ES competencia plurilingüe / CAT competència plurilingüe / FR compétence plurilingue / DE mehrsprachige Kompetenz

Plurilingual competence (or ‘plurilingualism’) is the ability to use —in different ways and forms of communication— the different languages a person knows. This is closely associated with intercultural competence, which allows a person to take part in encounters with people from other cultures, overcoming the barriers that arise from the differences between them. Plurilingual competence is different from multilingualism in that it is perforce situated in a society in which different linguistic communities coexist, while plurilingualism is an individual ability.

According to CEFR (2001, Section 1.3), as an individual broadens his or her linguistic experience, “he or she does not keep these languages and cultures in strictly separated mental compartments, but rather builds up a communicative competence to which all knowledge and experience of language contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact” (also in CFER 2018: 157). Other authors refer to plurilingual competence as a ‘multicompetence’ (Cool 2010, Cenoz, Hufeisen & Jenner 2000).

The first hypotheses for this unitary competence appear in the studies on bilingual speakers. According to Cummins (1979, 2007), the linguistic competences of a bilingual are not separated by language; rather, there is an ‘underlying common subcompetence’ shared by both languages, which is reflected in the “linguistic interdependence” between them. As a result, instruction received in one of the languages has positive effects on the other.

Similarly, according to the CEFR (2018), as plurilingual and pluricultural competences foster the development of awareness of language and communication, they can boost —to some extent— later learning in the linguistic and cultural frames. From this perspective, the aim of language teaching is the development of a linguistic repertoire, as the CEFR (2018: 18) underlines:

The fundamental point is that plurilinguals have a single, inter-related, repertoire that they combine with their general competences and various strategies in order to accomplish tasks (CEFR Section 6.1.3.2).

Plurilingual competence as explained in the CEFR (Section 1.3) involves the ability to call flexibly upon an inter-related, uneven, plurilinguistic repertoire to:

►switch from one language or dialect (or variety) to another;

►express oneself in one language (or dialect, or variety) and understand a person speaking another;

►call upon the knowledge of a number of languages (or dialects, or varieties) to make sense of a text;

►recognise words from a common international store in a new guise;

►mediate between individuals with no common language (or dialect, or variety), even with only a slight knowledge oneself;

►bring the whole of one’s linguistic equipment into play, experimenting with alternative forms of expression;

►exploit paralinguistics (mime, gesture, facial expression, etc.).

Thus, language education should focus not so much on a sum or aggregation of bits of knowledge but rather on the simultaneous development of an overarching unity of knowledge and know-how.

References

• Consejo de Europa (2018). Common European framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Companion volume with new descriptors. Estrasburgo: Council of Europe Publishing. Disponible en https://rm.coe.int/common-european-framework-of-reference-forlanguages-earning-teaching/168074a4e2
• Cook, Vivian. (2010). Multicompetence. Recuperado de: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/Writings/Papers/MCentry.htm
• Cummins, James (1979). Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research 49: 222-251.
• Cummins, Jim. (2007). Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual classrooms. Canadian Journal Of Applied Linguistics 10(2): 221-240.