Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 6; November 02

MULTILINGUALISM : its methodological aspects

by CIAVER
Centre International Audio-Visuel d'Etudes et de Recherches
45 avenue de l'Enseignement 7330 Saint-Ghislain, Belgium
E-mail : ciaver@skynet.be

Menu
Preface
Methodological Convergence
General Objective
Theoretical Principles: Cognitive Approach
Socio-constructivism
The notion of Structure and Levels of Organisation
Methodological stages: Liberation of Speech
Exercises in Bodily and Musical Rhythms
Language Experience Approach ( " language bath")
Role-play
Developing oral discourse competence
Developing written discourse competence
Differentiated Methodology and Formative Evaluation
Instead of a Conclusion

Preface

Within the perspective of multilingual education, we propose a convergent methodology of languages, social sciences and the sciences of nature.

By extending the scope of SGAV methodology ( see editorial ) to embrace a pedagogy of acquiring knowledge, we have set ourselves the aims of:

• helping individuals to construct intercultural competence
• developing the individual's general ability to pose a problem and deal with it
• inducing individuals to have at their disposal organizing principles which will enable them to link different branches of knowledge and give them meaning.

To attain these aims, we propose a methodology of convergence between teaching the mother tongue and that of foreign languages.

We propose to discuss some methodological aspects of 'multilingualism', i.e. to the learning of several languages by the same person. {Note : 'bilingualism' is a form of 'multilingualism' reduced to two languages}.

Methodological convergence

It is by applying the same methodological principles to all learning that we advocate the integration of languages within the processes of constructing knowledge. Furthermore, we consider that the learning of languages can promote the construction of strategies for acquiring knowledge. That is why we attach a great deal of importance to the teaching of the mother tongue in a methodology which aims at helping the learner to develop general cognitive strategies.

Consequently, we describe as 'convergent' all pedagogy applied in social sciences and in the sciences of nature. Believing that “language, content of all the sciences, is the science of all contents, of all texts, of all teaching and learning strategies” [BARUK ST., 1985], we have placed the problem of languages ( be they mother tongue or the national, a second or foreign language) at the centre of our work, and advocate the same methodology for learning them.

Our methodology advocates bringing children, first of all, to an appropriation of their mother tongue and then encouraging them to follow the same strategies to acquire other languages and subjects. . While the first language facilitates the learning of other languages, the learning of the latter makes for a better understanding of the mother tongue and, beyond that, enables the individual to have a better awareness of their own culture.

We intend to list those methodological options most likely to bring the learners to acquire languages as well as knowledge of the world.

To provide a better understanding of the choices we have brought into operation, it would be well, first of all, to define the objectives pursued and then to describe the strategies to attain them. It should be noted that we place ourselves in a perspective of constructing knowledge and of intercultural communication.

General objective

• construction of the behaviour, attitudes and general cognitive strategies in the mother tongue at school and in a foreign language for adult education.
• behaviour :
  • open-mindedness and tolerance (socialisation; knowledge of oneself and of others)
  • adaptation to new situations (orientation and structuring of time and space).
• capacities – strategies :
  • structuring multisensorial stimuli (imagination; creativity)
  • constructing knowledge
    • anticipating, structuring, creating new structures
    • discovering problems and seeking their solutions
    • organizing knowledge, managing time and space.
• Viewed from a methodological convergence point of view , specific strategies constructed in the second/foreign language and in the social sciences and the sciences of nature refine in their turn the general strategies developed in the mother tongue. Bearing in mind the objectives which we have set ourselves, we base our work on the choice of the following theories :-
  • the basic principles of the SGAV methodology
  • the cognitive approach
  • socio-constructivism
  • the notion of structure and of levels of organization.
• As regards the methodology of languages, we highlight the following phases :-
  • liberation of speech
    • exercises in bodily and musical rhythms
    • the language experience approach {'bain de langue'}
    • role playing.
  • constructing the oral language
    • understanding the oral language
    • producing oral language : oral discourse
    • producing written language : written discourse.

