Enhancing Multilingual Learning Practices in a University Context

Résumé En

This paper examines possibilities for language teaching and learning which are consistent with the plurilingual and pluricultural perspective promoted by the Council of Europe’s tools for languages over the last two decades. Since continuity and cohesion are essential to plurilingual education today, we examine the characteristics of the integrated language teaching approach. In addition, studies in Third Language Acquisition (TLA) suggest that learning a new language will be more effective if other languages that are part of students’ repertoires are involved as well. Working with international university students who know more than two languages and are fluent in English, we studied the impact of their plurilingual repertoires and experience as learners of other languages on the process of learning French L3. We summarize the results of empirical studies we have conducted at the American University in Bulgaria over the last four years. The exploratory study found that English and other known languages often play a facilitative role in the form of compensatory plurilingual and learning strategies. However, it is necessary to take into account the complex interaction of factors, such as proximity and status of the languages in contact, representations, metalinguistic awareness, and normative pressure. The main study was based on a blended learning environment which took into account the learners’ plurilingual profiles: the experimented tasks relied on digital resources in order to facilitate the development of students’ written production in French L3. The most recent study was a bilingual telecollaborative project between learners of French from the American University in Bulgaria and learners of English from the University of Bordeaux. It aimed at fostering collaborative and reflective learning of both target languages, as well as raising students’ intercultural awareness.