The Notion of Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence in the Teaching of Foreign Languages in France

Yan-Zhen Chen (1) , Christine Hélot (1)

1 LILPA - Linguistique, Langues et Parole

In this article, we analyze the way the notions of plurilingual repertoire and Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence (henceforth PPC) were interpreted in three foreign language teaching curricula published after 2010 (MENE1526483A, MENE1007260A and MENE1019796A). Our analysis shows that the development of the students' PPC was not as well supported as the development of their linguistic competence in a learned language and therefore the development of students' PPC was treated as a secondary goal. Being an announced but poorly defined objective, the notion of PPC remains unknown and distant to foreign language teachers. Our analysis is illustrated by empirical data collected from a Chinese as a Foreign Language teacher in a senior high school at Strasbourg. Our data demonstrated the anxiety of the teacher when she had to speak French during her Chinese courses and her constant though unwitting use of English to facilitate her teaching. The strategy of using English was interesting and efficient, but the teacher was not aware of it enough to be able to take a step back and to analyze her pedagogical practices. With the help of this example, we would like to argue that a better understanding of the meaning and possible pedagogical outcomes of the notion of PPC would help teachers to understand the cognitive benefits of acknowledging their students' previous language competence in all its diversity and to recognize the value of adopting a more ecological approach to language teaching.

Dans cet article, nous avons analysé comment les notions de répertoire plurilingue et compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle sont interprétées dans trois programmes officiels publiés après 2010 régissant l'enseignement des langues étrangères en France (MENE1526483A, MENE1007260A et MENE1019796A). Nous constatons que la notion de compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle y a été traitée comme un objectif secondaire, ce qui est notamment manifeste dans le fait que le développement de cette compétence n'est pas autant accompagné que peut l'être le développement des compétences linguistiques. Parce qu'elle consiste en un objectif annoncé mais non étayé, la notion de compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle reste inconnue et distante pour les praticiens de terrain.

Mots clés: Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence; foreign language teaching; language education policy; French context

Domaines: Linguistique

Yan-Zhen Chen, Christine Hélot. The Notion of Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence in the Teaching of Foreign Languages in France. Language Education and Multilingualism – The Langscape Journal, 2018, Language Education and Multilingualism, 1, pp.168-187. ⟨hal-02090345⟩