Given that our main aim is the construction of cognitive strategies, a great deal of importance is accorded to differential methodology and to formative evaluation.

Let us examine the theoretical principles in greater detail.

Theoretical principles :Cognitive approach

From the cognitive approach, we retain the following points :

• the mental activity involved is a structuring process. The individual possesses a cognitive system and its own organization. The material presented is treated in accordance with previously constructed strategies, not according to the characteristics of the material but to the cognitive strategies applicable to this material
• the self-structuring of materials by the individual is carried out thanks to mental operations.

From what precedes, we can deduce that, in language teaching, it is important to prioritize the construction and enrichment of those approaches which will enable new strategies to be developed i.e. the construction of knowledge arising from information received.

Socio-constructivism

Constructivism places the individual at the very heart of learning, since understanding is neither transmitted nor communicated; it always has to be constructed or re-constructed by the learner.

According to J. PIAGET, general biological structure enables the organism to assimilate external supports and thus makes social awareness possible. As this is not simply a matter of recording observations but of structuring them, PIAGET underlines the fact that the contents are not received just as they are : they are filtered, re-interpreted and assimilated. Each new item is integrated within schemes either already available or modified. The construction of knowledge is achieved in stages characterised by a state of disruption which results in a confrontation between knowledge already acquired and new information.

Cognitive structures are not innate, they are constructed and their constructions are developed thanks to an organization of actions on the items. While knowledge is constructed by the receiver (subject), it is through interaction with the environment that cognition is developed : “(...) the co-ordination of actions and ideas is situated first of all at social level before being interiorised individually : this explains why individual progress can be observed following on such interactions.” [VYGOTSKY, 1978]. However, social interactions provoke conflicts and oppositions which generate expressions of negation and suppression.

This fact merits being taken into consideration particularly in a language course for adults or during a teacher training session on methodology when many adults find it difficult to integrate within a group and do not readily accept new strategies. That is why it is essential to adopt approaches that are best adapted for dealing with these disruptions, namely activities which are part of the liberation of speech, in particular exercises in bodily and musical rhythms, and role playing, differential methodology and project pedagogy.

To summarize, the main ideas forming the basis of the methodology of coherence which we are advocating are :

• the construction of general cognitive structures
• social interaction characterised by a continuous interaction of conflicts, maladjustment, destructuration and structuration of knowledge
• differential approaches to cater for diverse interventions in the learning process which require taking into account the differentiation of strategies of intervention to be applied to the learning processes of individuals.

The notion of structure and levels of organization

Convergent methodology advocates strategies for organizing knowledge into its contexts : in this way, it develops aptitudes for constructing and globalizing knowledge. In order to clarify the notion of levels of organization, it is worth quoting extracts relating to the notion of structure from the SGAV method and from biology : “The themes of ensembles on the one hand, and the notion of structure on the other, led me to the idea that what makes the form of an ensemble is not its elements, and neither can the sum of the elements provide an ensemble; therefore there has to be something more, i.e. those relationships established between the elements constituting the ensemble, whatever that ensemble may be (...) I had understood that the term 'information' literally means 'arranging ideas'. Information places the form and the form is the structure, i.e. the whole of the relationships existing between the elements of an ensemble.” [LABORIT, 1996].

If we start out from the relationships between the elements of an ensemble, the functioning of the structure can be summarized as follows :

• the relationships between the elements of an ensemble allow for the construction of new structures
• the choice of elements of an ensemble is optimzed in relation to the situation of communication
• the individual can create new ensembles by combining elements into forms which become new structures.

The concept of structure leads us to the introduction of the notion of levels of organization through the exploitation of different languages and realms of knowledge. During the construction of knowledge, the individual deals with items of information gathered from different domains and at several levels. Each domain and level constitutes a 'sub-ensemble' which forms part of the organization at a higher level. And it is the whole which forms the (sub)-structure of the ensemble

• language n° 1 {native, national}
• language n° 1 + n° 2 {second, foreign}
• language n° 1 + n° 2 + different domains of knowledge {social sciences and the natural sciences}.

