‘Mézclalo un poquito’: plurilingual practices in multilingual educational milieus

Abstract

We analyse data collected at multilingual schools in Catalonia, taking a plurilingual and socio-cultural Conversation Analysis approach to the interactions studied. The analytical sections of the article show how plurilingual practices are resources for students' participation in classroom activities; we argue that language learning is a process that is reflected in how students' participation is achieved and modified in classroom interaction over time, and in the ways in which they mobilise interactional resources for scaffolding their completion of cognitive and communicative activities. Our results suggest that learners set out from an initial stage in which they have little possibilities of participating in communicative activities in the target language, and progressively, through practice, and through the use of interlinguistic (e.g. recourse to resources from other named languages in their plurilingual repertoire) and intralinguistic (lexical substitution and paraphrasing) procedures, they learn to participate in interactions in unilingual mode in that language. We then argue that as plurilingualism is a reality both of social interaction and of learning processes, it should be 'didacticised'; that is, transformed into classroom teaching methodology. We introduce our understanding of the didactics of plurilingualism, an approach based on project-based learning, and discuss its operation on the macro, meso and micro levels.

Plurilingual Classroom Practices and Participation

“…As Llompart and Nussbaum (2018) suggest, the various sociocultural perspectives cited above, grouped under the umbrella 'socio-interactionist', consider that the evolution of forms in which learners participate in situated activities constitute evidence of learning (see Pekarek-Doehler and Fasel Lauzon, 2015;Borràs, this volume;Moore, this volume). As a consequence, to understand how learning occurs it is necessary to trace the evolution of learners' interactional practices, instead of exclusively looking into the modifications occurring in their repertoires (Young, 2008;Hall, Hellermann, and Pekarek-Doehler, 2011, among others).…”

“…the stages necessary to complete the task. The way participants orient themselves to develop and execute a task in an L2 is also central to the study of the relationship between plurilingual practices and the development of L2 communicative expertise (built on the participants' full repertoire), because, as Llompart and Nussbaum (2018) establish, plurilingual uses scaffold participation in L2 learning tasks and the eventual acquisition of unilingual competences . This process is characterised by different stages (Llompart et al, 2019) that move from plurilingual interaction modes, where diverse resources, i.e.…”

“…The way participants orient themselves to develop and execute a task in an L2 is also central to the study of the relationship between plurilingual practices and the development of L2 communicative expertise (built on the participants' full repertoire), because, as Llompart and Nussbaum (2018) establish, plurilingual uses scaffold participation in L2 learning tasks and the eventual acquisition of unilingual competences . This process is characterised by different stages (Llompart et al, 2019) that move from plurilingual interaction modes, where diverse resources, i.e. 'code-switching', 'code-mixing', 'fused lects' , hybrid forms, gestures, etc., are used simultaneously to manage the task or overcome communicative obstacles, to unilingual modes, where participants orient themselves towards the exclusive use of the target language.…”

De la didàctica de les llengües a la didàctica del plurilingüisme

“…En aquest article ens centrem en la competència plurilingüe (MCER i Council of Europe, 2018) encara que entenem que, igual que la llengua, la cultura és intrínseca a tots els ensenyaments i aprenentatges, fluida i, alhora, socialment compartida i singular de cada individu. Seguint autors com Lüdi i Py (2009), Nussbaum i Unamuno (2006) o Llompart et al (2019), quan parlem de competència plurilingüe, abandonem la noció clàssica de competència lingüística proposada, per exemple, per Chomsky (1965). Aquesta idea de la competència prenia com a referència el parlant nadiu ideal -és a dir, monolingüe i imaginat -d'una llengua determinada.…”

Editorial: Adopting a multilingual stance: Benefits and challenges for learners and teachers

“…These authors explore reasons for acceptance as well as tensions and challenges around implementing multilingual pedagogies. (See also Llompart et al (2020) for a discussion on how plurilingual practices are resources for students' participation in classroom activities and need to be transformed into classroom teaching methodology). Even when there are known multilingual strategies there are challenges relating to educating teachers, both pre-service and in-service, TESOL and mainstream, and providing access to, and time for professional learning (as discussed by Barnes, Shwayli and Matthews in this issue).…”