The presentation aims to highlight the potential of Pluralistic approaches in developing teacher competences so as to leverage students' linguistic repertoires as a resource for learning and teaching foreign languages.
The research is grounded upon the theoretical framework developed within the ongoing project "Developing teacher competences for pluralistic approaches" by the ECML, and draws inspiration from an online training experience for in-service teachers in Italian lower-secondary school, organised by the University of Macerata in 2022 within the framework of the National Plan for Teacher Training. Addressed to a large group of foreign language teachers - mainly of English or of a Romance language (French and Spanish), the course had the main scope to develop the trainees' didactic and pedagogical repertoires in the field of Pluralistic Approaches by critically analysing one's own teaching practices in multilingual classes.
The research corpus includes about 70 reflective tools collected during the training course, through which teachers were invited to evaluate the impact of Pluralistic approaches on their teaching environments. From the analysis of the reflective tools and the experience of the online workshops, it emerged that Pluralistic approaches are sometimes adopted in an intuitive but not systematic way. The use of the Integrated Didactic Approach, for example, is particularly widespread. Through the reflection triggered by the use of the reflective tools and other self-evaluation strategies, the teachers have focused on the need for a theoretical and conceptual framework that could allow them to develop and systematize their empirical methodology to enhance students' plurilingual competences. The training experience thus offered them the opportunity to reframe their own methodologies in a plurilingual perspective, allowing them to focus on the areas in which to experiment the Pluralistic approaches more sistematically. This was made also in synergy with teachers of other languages and disciplines so as to broaden their range of teaching practices based on plurilingualism and interdisciplinarity.
Bibliographic references
Candelier, M. (2016), Activités métalinguistiques pour une didactique intégrée des langues. In "Le français aujourd'hui", 2016/1 N° 192, pp. 107-116.
Candelier, M. et al. (2012), Un Cadre de Référence pour les Approches Plurielles des Langues et des Cultures. Compétences et ressources / A Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures. Competences and resources, Strasbourg, Editions du Conseil d'Europe.
Cognigni, E. (2020), Il plurilinguismo come risorsa: prospettive teoriche, politiche educative e pratiche didattiche, Pisa, ETS.
ECML, Developing teacher competences for pluralistic approaches: https://www.ecml.at/ECML-Programme/Programme2020-2023/Developingteachercompetencesforpluralisticapproaches/tabid/4300/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
