Page 281 - Karmen Pižorn, Alja Lipavic Oštir in Janja Žmavc, ur. • Obrazi več-/raznojezičnosti. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut, 2022. Digitalna knjižnica, Dissertationes 44
P. 281
rethinking language teaching: the theory and practice of plurilingual education
ence of several cultures” (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 168). As this quotation
perhaps suggests (“pluricultural competence”, “intercultural interaction”),
there is a tendency in the CEFR to treat “pluricultural” and “intercultur-
al” as interchangeable. But in a paper written for the Council of Europe’s
project Languages in Education/Languages for Education, Michael Byram
(2009) distinguishes clearly between them. He defines pluriculturalism as a
matter of “identifying with at least some of the values, beliefs and/or prac-
tices of two or more cultures, as well as acquiring the competences which
are necessary for actively participating in those cultures” (p. 6), and inter-
culturality as “the capacity to experience and analyse cultural otherness,
and to use this experience to reflect on matters that are usually taken for
granted within one’s own culture and environment” (ibid). Both capacities
clearly come into play when pupil and student cohorts are linguistically
and culturally diverse.
According to another key document produced by the Council of Eu-
rope’s project Languages in Education/Languages for Education, “plurilin-
gual and intercultural education is not to be thought of as a new method-
ology for the teaching of languages” but rather as “a change of perspective”
(Cavalli et al., 2009, p. 7). This is surely mistaken: the concept of pluri-
lingualism interwoven with pluriculturalism and interculturality implies
a revolution in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Over the past two
decades the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and the European Centre
for Modern Languages in Graz have produced a substantial body of docu-
ments and resources designed to support this revolution. To date, however,
the approach has not been widely adopted, there are few well-documented
examples of successful practice, and the more general implications for lan-
guage teaching and learning remain largely unexplored.
This article seeks to address these deficiencies by describing and in-
terpreting a plurilingual and intercultural approach to primary education
which to the best of our knowledge is sui generis. The approach was devel-
oped by an Irish primary school, Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní) (St Brigid’s School
for Girls), Blanchardstown, whose pupil cohort is characterized by a high
degree of linguistic and cultural diversity. Déirdre Kirwan was principal of
the school from 1987 to 2015. Our account of the school’s policy and prac-
tice is informed by a corpus of qualitative data she collected over a number
of years: teachers’ lesson plans and reports, examples of pupils’ work, vid-
eo recordings of classroom interactions, interviews with pupils and teach-
ers, and so on. It is important to emphasize at the outset that Scoil Bhríde
281
ence of several cultures” (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 168). As this quotation
perhaps suggests (“pluricultural competence”, “intercultural interaction”),
there is a tendency in the CEFR to treat “pluricultural” and “intercultur-
al” as interchangeable. But in a paper written for the Council of Europe’s
project Languages in Education/Languages for Education, Michael Byram
(2009) distinguishes clearly between them. He defines pluriculturalism as a
matter of “identifying with at least some of the values, beliefs and/or prac-
tices of two or more cultures, as well as acquiring the competences which
are necessary for actively participating in those cultures” (p. 6), and inter-
culturality as “the capacity to experience and analyse cultural otherness,
and to use this experience to reflect on matters that are usually taken for
granted within one’s own culture and environment” (ibid). Both capacities
clearly come into play when pupil and student cohorts are linguistically
and culturally diverse.
According to another key document produced by the Council of Eu-
rope’s project Languages in Education/Languages for Education, “plurilin-
gual and intercultural education is not to be thought of as a new method-
ology for the teaching of languages” but rather as “a change of perspective”
(Cavalli et al., 2009, p. 7). This is surely mistaken: the concept of pluri-
lingualism interwoven with pluriculturalism and interculturality implies
a revolution in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Over the past two
decades the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and the European Centre
for Modern Languages in Graz have produced a substantial body of docu-
ments and resources designed to support this revolution. To date, however,
the approach has not been widely adopted, there are few well-documented
examples of successful practice, and the more general implications for lan-
guage teaching and learning remain largely unexplored.
This article seeks to address these deficiencies by describing and in-
terpreting a plurilingual and intercultural approach to primary education
which to the best of our knowledge is sui generis. The approach was devel-
oped by an Irish primary school, Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní) (St Brigid’s School
for Girls), Blanchardstown, whose pupil cohort is characterized by a high
degree of linguistic and cultural diversity. Déirdre Kirwan was principal of
the school from 1987 to 2015. Our account of the school’s policy and prac-
tice is informed by a corpus of qualitative data she collected over a number
of years: teachers’ lesson plans and reports, examples of pupils’ work, vid-
eo recordings of classroom interactions, interviews with pupils and teach-
ers, and so on. It is important to emphasize at the outset that Scoil Bhríde
281
