Council of Europe

This text locates plurilingual and intercultural education within a rationale concerning the right to education. This involves a change of perspective insofar as schooling is here conceived as having in particular to allow all those engaged in it to exercise the rights to education they possess. Language education, defined here as plurilingual and intercultural, thus becomes that element of the process of education which puts languages in the service of a quality education and in relationship with the general aims of the school and the rights of learners.

The text first emphasises the transversal nature of language education, taking into account the linguistic repertoire of learners and the languages present in the school (language of schooling, and other languages whether taught or not) and their relationship to social uses outside school. It then addresses the relationship between the rights of learners and the different forms of language activity in the school.

The purpose of this text is basically: - to clarify the concepts of societal multilingualism and individual plurilingualism, in accordance with other texts of the Council of Europe
- to describe the characteristics of plurilingual and intercultural education
- to show that they are ordinary phenomena
- to emphasise their necessity:

• to make clear the crucial importance of competence in languages with respect to educational and therefore social success
• to reconstitute the unity of language competence which is fragmented into different school subjects
• so that, in a multipolar world, knowledge of languages is not reduced to the efficacy of linguistic communication, necessary though this is
• and so that the learning and use of languages are an experience of diversity, a locus of human communication, and thus contribute in their own way to the development of the individual and of the European citizen.

This text addresses some issues related to the feasibility of plurilingual and intercultural education at different levels (national, regional, local) and is directed specifically to deciders at each of these levels. Aspects of feasibility sketched briefly here will be taken up again and dealt with in depth by other texts later. It is however important to begin to consider the minimal conditions and the necessary stages which have to be followed in order to gradually construct a plurilingual and intercultural education.

Contemporary societies are multicultural and Europe as a whole is multicultural. It was ever thus but the complexity is increasing as a consequence of mobility and migration. It is important to clarify the impact of this societal phenomenon on individuals who are potentially or actually pluricultural as a consequence of experiencing multicultural social life. The threats to social cohesion which increased multiculturalism brings, have to be counter-acted by education for intercultural dialogue which depends on intercultural competence. Compulsory education is thus required to respond to this situation by developing learners?intercultural competence. It can do so through language education which introduces learners to other cultures external or internal to their own society. Educational systems can also give learners access to other cultures and their discourses within the curriculum, i.e. the cultures of the different subjects and the identification with the specific modes of being and perceiving which inhere in each subject and group of subjects, for example in history as a subject and in the social sciences as a whole. The school thus introduces learners to different kinds of culture, a concept that hence needs careful definition.

This study, as part of the project to produce a European document for the linguistic and educational integration of children and adolescents from migrant backgrounds, aims to shed light on the educational principles, concepts, orientations and goals behind capitalising on the plurilingual repertoires of children from migrant backgrounds at school. At the same time, it aims to provide policymakers and practitioners with practical ways of activating and developing plurality on the basis of respect for persons and needs, as part of an ethical approach geared to commitment and social cohesion.

The study focuses on ways of recognising, developing and exploiting migrant pupils’ plurilingual repertoires and provides links to resources developed in a number of countries and lan¬guages.