Page 76 - Compétences plurilingues : perspectives et actions / Plurilingual competencies: perspectives and actions

Building Presentation and Communication Skills in
a Tandem-Taught Course with Plurilingual and
Pluricultural Approaches

Athena Alchazidu

Abstract
This chapter explores the development of a unique pilot project course based on plurilingual and pluricultural
approaches in language education provided by the Language Centre at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
This CLIL course, named “Development of Communication and Presentation Skills”, was taught by two educators
teaching in tandem during the spring semester of 2023. There were three languages of instruction—English, Czech
and Ukrainian—because the course was designed to address the needs of a particular group of Ukrainian students
with diverse educational backgrounds and experience. In addition, these students of very young ages had become
war refugees, and their journeys in search for security and safety had exposed them to critical and traumatic expe-
riences. Such circumstances always represent a true challenge to any teacher, and this case was no exception. This
article provides an overview of the methodology and pedagogical strategies that were employed to create a course
taking into account not only the linguistic and cultural dimensions of learning but also the speci ic needs of this
atypical group of students. One signi icant aim of such courses is to equip students with the skills and competences
important for successful university-level studies. However, this speci ic situation required one more goal, consid-
ering the necessity to account for the particular context and challenges that the Ukrainian students brought to the
classroom. This article also re lects on the strengths and bene its of plurilingual and pluricultural approaches in
language education, highlighting effective strategies and methodologies in plurilingual and pluricultural teaching
and learning process, in order to provide a good practice example.

Introduction

Over the past few years, the situation in the sphere of education has changed considerably,
mirroring the process of globalisation in our interconnected world. Therefore, it is crucial to
introduce adequate reforms and to adopt new perspectives on language and cultural com-
petences that would respond to the needs of our transforming societies. This article uses
the distinction between plurilingualism and multilingualism and between multiculturalism
and pluriculturalism as de ined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Lan-
guages (cf. CEFR, 2020) to show the enormous potential of plurilingual approaches in lan-
guage education.
In this respect, the plurilingual approach is implemented to achieve the main aim, i.e. to de-
velop the participants’ cognitive and communication skills in plurilingual and pluricultural
contexts. Therefore, the emphasis is mostly on practical exercises, activities, and tasks that
contribute to fostering a plurilingual and pluricultural awareness and supporting the devel-
opment of a variety of skills and competences necessary for successful university study.

In accordance with this perspective, it is worth mentioning the following expert opinions:
If we conceptualize language as an activity – languaging – we open doors to a plurilingual
view, and the concept of social agent. […] plurilingualism has both a social and an individual
aspect: it is on one hand a sociolinguistic/sociocultural phenomenon and on the other hand
a cognitive/emotional one. (Piccardo, Germain-Rutherford, Lawrence, 2022, 7)

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