Pluralistic approach

Plurilingual education portal

Subject classification: this is an education resource.

Type classification: this resource is a course.

Initial activity

Make a list of the languages you hear around you in your daily life (at home, at work, in your neighborhood, online, etc.).
For each language, write down one positive thing that you think it contributes to children’s learning, on the one hand, and to students’ learning, on the other.
Think about how you could use these languages in your classroom to help students learn better: propose ideas and make suggestions.
Write in one sentence what you think a "pluralistic approach" would be in language teaching.

Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

characterize what pluralistic approaches are;
know and understand the foundations of plurilingual didactics and pluralistic approaches;
illustrate concretely the didactic approaches (Awakening to Languages, Integrated Language Didactics, Intercultural Approach, etc.) that are part of the pluralistic approaches.

Keywords

Pluralistic approaches - Didactics of plurilingualism - Plurilingual and intercultural competence - Language awareness - Intercomprehension - Integrated language didactics - Intercultural approach

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of language didactics
Basic understanding of plurilingualism

Introduction

In today's classrooms, students have diverse language backgrounds. Some speak one or more languages at home, others learn a foreign language at school. Given this diversity, a pedagogy that values all languages and cultures is essential. Pluralistic approaches address this need: they constitute a coherent framework within the didactics of plurilingualism. Any didactic approach that uses "teaching/learning activities involving several (i.e. more than one) varieties of languages or cultures” (Candelier et al. 2012. p. 6), is considered a pluralistic approach.

History

Although these approaches emerged in the late twentieth century, they were formalized in the Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (FREPA, 2012), which identifies four main strands: language awareness, intercomprehension between languages, integrated language didactics, and the intercultural approach. They represent pedagogical developments within the didactics of plurilingualism. Unlike traditional approaches that focus on a single language, pluralistic approaches integrate activities - particularly metalinguistic ones - that mobilize several languages and cultures simultaneously, fostering a dynamic, integrated view of plurilingual and intercultural competence (Candelier, 2017). This competence is conceived not as the sum of competencies in each language or variety, but as a single competence.

Conceptions

According to Candelier (2003, pp. 19-20), pluralistic approaches are "pedagogical approaches in which the student is led to work simultaneously on several languages, so that they can draw on knowledge or know-how acquired in one language in order to learn others" (our translation).

These approaches allow students to:

make connections between different languages;
become aware of similarities and differences between languages;
mobilize their knowledge to learn more effectively;
value their own linguistic repertoire;
develop positive attitudes towards linguistic diversity.

Therefore, they do not amount to a simple accumulation of language competencies, but rather an articulated and integrated construction.

The four pluralistic approaches identified by the FREPA are:

Language Awareness : Language Awareness aims to raise learners' awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity. It exposes students to a wide variety of languages — including those not taught at school — to foster curiosity, openness, and metalinguistic awareness. This approach also promotes recognition of heritage languages and plurilingualism as resources for learning. This approach aims to develop attitudes of openness towards other languages and cultures. From a didactic perspective, Language Awareness can involve observing and comparing multilingual corpora so that students can identify sound or graphic regularities. The teacher acts as a facilitator, valuing students' heritage languages without needing to master them. This approach helps deconstruct stereotypes and develop metalinguistic analysis skills around the languages presented. (Links to the encyclopedia and Wikiversity entry)
Intercomprehension between parent languages : This approach involves working in parallel on two or more languages from the same language family (e.g., Romance, Germanic, Slavic, etc.). Learners draw on knowledge of a language they already know to develop comprehension in another related language. The focus is mainly on receptive skills (reading and listening), but also concerns interactional skills used when speakers of different languages communicate. Didactically, the approach leverages lexical and syntactic similarities across related languages to support meaning-oriented learning. The teacher guides learners to identify transparent clues that link the languages and to formulate reading hypotheses, thereby turning knowledge of a source language into a cognitive gateway for accessing several closely related target languages simultaneously (e.g., across the Romance languages). (Links to the encyclopedia and Wikiversity entry).
Integrated language teaching : This approach seeks to build links between the languages learned at school and those learners already know. It is grounded in transferring knowledge and strategies from one language to another to strengthen the entire linguistic repertoire. It values interactions among languages and the deliberate reuse of previously acquired linguistic knowledge. Practically, it involves creating situations that decompartmentalize learning by establishing explicit bridges between the language of schooling and foreign languages (e.g., developing shared grammatical terminology). It also leads teachers to coordinate their practices with colleagues teaching other languages, helping students transfer learning strategies across contexts and thereby optimizing cognitive skills and ensuring coherence in their learning trajectories. (Links to the encyclopedia and Wikiversity entry)
The intercultural approach : It emphasizes developing the competence to understand, interpret and interact with people from different cultures. It encourages reflection on situations of cultural contact and on the representations we hold of ourselves and others. Culture is conceived as dynamic, open and constantly evolving, and the approach promotes mutual understanding and dialogue. From a didactic perspective, it goes beyond teaching “civilizational facts” to include activities that foster decentering and critical analysis of cultural misunderstandings. The teacher guides learners to make their own value system explicit and to relativize their points of view, in order to facilitate communication in contexts of otherness. (Links to the encyclopedia and Wikiversity entry)