The sub-structure, whose aim is the acquisition of knowledge, is made possible thanks to a methodological coherence at all levels of organization {language n° 1 + n° 2 + social sciences and natural sciences}. We propose in what follows to examine the most important methodological stages, the aims of which are to develop the strategies of learning languages and sciences.

Methodological stages

Liberation of speech

We consider this stage to be the most important one in the learning process. It is achieved through the following activities :-

• exercises in bodily and musical rhythms
• the language experience approach {'language bath'}
• role play.

Exercises in bodily and musical rhythms

By being made aware of his body, his breathing and the rhythm of his heart beats, the individual learns to know himself, to accept himself before getting to know other people and the world at large. The exercises in bodily and musical rhythms have a positive impact on the social attitudes of the learner since they lead him to react in interaction with other people and so they have an essential part to play in establishing relationships with other people. Dealing principally with non-verbal communication, such exercises help the learners to acquire intercultural competence. In practising them, the learner reaps a beneficial effect as much in his general development and in the blossoming of his personality as on his sense of well-being. Their practice also facilitates the development of awareness of the link between the body and speech :-

• through exercises on breathing in harmony with bodily postures
• through bodily movements facilitating work on intonation and pronunciation in general or for a specific language (e.g. 'heavy voice movement' for occlusive consonants in German, 'light voice movement' for short vowels in French, 'sustained voice movement' for long vowels and diphthongs in German and English, and for fricatives).

In this way, exercises in bodily and musical rhythms contribute to the learning of a language both globally and in situations.

Language experience approach {'language bath'}

We define the language experience approach as incorporating activities which lead the learner to give meaning to the discourse with which he is confronted. Where children are concerned, this approach is used in activities related to the presentation and exploitation of fairy tales.
In the case of adults, exercises are based on their listening to stories, fables and narratives. The presentation of the tale has in fact a psychological and linguistic purpose. The telling of it stimulates the child's imagination, makes him aware of his difficulties and consequently suggests solutions to them. Since fairy tales illustrate universal problems, they speak directly to the individual's subconscious and so teach him that life's problems are inevitable, that trials and tribulations are unjust but all obstacles can be overcome and such struggles won.

Linguistically, stories, fables and narratives have their own well-designed discourse organization which prepares the learner to construct the meaning while listening in a discontinuous way. It is through these activities of the language experience approach that the attention of the learner is brought to bear on 'text grammar' – structural elements common to most stories – which is the starting point for developing discourse competence, i.e. the ability to produce unified spoken or written discourse.

Role play

Thanks, too, to role play, the individual is brought to liberate speech. With a story as the starting point, one loaded with affective dialogue, the learner participates non-verbally or verbally in the construction of a situation in interaction with the other role players. Obviously, the choice of situation is of the utmost importance, as 'functional situations' dealing with the humdrum, everyday problems hardly lend themselves to that rich exploitation aiming at what we understand by the term 'liberation of speech'.

Active participating in dialogues is part of the preparation of a learning project :-

• groups prepare their own versions of the situation and present their role plays to the class group
• a role play is prepared to be then presented to another group for whom the situation is unknown : attention is focused here on determining the space required (the scene), on the appropriate use of posture, movement, facial expressions, pronunciation and the like.

Developing oral discourse competence

The activities which enable oral discourse to be constructed competently are :-

• exercises in listening comprehension
• creating oral discourse competently.

Exercises in bodily and musical rhythms, activities in the language experience approach and role playing all form part of the preparation for producing oral discourse i.e. texts in which successive sentences have cohesion and coherence.

At oral level, the linking of sentences is expressed by both verbal and non-verbal means, i.e. by intonation, rhythm, tonality and intensity of voice, tempo, bodily posture, gestures, facial expressions and the look in one's eyes. Spoken discourse has its own set of rules, its own dynamics (its opening and closure and the passage from one to the other), its own logic of imparting information – in short, its own 'text grammar'.

