Towards a plurilingual language curriculum: fostering pluricultural communication in the digital age

Bordeaux – IALIC – 24th international conference

 

This international conference is part of a multidisciplinary approach to languages and cultures in applied linguistics (didactique des langues), drawing in particular on language sciences, sociolinguistics, education sciences, political sciences and info-com.

This conference invites participants to (re)think languages and intercultural communication as a combined curriculum contribution through a plurilingual and pluricultural perspective, recognising all intercultural practices as a principle of critical social justice approaches to communication (Zarate et al. 2008/2011; Alao et al. 2013; Cenoz & Gorter, 2015; Beacco et al. 2016; Narcy-Combes et al. 2019; Auger & Le Pichon-Vorstman, 2021; Escudé & Derivry-Plard, 2022). In a changing world required to address such vital challenges as climate change, social and cultural inequalities, the digitalisation of societies and their democratic agendas, we need to envisage a radical shift in how we see language education. We define language education as both formal and informal in the way languages are or are not passed on to new generations, as forms that can generate equitable educational processes that are essential for democracy (Byram et al. 2023; Cummins, 2021; Council of Europe, 2022). We need to take into account that communication includes both online or offline practices (Blommaert, 2017, 2018) and that it is vital to better understand the multimodal natures of communication, the semiotics of language and their power relations (Kramsch, 2009, 2021). To foster such understandings, the development of multimodal learning environments, intercultural telecollaborations and virtual exchanges, which are blurring the lines between education, training and current practices, must be addressed (Potolia & Derivry-Plard, 2023). Human communication has to be reconsidered within a pluridisciplinary, decolonised framework (Mignolo and Walsh, 2018; Alvarez Valencia, 2023) that allows people to communicate through languages and cultures in order to mediate meaning-making (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013, Liddicoat & Derivry-Plard, 2023). Intercultural communication becomes vital to find collective and imaginative solutions. From there, people can better position themselves as intercultural speakers, in order to face the challenges identified in building democratic societies (Deyrich & Majhanovic, 2017; Kramsch & Zhang, 2018). Pluricultural and intercultural communication is supported by language learning and teaching, in recognition of linguistic and cultural trajectories, and legitimate participation of diverse speakers in global discussions for intercultural citizenship (Byram et al. 2016;  Majhanovich & Malet, 2015; Orsini-Jones & Lee, 2018; Derivry-Plard, 2022; Lütge et al. 2023; Malet & Derivry-Plard, 2023).

The following themes are grouped within the overarching proposition to set up plurilinguistic sustainability (Agresti, 2018, 2019) acknowledging the linguistic rights of all (Skutnabb-Kangas et al. 2009). This calls for attention to conceptual and interdisciplinary innovations, as well as to renewed mixed methodologies that allow investigation of a variety of contexts and situations (from macro to meso and micro levels).

We invite proposals for individual papers, panels (up to 4 people and a discussant) and round table (up to 4 people and a moderator) around any of the following topics.

Theme 1: Language and communication ideologies such as linguicism, glottophobia, native-speakerism and language planning and policies

Theme 2: Intercultural telecollaboration for the integration of language and content (CLIL)

Theme 3: Linking intercultural telecollaboration or virtual exchanges with study abroad and civic service

Theme 4: Integrating L1 teaching and additional languages, including local and migrant populations

Theme 5: Inter-comprehension and intercultural practices across Romance, Germanic, African and Asian languages

Theme 6: Language teacher and language speaker development in pluricultural communication

Theme 7: Renewal of assessment for languages and intercultural education

Theme 8: Critical and social justice approaches to intercultural communication and understanding

References

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Orsini-Jones, M., Lee, F. (2018). Intercultural Communicative Competence for Global Citizenship, Identifying cyberpragmatic rules of engagement in telecollaboration, London, Palgrave Macmillan.

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