On 1st January of this year, the WTZ project “PluriForm: Approches plurielles dans la formation et l’enseignement dans les EES / Plural approaches in foreign language teaching: training and teaching at universities” was launched with the Language Centre of the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS). The first working meeting of the teams from the universities of La Réunion, Vienna and Salzburg took place on 5th March 2024 at the PLUS.

Plurilingual and pluricultural competence is a key concept in the European language and education policy. The most recent conceptual contribution to the development of this plurilingual and pluricultural competence is the companion volume to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2020). The large number of official guidelines issued by the EU and the Council of Europe as well as the increased emphasis on plurilingualism/plurilingualism in the companion volume to the CEFR reflect the difficulties that arise in the cross-curricular implementation of these plural approaches in practice. At the same time, in their recent recommendations on plurilingual and intercultural education for democratic culture (  CM/Rec(2022)1), the Council of Europe expresses its concern about two trends: firstly, the assumption that mastery of an additional language is sufficient as long as that language is English; and secondly, the populist view that migrant and minority languages are detrimental to social cohesion. The recommendation calls on member states to consider multilingualism as an educational goal and a social reality to promote dialogue. This is where the PluriForm project comes in.

The project is being carried out as part of the “Scientific and Technical Cooperation (STC)” program and will run for 2 years. On the one hand, it aims to provide an overview of existing multilingual practices at Austrian and French universities. On the other hand, it aims to show the spectrum of multilingual practice at Austrian and French universities. As part of the project, a survey will therefore be carried out at universities in Austria and France in order to gain an overview of multilingual practice. The focus will be on teacher training and language practice, particularly at language centres in Austria and France. On this basis, recommendations for the promotion of multilingual education will be formulated

Main areas of work:

• Documenting the importance of plural approaches and multilingualism/plurilingualism in the language teaching and learning process and in teacher training curricula
• Survey of plural and translingual practices in language teaching (especially at language centers) and in teacher training at universities in Austria/France
• Development of a specific taxonomy for the categorization of these practices
• Case studies and interviews with teachers at universities in Austria and France

Project dates:

Duration: 1.1.2024-31.12.2025

Partner institutions: Université de La Réunion, University of Vienna, Paris Lodron University Salzburg

PLUS project team: Margareta Strasser (local coordination), Christoph Hülsmann, Theresa Bogensperger

Funding: Scientific and Technical Cooperation Austria – France (WTZ)

Funding amount: €10.250

Further information on the project can be found on the homepage of the Language Centre.