Exercises in bodily and musical rhythms help individuals :-

• to organize space (create the scene, both real and imaginary)
• to manage time
• to dominate their emotions
• to make use of non-verbal elements to present arguments, persuade, influence other people.

Working on role plays encourages learners to discover a choice of appropriate utterances, bearing in mind the interrelationships which develop during the unfolding of the situation. The experience of being confronted with texts rich in affective content and having a good superstructure helps learners to construct meaning of the spoken word and makes them more aware of 'text grammar'.

Developing written discourse competence

Bearing in mind the objectives we have set ourselves, we accord considerable importance to written work. Let's be quite clear about this : we no longer believe that the written language is the mere transposition of the spoken, given that written communication is one deferred in time in comparison with the immediacy of the spoken. Since the 'receiver' is not present, a written text takes on a more elaborate form than that of the oral discourse. The writer has to allow for, and be aware in advance of, any possible lack of understanding and difficulties of interpretation at every level of his text : word, sentence, the ideas expressed and so on – writing a text is a task which engages the whole person.

While thoughts are born out of actions, it is in their written form that they are constructed : items of information have to be sifted, re-organized, made precise. In placing the 'message' in context (i.e. by combining items with those of pre-existing knowledge), new elements are thereby elaborated. Consequently, it can be asserted that the written language has proved itself to be not only an instrument at the service of all forms of learning but also a means of appropriating the thoughts of other people together with a means of constructing one's own.

Writing enables the individual to stand back from, and reflect anew on, daily life and so to construct a new vision of the world at large. One other important reflection needs to be underlined : in writing, one constructs, by means of the text, one's own model of reader; reading is consequently a confrontation with another person, i.e. the writer. As a result, writing is also a means which favours the construction of an intercultural communication because “ (...) One never reads one's own language (...) every reading situation is carried out on a language foreign at every level to that spoken by the reader, as much linguistically as psychologically (...) it is therefore an activity incompatible with egocentrism, with withdrawing into one's self, with infantilism! It is an adult activity 'par excellence' which requires a high degree of socialisation but one which provokes and at the same time develops it.” [CHARMEUX, 1976].

The point of departure of the kind of written work which we advocate is the text i.e. a grouping of sentences wherein coherence is established by grammatical means. The learners read and produce texts. It is without any doubt through written work that we can help adult learners to construct new strategies for reading and producing texts. According to the principles of convergent methodology, children are introduced to reading and writing first of all in their native tongue and then, in the same way, during the learning of a new language.

To resume the principles we have chosen as regards the written word :-

1. “There are close ties between writing and reading : a good writer is a good reader. We write only from what we have understood about what is happening in what we read : writing obliges the reader to discover what his reading strategies are.” [FOUCAMBERT, 1988].

2. Reading is thought of as a process of constructing meaning by an active reader relying on significant clues in the text : the statements are predicted and tested in relation to the semantic context of the situation and then confirmed or refuted during the processing of the linguistic material.

3. Reading efficiency depends on the interactions between different levels and on a convergence of the 'top-down' process. However, it often happens that many adult readers use solely the 'bottom-up' strategies (those that are most often used in primary schools) to construct meaning.

4. Producing a written text requires behaviours and capacities different from those used in oral work :-
   • the spoken language is constructed in action; the written is developed by distancing oneself from the action and by anticipation
   • the writer bears in mind not only what he has to say but also and especially the hoped for result of his communication
   • since the written language is employed in a time-deferred situation of communication, the writer has necessarily to be precise and to employ linguistic means which are appropriate (i.e. conform to the norm of different genres, e.g. a business letter, a personal letter, a narrative, etc).

   The written language is expressed by means which the spoken language does not use : types of sentences, clauses, varied verbal forms, specific notions of place and time, linking words, adverbs and so on.

