Plurilingualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Plurilingualism - Essay Example As per the council records, German Language is the most widely spoken mother tongue while English, French, and Italian follow in this order. English is the most spoken foreign language with French and German following it. About 56% of european union citizens can hold a conversation in one language apart from their mother tongue. (Eurobarometer 243) Since the setting up of EU, there has been more close relationships between member countries in all the spheres such a economic, trade, education etc. The different cultures and languages in different countries is causing problems in day-to-day routine functioning as people are unable to freely disuss issues. This has necessitated the need for people who are able to understand more than one language. Plurilingualism, therefore can also be defined as the wide range of attempts to stabilize multilingual societies by fostering high levels of individual plurilingual competence. This approach places focus on Language teaching and learning, This also encompasses all categories of linguistic rights, legislation, policies, that affect the relationships between different communities. In this context, the Council of Europe, which closely monitors the linguistic and cultural environment in the continent, is now focusing on the language teaching and learning process. It has decided to encourage the concept of plurilingualism such that people of European union are able to freely mingle with each other. This basically is not only the need to converse in more than one language but the need to understand and appreciate cultures or ideas different from one's own. It now becomes a much broader concept dealing with the understanding of different cultures and languages. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, drawn up by Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe is a document that sets out to popularize plurilingualism. (Council of Europe, 1996) The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, or CEFR, was put together by the Council of Europe as the main part of the project "Language Learning for European Citizenship" between 1989 and 1996. It is aimed to provide a method of assessing and teaching which applies to all languages in Europe. Thus because of plurilingualism, an individual person's experience of language in its cultural contexts expands and he builds up a communicative skill to which all knowledge and experience of language contributes. Thus a person can easily achieve effective communication with different people understanding different languages. This language policy fosters the capacity to coexist. The pluricultural education enables th e citizens to accept differences between different cultures, establish constructive relations with others, solve conflicts by nonviolent means, take on responsibilities, participate in decision-making and use mechanisms to protect people's rights. Since language is the most important social and cultural mark of identity, the education for plurilingualism and pluriculturalism promotes tolerance of other's viewpoint and remove the obstacles that hinder people's active participation in an increasingly globalized world. The knowledge and use of other languages other than one's mother tongue can be our safeguard in the fight

Advice How to Learn English Verbs Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Advice How to Learn English Verbs - Assignment Example Based on self-assessment my own observations, this aim was particularly successful.   Students also demonstrated gradual and appreciable improvement in their understanding of and the proper use of various noun types.   They particularly enjoyed working together in groups for identifying and agreeing on noun types and learned from each other.   There were some setbacks with sentence structures as some students tended to have more difficulties with sentence structures than others did.   Identification of abstract nouns was also more difficult for some students than others.   Aside from these two areas, the group as a whole demonstrated marked progress throughout the session. Some students tend to have difficulties with sentence structures and double consonants more so than other students.     Ã‚  Similarly, identifying abstract nouns tend to be problematic for some students.   In other to improve these aspects of the session next time, I will ensure that those students encountering these particular problems identify these areas as a part of their personal goals.   By individualizing these problems, the students struggling with abstract nouns, double consonants and/or sentence structures can practice those areas independently while other students can move on.   Improving these areas independently can be dealt with either in class while other groups engage in other activities that do not require constant supervision or as a part of the homework assignment.   The observer/assessor provided positive feedback as contained in the application form.   However, she also noted that I missed an opportunity to capitalize on extending the spelling segment in that I could develop other areas of skills for life such as more dialogue in terms of use of standard English in different contexts.   Looking back, I can see where this approach would have been entirely appropriate during the class discussion on American and English spelling.   In my opinion, any opportunity to develop language should be embraced since some students in the class are bilingual.   I will, therefore, incorporate this approach.