Teaching English and developing students’ plurilingual competence: a case study in Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Ana Rita Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Martins, Filomena Rosinda de Oliveira, Andrade, Ana Isabel de Oliveira, Pinho, Ana Sofia Reis de Castro e
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/id.v15i3.31843

Our study is set within the framework of plurilingualism, which should be promoted as a value and developed a competence; and that English, as a language of international communication and having a privileged position in the language curriculum, represents a unique opportunity for the development of plurilingual education (Galloway, 2017; Pinho, & Moreira, 2012). To this end, we conducted a case study with a secondary school class, which aimed at: i) understanding the role of English teaching in the development of pupils’ plurilingual skills; ii) designing, implementing and evaluating a plurilingual language educational programme; iii) identifying evidence of the development of pupils’ plurilingual competence. Data were collected during and after the implementation of a plurilingual didactic programme through classroom observation, analysis of pupils’ portfolios, observation of language workshops and focus group interviews. Within the framework of a qualitative approach, the study adopted interpretative and interactive content analysis (Bardin, 2004). The results of the study show that the English class is a place for promoting plurilingualism when it allows: i) the development pupils’ linguistic culture and their ability to contact with other languages; ii) observing and working with different languages, their roles and status; iii) reflecting on how pupils relate to and learn languages.