5. The exercises which we advocate in written work are both activities of distancing oneself and of structuration, a transformation of that 'live experience' so as to communicate it in the form of a written discourse. The construction of texts constitutes an enriching element to the cognitive structures of the learner. “We write within a project which comes from within oneself and is conveyed to other people and this project is one of transformation of the self, of other people and of writing.” [FOUCAMBERT, 1988].

Differentiated methodology and formative evaluation

Pedagogy centred on the learner is only possible within a differentiated methodology, i.e. a methodology wherein each individual develops his own progress, step by step. A differentiated methodology is one wherein the learner becomes an actor in his own learning. Given that it is the pedagogical profile of the learner which determines the different strategies of teaching to be adopted, it is therefore the teacher's duty to analyse the cognitive profile of the individual learner. This is especially true for multilingual groups in which the learners use different cognitive strategies. It is thanks to differentiated methodology that the learner becomes aware of his strategies and through which he is helped to construct new ones.

Differentiated methodology is based upon :-

• the differentiation of the learning processes
• the differentiation of the content of learning materials.

During the differentiation of processes, the learners work in groups towards the same objective simultaneously but apply different processes. During the differentiation of content, individuals work in groups simultaneously but on different materials chosen according to the objectives pursued.

We have opted, as regards the differentiation of the learning processes, to propose to the learner either identical material content but with different tasks to perform or different texts within the framework of the project. Since differentiated methodology accords an important place in its practical application to group work, it thereby fosters interaction between individuals, a source of mutual enrichment. It enables individuals to build confidence in themselves and in their capacities while developing their autonomy.

As we are more interested in the strategies employed than in the results obtained, we have quite naturally opted for formative evaluation which looks on errors as reflecting the processes used by the student to complete a task. Formative evaluation encourages the student to develop new and more efficient strategies. During the processes of constructing intercultural competence, evaluation can play an important role : the seeking of correlation between psycho-social aspects (i.e. affectivity; socialisation) and cognitive ones reveals the real difficulties the individual faces in communicating. Psychological and social blocks determine the attitudes and behaviour of the learners and influence their leaning processes. Let us emphasize, too, another aspect of evaluation, that of self-evaluation i.e. allowing learners to manage their own learning processes.

Formative evaluation is based upon :-

• a methodology
• an analysis of the different learning processes of the learners.

Instead of a conclusion

On basing our work on the SGAV method, we have dealt with our conception of constructing knowledge in general and learning languages in particular. Convergent methodology, embracing, as it does, the social and natural sciences , facilitates the structuring of items of knowledge within whole units : there is little value in learning as many things as possible unless one is capable of understanding how they are linked one to another. “Each thing learnt is of no interest if it is not in keeping with a much greater framework where organization and intermediary regulations are concerned, as much on the horizontal plane of present time as on the vertical one of past and future time (...) This effort would provide young generations with the strictly necessary sense of the relativity of everything and mathematics, so disheartening for many, would thus naturally become that precise language which enables them to describe relationships (...) From molecular physics to philosophy and the behavioural sciences via chemistry, physics, biology, history and its geo-climatic framework and geography, all are, and have been, flawlessly interrelated in perpetual and reciprocal adjustments down through time, whereas language, from Greek to mathematics, via cybernetics, is there to help us define structures.” [LABORIT, 1968].

The learning of a new language induces individuals to view the self, their mother tongue, their culture and indeed the world as a whole in a different light. “Self-awareness and cultural awareness go hand in hand which signifies that there cannot be a surpassing of unconscious culture without some degree of self-awareness (...) culture hides more things than it reveals. After a great many years of study, I am convinced that the goal to attain is the understanding not of foreign cultures but really of our own (...) the fundamental reason which urges a person to look closely into a foreign culture is to acquire a better knowledge of his own culture.” [HALL, 1984].

