Languages of Schooling and Intercultural Education Michael Byram

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3 William Wordsworth My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.

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5 Multiperspectivity – using the language/discourse of ‘other subjects’ The teacher as a mediator of scientific/ geographic/ aesthetic etc language The learner becoming an interpreter of scientific discourses –(within the limitations of schooling)

6 Foreign language - Use a (English as a) foreign language to describe “On the left there is a tree… on the right there is a school…” -draw the picture from instructions… (“information gap”)

7 Draw a picture of a tree (Neuner) Draw a picture of an abies sibirica

8 Summary Sharing connotations – being part of the same group with a shared culture Identifications with language groups Interact with people of other language identifications – ‘French’ speaking to ‘German’ / physicists talking to artists The individual as member of all the above: pluricultural identifications → learning to interact with others: intercultural competence

9 Multicultural societies Identifications with groups and networks – permanent and transient Using group/network discourse (another ‘language’ e.g. ‘French’ – another language/discourse e.g. ‘geography’ i.e. plurilingual (because pluricultural) people in multicultural societies

10 Schools Teach the language of all subjects (‘language as subject’/ geography/ biology etc) Facilitate identifications with subjects/ social groups (e.g. ‘physics’ or ‘the nation’) Develop capacity to understand other people’s languages and perspectives –Using the skills and knowledge of intercultural competence –The linguist ‘tolerates/respects’ the physicist; the French ‘tolerates/respects’ the German

11 The Platform Explains/clarifies ‘languages’ and discourses and identities Languages of schooling (among others) → Reference function Provides descriptions of languages/ discourses – for languages of schooling AND others (e.g. reference levels descriptions and/or descriptors) → Resource function