The Common European Framework in its political and educational context What is the Common European Framework?

8.4.3
A multidimensional and modular approach
This chapter aims to draw attention generally to the shift in focus or at least the increas-
ing complexity of curriculum design, and the implications for assessment and certifica-
tion. It is clearly important to define stages in relation to content and progression. This
may be done in terms of one primary component (linguistic or notional/functional, for
example) or in terms of promoting progress in all dimensions for a particular language.
It is equally important to distinguish clearly the components of a multidimensional curric-
ulum (taking account in particular of the different dimensions of the reference frame-
work) and to differentiate methods of evaluation, working towards modular learning and
certification arrangements. This would permit, synchronically (i.e. at a given moment in
the learning path) or diachronically (i.e. through differentiated stages along this path),
the development and recognition of plurilingual and pluricultural competences with
‘variable geometry’ (i.e. the components and structure of which vary from one individ-
ual to another and change over time for a given individual).
At certain times in the learner’s school career, following the school curriculum and the
scenarios outlined briefly above, short cross-curricular modules involving the various lan-
guages might be introduced. Such ‘translanguage’ modules could encompass the various
Linguistic diversification and the curriculum
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learning approaches and resources, ways of using the out-of-school environment, and
dealing with misunderstandings in intercultural relations. They would give greater overall
coherence and transparency to the underlying curricular choices and would improve the
general structure without upsetting the programmes devised for other subjects.
Furthermore, a modular approach to qualifications would enable a specific assessment
to be made, in an ad hoc module, of the plurilingual and pluricultural management abil-
ities referred to above.
Multidimensionality and modularity thus appear as key concepts in developing a
sound basis for linguistic diversification in the curriculum and in assessment. The refer-
ence framework is structured in a manner that allows it, through the categories it offers,
to indicate the directions for such a modular or multidimensional organisation.
However, the way forward is clearly to implement projects and experimental work in the
school environment and in a variety of contexts.
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:
•
whether the learners concerned already have some experience of linguistic and cultural
plurality, and the nature of this experience;
•
whether learners are already able, even if only at a very basic level, to function in several
linguistic and/or cultural communities, and how this competence is distributed and
differentiated according to the contexts of language use and activities;
•
what experience of linguistic and cultural diversity learners may have at the time of their
learning (for example parallel to and outside their attendance at a learning institution);
•
how this experience might be built on in the learning process;
•
what types of objectives appear best suited to learners (see section 1.2) at a particular
point in the development of a plurilingual and pluricultural competence, taking account
of their characteristics, expectations, interests, plans and needs as well as their previous
learning path and their existing resources;
•
how to encourage, for the learners concerned, the decompartmentalisation and
establishment of an effective relationship between the different components of plurilingual
and pluricultural competence in the process of being developed; in particular, how to focus
attention on and draw on the learners’ existing transferable and transversal knowledge
and skills;
•
which partial competences (of what kind and for what purposes) might enrich, complexify
and differentiate learners’ existing competences;
•
how to fit learning concerned with a particular language or culture coherently into an
overall curriculum in which the experience of several languages and several cultures is
developed:
•
what options or what forms of differentiation in curriculum scenarios exist for managing
the development of a diversified competence for particular learners; what economies of
scale can be envisaged and achieved, if appropriate;
•
what forms of organisation of learning (a modular approach, for example) are likely to
favour management of the learning path in the case of the learners in question;
•
what approach to evaluation or assessment will make it possible to take account of and
accord proper recognition to the partial competences and the diversified plurilingual and
pluricultural competence of learners.
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment
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