Can we not also hope to change the nature of the behaviour of our learners (and teachers!) by making them aware of what H. LABORIT calls “socio-cultural unawareness (...) which signifies that we are strictly unaware of our value judgements, of the way in which they are formulated during our childhood, of everything which fills our mind with the commonplace, with automatism both conceptual and verbal (...). A man's personality, in my view, is determined by his subconscious. It is this which he is not aware of. If he were, he would perhaps change, vary, do something else. But generally, he holds on to a truth which is his consciousness and which he does not modify.” [LABORIT, 1996].

As a result, becoming aware of oneself, of one's socio-cultural unawareness, value judgements and of one's intellectual and social motor automatism, are necessary phases to pass through in order to liberate the faculty of creativity. Imprisoned in his culture, the individual is condemned to merely repeating or reproducing, unable to create. Persuaded of the importance of this way of thinking, we have adopted it as the guiding principle of our work. We believe that our conception of methodological convergence is a profitable way to teach in a multilingual environment :-

• While learning the mother tongue prepares the way for that of all other learning, it is these other branches of knowledge which contribute to a much greater awareness by the individual of his mother tongue and beyond that of his culture. This self-awareness enables the individual to surpass his own culture
• The practice of exercises in bodily and musical rhythms gives prominence to the non-verbal which is the source of intercultural communication. We know that situations where the verbal is the only bearer of meaning does not present any problems of communication inasmuch as the situations presented are banal and free of any potentially social conflict overtones.

If a comparison is drawn of linguistic situations where confidence reigns between those involved in it with linguistic situations where mistrust is predominant, the problems of culture confrontation appear in the latter. “This confirms the view that the expression of culture is not in itself at the origin of conflict but it is a favourable vehicle for the expression of disagreement. This confirms the view that manifestations of culture in communications and expressions are not a matter of a simple mechanism of coding/decoding but are the signs, the indicators of the state of the relationship (...) on the contrary, it is only when a communicative relational breakdown occurs that cultural differences are used as instruments to justify conflict.” [ABDALLAH-PRETCEILLE, 1996].

• Exercises in bodily and musical rhythms weave links between the participants and facilitates the creation of group spirit among that collection of individuals
• It is thanks to activities in the language experience approach and exercises in role play that interaction between the individuals triggers the construction of meaning
• The production of competent oral discourse lends itself to establishing other levels of communication i.e. to argue with, inform and persuade others in an oral text whose richness of expression is achieved by the non-verbal
• And finally, the conception of the written work, that we have developed in starting out from the work of anthropologists and of pedagogues, offers, as we have pointed out above, the best means of developing awareness and of transformation of the self and of others. For “Writing is the instrument of power and is thus one of oppression for those who are excluded. The constant presence of written language in all acts of social life renders those who have not mastered it perpetual misfits, confronted at every moment by a disability that everything confirms and which has two consequences : on the one hand, such outcasts interiorize a discrediting image of themselves and, on the other, the power of those who can read and write is thereby reinforced. The strongest force for wielding power is not through violence but by consent, i.e. the consent to their domination by the dominated. In point of fact, writing, which exteriorizes thought, also enables the writer to view himself in another light; it materializes the awareness which one has of oneself. It is approbation and construction, both equilibration and structuration. And which makes from it a fundamental factor of autonomy.” [CHARMEUX, 1976].
  “The existence of writing as a tool of thought is inseparable from the raising of awareness, in helping man in his battle for the right to happiness which remains a new idea for the oppressors and the oppressed.” [FOUCAMBERT, 1996].

Convergent methodology seeks to offer the child harmonious development and to raise in the adult political, social and cultural awareness. This is why a great deal of importance is given to the construction of written work.

It has been in this way, in the light of our research and much thought, that we have extended the structuro-global conception in language teaching to a pedagogy of constructing the self and one's knowledge of the world at large. We are convinced that a convergent methodology leads, on the one hand, to developing an ability to integrate items of knowledge within their political, social and cultural contexts and, on the other, to facilitating the construction of the organizing principles of knowledge. The learning of several languages in convergence with that of the social sciences and the sciences of nature is, in our firm opinion, the best way to attain the objectives pursued.

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