Page 41 - Compétences plurilingues : perspectives et actions / Plurilingual competencies: perspectives and actions

Theoretical background

– linguistics (videos dedicated to the pitfalls of false friends, or to problems of under-
standing between speakers of Francophone/Romance languages or speakers of Eu-
ropean/American Spanish, etc.)

– sociolinguistics (videos focusing on courtesy expressions, greetings, expressions of
different registers, slang expressions, etc.)

– pragmalinguistics (videos explaining the most common or interesting collocations,
idioms, igurative expressions, etc., or emphasizing the role of context –linguistic, sit-
uational, etc.)

– non-verbal communication (videos about intercultural similarities and differences in
proxemics, the importance and role of gestures, eye contact, etc.)

For better illustration we include some speci ic examples of these YouTube channels:
https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchmorningswithElisa
https://www.francaisavecpierre.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@EasyFrench

https://www.youtube.com/c/SpanishwithVicente
https://www.youtube.com/@Sergimartinspanish
https://www.youtube.com/@espanolconjuan
https://www.youtube.com/@orusskomporusski
https://www.youtube.com/@ElenaKundera
https://www.youtube.com/@ElenSheff
These videos are a source of information about, among other things, the cultural aspects of
the home country of the YouTuber (history, art, daily customs, lifestyle, etc.) and authen-
tic intercultural situations and ways of avoiding intercultural con licts (e.g. descriptions of
intercultural misunderstandings after moving to a foreign country). LinguoYouTubers aim
to create a community of learners of the foreign language, and invite people to share their
own experiences and knowledge in the comments, thus contributing to the creation of atti-
tudes of openness and respect (cf. the CEFR descriptors of pluricultural repertoire, Council
of Europe 2020, 124). One aspect of the videos that greatly facilitates their use in learning
a foreign language is the fact that the videos are typically accompanied by subtitles in the
language of the creator, but in the vast majority of cases also in English, which can serve as
a mediating language for students who are studying another language but also know En-
glish.

In our courses, we wanted to apply the idea of plurilingual comprehension in accordance
with the CEFR descriptors, especially B1 (the choice of this level was made because although
the required language level in our courses is B2, the actual level of most of our students is
lower). As the Council of Europe has stated, “the plurilingual vision associated with the
CEFR gives value to cultural and linguistic diversity at the level of the individual. It pro-
motes the need for learners as ’social agents’ to draw upon all of their linguistic and cultural
resources and experiences in order to fully participate in social and educational contexts,

39