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European multilingualism, "multicompetence" and foreign language education
Abstract
This chapter first of all (Section 1) introduces the concept of “multicompetence” as it has been interpreted and elaborated by the team to illuminate language education practices in formal educational contexts. In Section 2, the chapter reviews briefly the stated goals of contemporary language education policies in the European context, pointing out some tensions between various formulations of “mulitilingualism” and “plurilingualism”, and highlighting in particular the normative and discrete conceptualisations of language competence which underlie historical educational policy. Section 3 explores the expressed attitudes of student participants towards contemporary societal multilingualism and the expansion of their personal language repertoires (i.e. their language “representations”: Gueunier 2003). In Section 4 the conceptualisations of language competence and multilingualism which prevail in contemporary second/ foreign language classrooms are briefly examined. The concluding section draws together the empirical findings on both attitudes and practices, and evaluates the relevance of multicompetence as a goal for current educational practice.
On 29 and 30 May 2014, this seminar was hosted at Lews Castle College, University of the Highlands and Islands and organised by BAAL member Dr Cassie Smith-Christmas. In total, there were 16 participants from 13 universities across the UK. A total of nine papers were delivered over the two days and an hour-long roundtable was held at the close of the seminar. Keynote speakers were Professor Rosamond Mitchell (University of Southampton) and Professor Wilson McLeod (University of Edinburgh). Professor Kenneth MacKinnon (University of Aberdeen) acted as keynote discussant.
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