cohesion - European Centre for Modern Languages

These include the specific contribution of education to personal development, culture
and values, socialisation, identity building, knowing and acknowledging different
linguistic and cultural traditions, the role of literature and creative language use,
autonomous learning and thinking, and, of course, cognitive development based on
language learning. We are very conscious of the need to address the social and cultural
disadvantages of certain groups of learners, and ways to overcome them in the long
run. Social inclusion along with active intercultural citizenship provides us with
fundamental guiding principles for this process.
Our work must also of course take account of trends in education relating to
globalisation, the knowledge society and lifelong learning, and the responses at
European level, including actions undertaken by the European Union and the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Towards an overarching instrument for the languages of education
We are attempting to integrate the main issues into a new overarching reference
instrument in order to mainstream plurilingual education and education for
plurilingualism within education. This means bringing all the languages in school and
the languages of school into a coherent relationship within a vision based on a holistic
concept of languages of education.
A reference instrument of this kind is concerned with the development of the full
plurilingual potential of the learner by including ALL the languages of education:
1. main language(s) of schooling (national, regional/minority languages)
- language as a subject (LS)
- language for teaching other subjects (LAC)
2. regional/minority + migrant languages (+ varieties)
3. modern foreign languages.
Such an instrument would also take account of other languages or varieties present in
the school environment as part of pupils’ repertoires even if they are not formally
included in the curriculum.
We are working towards a reference framework based on common European values
and principles that facilitates a common understanding of key values, attitudes,
abilities, competences, knowledge and skills. It would include perspectives on policy
making at different levels, and domains such as curriculum development, the school
environment, learning, teaching and teacher education, evaluation/assessment. It would
provide a common terminology that will allow us to communicate about the issues and
share our responses within our countries and in the wider European context.
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