Enrica Piccardo is a Professor of Applied Linguistics and Language Education at OISE – University of Toronto and the Head of the Centre for Educational research in Languages and Literacies. She has extensive international experience in second/foreign language education research, teacher development and teaching of multiple languages. A collaborator with the Council of Europe (CoE) since 2008 and co-author of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) Companion Volume (2018), she has coordinated various international research projects both in Canada and in Europe. Her research includes language teaching approaches and curricula, multi/plurilingualism, creativity and complexity in language education, and assessment. She recently published The Action-oriented Approach: For a dynamic vision of language education (2019) Bristol: Multilingual Matters, co-authored with B. North and is presently co-editing The Routledge Handbook of Plurilingual Language Education.

ABSTRACT

THE MEDIATED NATURE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND USE: FROM LANGUAGING TO PLURILANGUAGING

The notion of mediation, crucial for casting light on phenomena implying bridging gaps, connecting different worldviews across time and space, enabling contact between the social and the individual is central to all aspects of knowledge (co)construction. Acting as an intermediary across linguistic and cultural barriers or facilitating pluricultural space in which creativity can flourish, concepts can be developed and issues can be more easily addressed require mediation. While mediation may take place within one language variety it often implies plurilingual action, i.e. flexible deployment of one’s plurilingual /pluricultural repertoire to facilitate mutual understanding and/or to assist in the development of an idea, the completion of a task or the resolution of a problem.

In the last two decades a new dynamic and plurilingual attitude towards languages and their use has emerged. In this presentation, I will explore the nature of such an attitude, its implications, and its potential when it comes to the role that languages and language learning can play in the construction of learners’ plurilingual profiles and eventually in the protection of our societies’ cultural biodiversity.

By analyzing the way in which plurilingualism is inextricably linked to mediation, the talk will present the potential of plurilingualism for fostering a complex view of language development and infusing a transformative perspective in language education. Building on the new CEFR descriptors, the talk will introduce the notion of plurilanguaging as a lens to investigate the nature, action and theory of plurilingualism.