The Aquitaine Europe project :

fostering mobility and intercultural

dialogue

Tita Beaven
Department of Languages
The Open University, UK

Alix Creuzé,
Institut Français,
Madrid

Eurocall 2010, Bordeaux

Itinéraires: language and culture for
independent learning
Context and aims stated clearly
Context
 Miroirs: Intercultural competence
Texts in L1 and L2: reflection, mediation.

But also exploring ways in which “strategies used

in the reading and decoding of […] texts in the
readers’ own native languages can facilitate the
processing of similar texts in a foreign language

(Carter-Thomas 2009, reviewing

Lundquist: navigating in Foreign Language Texts, 2008)
 Users?
Flexibility in the design, and flexibility in the use of the
materials: monolingual, multilingual and plurilingual
students and teachers.
• Monolingual classes
• Multilingual classes
• Plurilingual classes
- Independent learners
 Plurilingualism
…”The Council of Europe and the European Commission promote
plurilingualism and intercomprehension as central to European
citizenship (Beacco & Byram, 2003; Council of Europe,
2001;European Commission, 1995). The concept of
plurilingualism reaches beyond its primary and immediate aim
of allowing for communication in multilingual environments: it
comprehends the acknowledgement and positive
appreciation of linguistic and cultural diversity. Plurilingual
and pluricultural competences are defined by the Common
European Framework of Reference as complex and composite
competences, which allow individuals to participate as social
agents in intercultural communicative interactions (Council
of Europe, 2001: 168).”
Alves and Mendes (2006)
 Plurilingualism and
intercomprehension
Intercomprehesion: “A form of communication
in which each person uses his or her own
language and understands that of the other.”
Peter Doyé, Intercomprehension, 2005
 Intercomprehension
Intercomprehension is defined as the process of developing the ability
to coconstruct meaning in the context of the encounter of
different languages, and to make pragmatic use of this in a
concrete communicative situation (Capucho, 2004), thus involving
the transfer of strategies and knowledge from known to
unknown languages. This process is supported by awareness of
cultural features.
Activating and training intercomprehension strategies comprises three
levels: (1) the human ability to communicate meanings, (2)
language learning (in a conscious or unconscious manner) as a
process of strategies acquisition, and (3) the ongoing development
of intercomprehension abilities and strategies (both in interpreting
and producing discourse).
Alves and Mendes (2006)
Language learners as social agents
Language users can, therefore, be defined as social
intermediaries or social agents (Zarate, 2002: 218219), with
the capacity to overcome barriers and construct bridges
and boundaries in plurilingual and pluricultural contexts.
Social intermediaries/agents, capable of constructing successful
socio-communicative interactions based on
intercomprehension, value the importance of otherness,
manage knowledge, and are prepared to co-construct and
define complex identities. Refusing monolingualism, they
resist linguistic and cultural ethnocentrism and homogeneity.
Alves and Mendes (2006)
 Learners and teachers
Learners have “considerable funds of useable knowledge
which can be exploited”.
So teachers should make learners aware of this
knowledge and enable them to use it by developing
appropriate strategies.
Peter Doyé, Intercomprehension, 2005
 Research
Research project 1: Autumn 2010: “4 teachers, 4 classes” UK/SP/IT/DE
Research project 2: Winter 2010: monolingual/plurilingual UK students

Research project 3: Narratives of living abroad: Brits in Aquitaine

Gracias, Merci, Thanks!

m.c.beaven@open.ac.uk