Page 48 - Compétences plurilingues : perspectives et actions / Plurilingual competencies: perspectives and actions

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V. De Azevedo Camacho, M. Cervenkova, M. Seveckova: Motivation, ...
“I think it’s possible and it would be good for the brain.”
“Yes. It’s easier to learn languages when you hear them.”
We see it as important to remind students of the bene its of learning multiple languages
at once – they can listen to part of the video in a foreign language, read the subtitles for
the other part, and realize which skills need more practice. Nevertheless, some say this is
limited by certain conditions (for example, the personality of the student, their language
level, or the similarity of target languages). They said:

“I think it depends on the person. I don’t watch YouTubers, so I wouldn’t like to watch.
Instead, I watch series in another language with English subtitles.”
“I think it depends on your language skills. I don’t think watching YouTubers is for begin-
ners.”
“I think it’s possible to improve in both languages at the same time if they’re from the same
language families.”
At this point, it should be stressed again that the aim of the project was not primarily to
lead students to follow the LinguoYouTubers, but to stimulate motivation and curiosity and,
above all, to offer students another channel where their self-study of a foreign language
could be made more effective. If learners seek out foreign language stimuli and interact
with the foreign language as often as possible, their knowledge will be multiplied; this can
be done through watching ilms, listening to music, or talking to friends in a restaurant –
the important thing is that it is a casual contact with the language, but one that brings new
impulses into everyday life.

The project allowed students to compare their knowledge and performance in a foreign
language with those of their peers. (“I felt that I would have to improve my grammar to
become con ident in the language like my colleague.” and “Now I probably want to study
French more than before, because I want to be better.”) One student was even more moti-
vated to start studying a 3rd foreign language (“During the recording, we agreed to work
more on the Spanish language together.”).
Working with a student of another foreign language enabled some students to become
aware of additional opportunities for learning foreign languages collaboratively and com-
paratively, as evidenced by some responses:

“I enjoyed listening to what I understood in another language.”
“It was interesting to observe the creation of similar sentence structures with the same
meaning in a totally unknown language.”

“When you realize the similarities (French + Spanish; Russian + Czech), languages together
can be easier to learn.”
“I won’t mind watching videos in Russian, especially if the YouTuber switches from Russian
to English or uses English subtitles.”

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