages and cultures in strictly separated mental compartments, but rather builds up a communicative competence to which all knowledge and experience of language(s) contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact.

Monolingual, monoglossic Europe European states and citizens have been nourished by the ideals of monolingualism, monoglossia and monoculturalism. These ideals and a monolingual ethos of communication were cultivated during the previous two centuries, when the European nation-states needed to build their political and social cohesion around an official, standardized language (destined to dominate all other linguistic varieties and languages).

European attitudes to language(s) Europeans seem to still need to be convinced as to the benefits of multilingualism, viewed as: an essential aspect of European integration on a political, economic, scientific, and cultural level. a contribution to a deeper awareness of cultural differences, to mutual understanding, and avoidance of conflict a key to the European values of democracy, equality, transparency, and competitiveness a means to empowering people, enhancing their creativity and problem solving skills.

Euro promotion of multilingualism The need for strategic action to promote multilingualism in Europe was at the heart of a new action by the European Commission – the development of the “Civil Society Platform” at the launch meeting of which the key messages announced were: To promote multilingualism for social cohesion and intercultural dialogue To provide opportunities for migrants to learn the language of the host country and also to cultivate their own native language To take advantage of the media which have the potential to open channels for intercultural dialogue To enhance multilingualism policy to secure the rights of all European languages (official, regional, minority and migrant languages) To secure language learning opportunities for all citizens, throughout their lives

Approaches to multilingualism and pedagogies The multiple languages approach (building on arguments concerning the positive transfer among multiple languages) is connected with CLIL programmes, the European Schools model, the teaching of foreign languages at a very early age school programmes, and proficiency development following the ‘native speaker’ paradigm in as many languages as possible The language fusion approach can be associated with intercomprehension and partial skills development, with translanguaging, intercultural and interlinguistic mediation pedagogies.

Rethinking language education Language education for multilingualism is not just about learning lots of foreign languages but about: turning European schools (which remain monoglossic spaces of learning) into multilingual topoi –places where a single language or a single mode of semiosis does not dominate the curriculum but where several languages and multimodality come into play and are used as resources for meaning making. involving the languages that children bring to school with them rather than crossing them out of the school language education policy. developing new types of programmes for the languages traditionally included in the school’s foreign language curriculum with the intention of developing students’ interlinguistic and intercultural competence