Take-home messages

Pluralistic approaches value all languages, not only those taught at school.
They support the development of plurilingual and intercultural competence, essential in today's societies.
They enable students to transfer competencies between languages.
They strengthen the self-esteem of allophone learners by legitimizing their languages and cultures.
They offer an inclusive, innovative pedagogy.

Self-assessment

Resources to go further

The FREPA website: https://carap.ecml.at/en/
Education and Linguistic and Cultural Diversity Network (EDiLiC): https://www.edilic.org/
A toolkit for implementing integrated didactics in language education: https://www.ecml.at/en/ECML-Programme/Programme-2024-2027/Integrated-didactics#team

Bibliography

Candelier, M. (2003). Janua Linguarum – la porte des langues – L’introduction de l’éveil aux langues dans le curriculum. Strasbourg : Centre Européen pour les langues vivantes/Conseil de l’Europe.

Candelier, M. (2017). Le CECR, le CARAP et quelques autres–Repères sur la diffusion du «message plurilingue». Plurilinguisme, 59-72.

Candelier, M., Camilleri-Grima, A., Castellotti, V. de Pietro, J.-F., Lörincz, I., Meißner, F.-J., Noguerol, A., Schröder-Sura, A., & Molinié, M. (2012). FREPA. A Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures. Competences and resources. Conseil de l’Europe. https://carap.ecml.at/en/

Candelier, M. & Schröder-Sura, A. (2015). Les approches plurielles et le CARAP : origines, évolutions, perspectives. Dans J.-F. de Pietro & B. Gerber, (dirs.), Les approches plurielles des langues et des cultures, Babylonia 2/2015 (pp. 12-19).

Candelier, M. & Manno, G. (dirs.) (2023). La didactique intégrée des langues - Apprendre une langue avec d’autres langues ? Association ADEB. http://www.adeb-asso.org/portfolio_category/livres/

Candelier, M. & De Pietro, J.-F. (2025). Didactics of plurilingualism – A European view. In: C. Fäcke, X. Gao & P. Garrett-Rucks (Eds.), The Handbook of Plurilingual and Intercultural Language Learning. Wiley Blackwell.

Cognigni, E. (2020). Il plurilinguismo come risorsa – Prospettive teoriche, politiche educative et pratiche didattiche. ETS.

Conseil de l’Europe. (2021). Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues : Apprendre, enseigner, évaluer. Volume complémentaire. Conseil de l’Europe. https://rm.coe.int/cadre-europeen-commun-de-reference-pour-les-langues-apprendre-enseigne/1680a4e270

Conseil de l’Europe. (2001). Un cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues : Apprendre, enseigner, évaluer. Didier ; Conseil de l’Europe. https://rm.coe.int/16802fc3a8

	A. Focusing on intensive learning of only one foreign language at a time.
	B. Implementing activities that involve several linguistic and cultural varieties simultaneously.
	C. Replacing the first language/mother tongue with the language of schooling.
	D. Being intended only for students who do not speak the language of schooling.

	A. The Ministry of National Education.
	B. The OECD.
	C. The FREPA (2012).
	D. The CEFR (2001).

	A. It concerns only languages of the same family (e.g., Romance, Germanic).
	B. It requires the teacher to be fluent in all the languages presented.
	C. It exposes students to a wide variety of languages, including those not taught at school.
	. It focuses only on French grammar.

	A. Only productive skills (speaking and writing fluently).
	B. Only receptive skills (written and oral comprehension).
	C. Receptive and interaction skills.
	D. Memorization of vocabulary lists.

	A. Learning two languages separately without ever mixing them.
	B. Decompartmentalizing learning by creating bridges between the language of schooling and foreign languages.
	C. Teaching a subject (such as maths) in a foreign language.
	D. Systematically correcting errors related to the first language/mother tongue.

Point added for a correct answer:
Points for an incorrect answer:
Ignore the questions' coefficients:

	A. It mainly involves memorizing capitals, flags and traditional festivals.
	B. It asks students to abandon their own culture to adopt that of others.
	C. It proposes decentring and critical analysis activities to make one’s own value system explicit.
	D. It avoids controversial topics and focuses only on the positive aspects of a culture.